It's not just you. Exercising after a stressful day really does feel more difficult — with the key word being "feel." New research found that being mentally fatigued makes a cardio workout feel harder. After engaging in a difficult computer task for 90 minutes, study participants reached the point of exhaustion earlier than when they watched a dull documentary prior to exercising. Interestingly enough, the participants' actual cardio capacity was not affected. Seems like a case of mind over body, with the mind winning even though the body is still quite capable. Moral of this tale is: Don't avoid the gym after a hard day's work, your body really needs to move after experiencing all that stress. But do know that you might have to psych yourself up more than usual. Try taking a group fitness class and be buoyed by the motivation of the group.
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A Hard Day's Work Makes Your Workout Feel Harder
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I feel like this a lot, especially since my gym is 5 minutes from my office so I am pretty much going from my desk to the treadmill. Usually after about a mile on the treadmill I feel a lot better and can keep going - nothing can clear my head quite like running.
1Going to the gym after a hard day work makes me feel way better. I feel stimulated from all the movement, since I have been sitting in a chair, staring at a comp. screen for 8 hours. It makes me feel like a million bucks. But like I always say, the hardest part about going to the gym is getting your butt in their.
2I've noticed this too. Doing cardio is so much harder and I've noticed that I reach my target heart rate quicker.
3I need to remember this.
4I felt like this yesterday, for sure. My gym is in the same hospital where I work, so I usually go straight from the lab to the gym and it's hard to decompress and transition into my workout. Once I get started though, I usually am able to get my focus back on track and I always feel a lot better after working out.
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