Comment by bitL | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bitL | Hacker News Reader

Long-distance running makes me feel absolutely horrible, with Tabata 4 minute sprints after 3 minutes I can't feel my legs anymore and I can sleep after drinking 5 cups of strong coffee - does it mean my body is wrong or another scientific article is? I do running because my body needs it but hate it profoundly, and together with long cold showers and weightlifting it's about training my will to overcome unpleasantness to the point of torture. Only once in my life I got runner's high, and it wasn't anything special.

On the other hand, how to change your body to get the leptin response mentioned in the article? If it is genetic, am I out of luck and these kinds of exercise will make me feel horrible all the time?

I used to exercise regularly like this (not running but another sport) and recently I had to stop cold turkey for a variety of reasons. Boy do I feel better. I sleep better. My mood is better. I don't hurt all the time. I eat more moderately. I lost weight (some muscle no doubt). tldr I think I must have been overdoing it.

It makes me wonder in this culture of exercise we live in, how many people end up not doing any exercise because they think it's all or nothing, full-on torture vs couch potato.

Do you have any information that cold showers are really beneficial? I spent a month doing it, saw very little benefit - other than a mental pat on the back because obviously enduring something I didn't enjoy must be good for me. I can't find anything convincing that a cold shower really does much.

Anecdotally I have observed that there are two groups of people. Runners and lifters. The one love all kinds of explosive strength exercises, the other low intensity high volume. Sprinters are lifters btw.

Maybe influenced by person's proportion of fast-twitch vs slow-twitch muscle fibers?

As a lifelong exerciser, this squares with my observations as well. I'd include biking in the running category too.

Personally, I get no pleasure from long runs and find them to be incredibly painful and hard to recover from. Whereas being under a barbell in a squat is my happy place.

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