Bring on the "Happy" Chemicals

I did not know how I would survive having to take care of 2 little ones with no certain form of income or housing. One thing that was certain amongst all the chaos I exercised, I knew that pushing myself in my training to kick start the endorphins was the key to offsetting the stress that might have made me physically or mentally ill which I could not afford to let happen.

So what exactly are endorphins and how do they work? Endorphins are chemicals in your body that are released when your body has been subjected to certain types of stimuli such as; exercise, pain or experiencing something scary. For instance, if you really hurt yourself your body will release endorphins to ease the pain. Another example would be if you had to speak in public and were terrified, shortly after doing your speech you would experience a rush of positive feelings and these are your endorphins. Exercise is clinically proven to also release these chemicals. However in order to achieve these happy feelings it does not come with light training. You have to work to a point where your body starts to burn fuel without oxygen (anaerobic level). So light weight training or light cardio exercise will not do the trick. You must bring your body to an anaerobic level and this is done by training with either heavy weights or pushing past your aerobic state and incorporating high intensity sprint intervals with alternated periods of lower intensity or also known as the recovery state.

Simple example of sprint intervals on the treadmill:

1. 5-10 minute warm-up (light jog, low intensity, slowly increasing intensity at the end of warm up).
2. 1 minute moderate-high intensity run followed by 1 minute low intensity jog (repeat 5-8 times) NB. The more physically fit you are the shorter the recovery time in between high intensity levels.
3. 5-10 minutes cool down ( light jog, low intensity, slowly decreasing by the end of the cool down)

I have said this before, and I will say it again, I love what I do. It is a great feeling knowing that I can make a positive difference in someone’s day by pushing them to the next level so they walk away from their training feeling better than when they first walked in the door.

This article is for you Lisa, I hope those endorphins kicked in today :)