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Exercise 4 Health, Mental Health, and Addiction vs. The Endorphin Factory

I managed to stay one full hour on the treadmill for so many days, but my leg hurts.
It's an excellent aerobic and it does burn a lot of calories, I'm now alternating that with swimming with good results.
 
Erikmen said:
I managed to stay one full hour on the treadmill for so many days, but my leg hurts.
It's an excellent aerobic and it does burn a lot of calories, I'm now alternating that with swimming with good results.
Click to expand...

Excellent!!! The treadmill will help your leg. When I was self-destructive this year, I fell down drunk and fucked my leg up. I was scared it wouldn't work right anymore. I would walk and fall. Most embarrassing is thinking I was strong enough to walk down the street and fell flat on my face in broad daylight. I can laugh about it now.

So fast forward and I'm running on that treadmill just about everyday like I'm training for the olympics and feeling stronger than ever!

Swimming sounds like great exercise, but I have no access to a pool. Glad you're doing well! :)
 
It's time I got a new gym membership. Swimming and a sauna are very necessary right now. Once I have enough $ I'm getting one of those
2-year Costco 24-Hour Fitness memberships!

Until then, it's yoga/bjj stretches, sit-ups and push-ups at my pad.
 
Running is just the best. The endorphins you feel after pushing yourself so hard that it's all you can do to keep putting one foot in front of the other, it's magical. I'm getting good abdominal definition popping through just from starting back running again.

Fun fact the word endorphin comes from 'endogenous morphine'.
 
Hit back and biceps for 90 minutes including a very heavy 8-6-4-2 pyramid on rack pulls.

This is week nine of reverse-dieting out of my cut. I'm up 450 calories per day from the starting point (laddering up 50cal per day each seventh day). I cannot say enough about reverse-dieting to train the metabolism and optimize the added muscle-to-fat ratio when bulking. I'm going to keep cranking it up 50cal each week until I'm up to around 15% bodyfat, and intend to bulk at least another thirty weeks, trusting the numbers.

About to do 15 minutes of yoga at home.
 
I use to love running now I can't so I'm making a habit of walking great distances twice a week and went back to swimming after a break.
Have had very little time to exercise properly due to work. So I'm swimming at work during my lunch hour at least two days a week.
Feels good afterwards. :)

I would love to try yoga!
 
I had a question about exercise and thought this might be the best place to ask. I'm about three weeks clean from a 9 year oxy habit and am planning to exercise my ass off during PAWS. I was never much into moving, even before the opiates...

anyway, my question is this - if I do light exercise I feel fine, but any exercise that is moderate or heavy gives me the worst headache for hours. My goal is to exercise before work every day because my schedule is flexible. My concern though is that I can't exercise before work if I have to deal with a splitting headache ALL day during work.

I know it isn't an issue of dehydration. However, I will say that my appetite is at an all time low and I'm having a hell of a time eating (lucky if I can get one meal a day down right now), but I don't think it's that either, because I used to get these headaches prior to the opiates when exercising.

Any advice would be hugely appreciated. I want to keep working toward my goals and exercise is a big part of this. My goal isn't to lose weight - it's just to combat PAWS and be healthier. Should I just stick with the light exercise?

- VE
 
First of all, congratulations for your three weeks off of oxy!! :) This is remarkable, you should be proud of yourself.

Start with light exercises, it's important that you respect your limits. What exercises are you doing right now?
If it's not making you feel good perhaps you should change its intensity. When I first started I had not exercised for years so that was a bit difficult in the beginning.

You can walk regularly 40-45 minutes every morning. See how that goes. Recovering endorphin was one of my best goals, you should feel good after exercising. Do you like swimming?
 
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Walked 16 miles, humped a couple of pallets of peat moss.. Watered the shelves.. Nueted a room. Pruned for four hours and hand watered another room.

I have two rounds of golf on deck and dancing at six shows this weekend...

Going to lift chest too..

Going to throw in a two hour massage as well.
 
VastEmpty - Headaches correlated with the gym are sometimes caused by incorrect breathing. It's a common problem. I've had this happen to me in the past. You need to be especially careful with exercises that compromise bloodflow to the brain.

It sounds scary, but just breathing in at the beginning of the lift and exhaling as you do the motion on every single rep should be more than enough. Be extra careful on those last few reps, especially if it's something like the leg press where dizziness is common. Pay attention to breathing until doing it correctly is like clockwork.
 
∆great advice IMHO..

Also when does the headache come on.. During the work out or after and if after how long?
 
Tried Pilates today. I was a bit slow but indeed very interesting.
Cycling has been a good exercise as well.
 
Thanks for the answers, guys!

The headaches would start during the exercise and persist for hours. Like 16-24 hours. They are excruciating and make me miserable. However, the good news is I'm working with a personal trainer and they are helping me with form - which includes breathing. Also, I've been pretty consistent in my exercise routine. For the last 6 days I've not been getting the headaches! It's been great.

Thanks again for the advice and support. I'm at 34 days now and I truly believe I wouldn't feel as well as I do without the exercise and diet changes I've made.

- VE
 
^ I just want to add that taking Celtic Sea Salt is amazing for making you feel awesome before AND after a work out. I usually took it after to combat any fatigue from exercising. You only want a little bit on a teaspoon and mix it in warm water, drink and you will feel revitalized. It's great recovery for muscles and everything.
 
Did 5x5s on incline bench, decline dumbbell bench and barbell curl earlier. I went from reverse-dieting/recomp to commencing my winter bulk on November 1st (jumped up 550 cal per day) and will be doing a lot of 5x5s and powerlifting stuff in the months ahead. Pound for pound I have an amazing deadlift and pretty good bench but my squat needs work. I do have bad leg genetics, but screw the excuses, I will be squatting 3-4 times per week to force the changes.

Yoga in a bit followed by a cryotherapy session later tonight.
 
I have a strained glute.. Really irritating.. Works aggravating it daily.

I need to figure something out.
 
^ I hope you feel better NSA.

RedLeader said:
Did 5x5s on incline bench, decline dumbbell bench and barbell curl earlier. I went from reverse-dieting/recomp to commencing my winter bulk on November 1st (jumped up 550 cal per day) and will be doing a lot of 5x5s and powerlifting stuff in the months ahead. Pound for pound I have an amazing deadlift and pretty good bench but my squat needs work. I do have bad leg genetics, but screw the excuses, I will be squatting 3-4 times per week to force the changes.

Yoga in a bit followed by a cryotherapy session later tonight.
Click to expand...

550 cal per day seems to be so little. Congrats for your willpower!
 
Finally, finally, finally got myself to the pool. Got myself an underwater ipod shuffle to help with the boredom and to take my mind elsewhere and off the clock. After two days, was already starting to use the boredom factor against myself--my usual pattern-- so went on a 4 hour hike across town with my friend. My feet hurt so much that the pool kept popping into my head as heaven. Win.
 
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