Exercise: The Good Alcohol

Please know that I am of sober mind and body as I type this; I am not in a state of exercise-induced intoxication.  Perhaps this may post might be better if I had just been on the rower.  At least I came up with the idea after being on the rower.

Exercise can be like alcohol.  No, this is not drinking a beer for each lap or a beer for each mile.  No, in fact this does not have anything to do with the type of alcohol which can result in a DUI.  It does, however, have much to do with a freeing of the mind and a freeing of the mouth.  In running, it is often referred to as "the runner's high." It has this in common with alcohol:  It is a type of liberation quite refreshing to those of us who are either naturally or by force of habit or by force of will rather self-restrained.  I think I am one of these.

I first learned of the intoxicating effects of exercise while running with the Woodside Striders, a competitive running club.  Running was the vehicle, and running with the Striders gave me a very strong dose of the drug!  It is one thing to do gentle exercise; to do a 20-minute brisk walk or easy jog.  There is no doubt that such exercise is good for the health and good for your general mood.  20 quarters (400 meters) at a hard running pace with only 100-200 meters JOG recovery is another thing altogether!  This is not all.  Imagine the workout began with a 1-mile warmup and will conclude with a 1-mile cooldown.  Imagine that after finishing the 20 quarters, you are informed (surprise!) you will complete 10 x 200 meters at a hard pace (nearly a sprint) with 100 meter JOG recoveries between each...THEN you will have your 1-mile cooldown jog.  Yes, that is a different kind of thing altogether.

The kinds of workouts I referred to in the preceding paragraph illustrate opposite ends of the spectrum.  At one end of the spectrum is the healthy feeling and slight buzz that often occurs as a result of mild and moderate exercise.  At the other end is the relative drunkenness which results from a very hard workout.  It really is intoxicating, and it really does free up the inhibitions.  I was a fairly shy and reserved teen, especially with those of the opposite sex.  Running was my alcohol.  If I wanted to be able to look a girl in the eye and feel confident - or speak to her and not feel uncomfortably self-conscious, a hard workout was my drink.  A race was good too.  These things gave me the confidence to be bold - or at least to THINK boldly...because the opportunity to say and do those things I felt so free to do were often not conveniently there.  Maybe that was a good thing.

As a teen it was about girls and the means to overcome my shyness and lack of confidence.  As an adult it is about much more.  Not every workout should be super-hard, but there needs to be some which are.  It is good for the soul.  It is good as a mirror to discover who you really are and who you really desire to be.  Can you overcome the natural wimpiness and timidity that urges you to stop short of self-realization and victory?  Each unwarranted abandonment of an otherwise good workout is like a surrender to timidity.  Each unwarranted surrender changes you into that person you really don't want to be - the timid and wimpy person who restrains himself not out of a real prudence and good sense, but instead out of shameful pain-avoidance and timidity.  Surely we don't want our self-realization to come that way - with self-defeat.

Rowing on my Concept 2 rowing machine has been a real truth-tester for me.  Do I really have the guts to slave away at sub 2:00/500m for 20 minutes - staring at a tree?  Running and cycling workouts are made easier by the fact that much of the time I am miles away from home; I have to at least get back home to experience creature comforts.  On the rowing machine I am 20 feet from the sliding glass door to the house; 20 feet from food, drink, toys, loving smiles, happy laughter, and all the comforts...well, all the comforts a hobbit (this is for you, Tolkien fans!) could want.  The mind battles itself during these trials.  The stiffer the pace is, the greater the internal struggle.

I'm off topic a little bit, but it's all related.  Enduring the struggle not only makes me progressively more and more the person I want to be, but it probably makes me more and more the person my family wants me to be...and maybe more the person I (in a cosmic sense) SHOULD be.  Aside from the struggle and victory components, there is the very real reward of the mind liberation I referred to earlier.  Problems and issues which felt so hazy, difficult, and unapproachable become surmountable.  If there was something bold and true I should have thought or should have said, this comes to the fore of the mind with crystal-clarity as an unavoidable must-do.  Indeed, the clarity is such that I wonder why I would have every thought otherwise.

Make no mistake, hard exercise is no substitute for God, prayer, or proper theological or other type of study.  I am not advocating some new exercise "religion."  I am convinced though that it (hard exercise) does help with these things.  In past centuries the exercise was much easier to come by; now many of us have to force it - find time for it.  I am convinced that it is indeed worth it.  It is the "good" alcohol.  It releases inhibitions not through muddying-up the mind, but by giving clarity and by both requiring, giving, and promoting a good and right boldness.