Inspired by fellow HerCampus writer Catherine Ku’s article “Campus Fitness,” I decided to stop being lazy and start getting active. However, because I haven’t exercised since before Thanksgiving, this will be a hard commitment to keep. But with some willpower, some friendly support, and a couple handfuls of ibuprofen, I’m going to make it. And like any Princeton student, I’m going to be doing some research along the way to help fellow couch potatoes get off their butts and into a gym. The goal? Six weeks, three workouts a week, thirty minutes for each workout. It may not sound like much, but trust me, this will be quite the challenge.
3/2/11
With midterms only a week away, I’m beginning to think that I may have chosen an inopportune time to start my exercising challenge. And I suddenly remembered the reason I stopped going to the gym in the first place: not enough time. With two papers and two exams to prepare for, along with all the reading demanding my attention, I didn’t know where I would find half-an-hour to go to Dillon. And really, it’s much more than just thirty minutes I’m spending. I also have to factor warm-up, cool-down, and stretching time, not to mention the twenty minutes I spend in the shower. During academic crunch-time, it feels like I barely have twenty minutes to spare for meals. Is it worth it to sacrifice an hour, three times a week to do something that already feels like a light form of torture?
If I hadn’t signed on to this challenge, I probably would’ve given up this week, and the next week, and then it would have been another four months before I whipped my butt back into shape. But lucky for me, and for you, dear reader, I hauled my lazy self to the gym and got on that treadmill. And it was worth it. After sweating and panting and looking generally pathetic for thirty minutes, I felt awful as I walked through my cool-down. “What am I doing? I have so much reading,” I thought to myself, wiping my face with a damp sleeve. But then something magical happened. The endorphins kicked in and suddenly, life didn’t seem so stressful.
Looking back, I realized that even though the work-out itself was hard and a little painful, when I was running, nothing really crossed my mind. I had brought reading, but I couldn’t focus on the tiny font, so I just turned on my I-Pod and fell into the songs on my “Running” playlist. I tuned everything out and it was probably the first time that day that I wasn’t worrying about something, or thinking about what I should do next. Any frustration that had been hounding me was pounded to smithereens underneath my feet.
As I’m sitting in my chair writing this article, I feel relaxed and awake. I feel good.
Why you should exercise when you are stressed:
Exercise releases hormones called “endorphins” into your system and they act in the same way that morphine does. They are responsible for the feeling of happiness and contentment you get after working out. Exercise also burns away chemicals like cortisol and norepinephrine, which cause stress. On the flip side, “feel-good” chemicals, like dopamine and serotonin, are produced during exercise. These chemicals, combined with endorphins, give your mood a natural boost.
Exercising also puts your mind in a Zen-like state. It acts as a distraction from all your daily worries. After all, it’s hard to think about anything besides the immediate present when you’re pushing your body to the limit. This period of rigorous activity for your body doubles as a period of relaxation for your mind. Exercising also takes you out of your room, or the library, or wherever it is that you study, and puts you in a low-stress environment, like the outdoors or the gym. Even with Dillon’s bad lighting and creaky machines, the change in scenery is much appreciated.
Need an outlet for all your frustrations? Is your pillow no longer effective for when you need to scream? That’s what exercising is for. Any kind of rigorous exercise—boxing, running, weight training—provides an excellent way to release your stress. I find that when I’m especially angry, I pour all my frustrations into my run, going faster and faster until all my anger is wrung out.
Finally, there have been studies that show that physical activity may be linked to a lowered physiological reaction towards stress. In layman’s terms, those who exercise regularly may become less affected by stress. So the more you exercise, the stronger your immunity against stress will become. Think about it—something that might have turned you into a sobbing wreck before you started exercising might only bum you out for a few minutes after a few weeks of regular activity. That sounds like a win to me.
Bottom line is, with a decrease in stress, there’s an increase in productivity. So even if exercise feels like a waste of time, it actually has a positive effect on your work. Not only that, exercise has a positive effect on the way you feel and on the way you view the world. So even if you are cringing during the work-out, you’ll be smiling after it.