I often feel super depressed after exercise.. why?

Does working out free your mind to ruminate on things or cycle negative thoughts?

I find swimming good for organising things in my mind (particularly when studying) but when I am depressed, I have a whole hour to reflect on what a terrible person I am.

ETA: you don't sound like a freak.

Oh gosh, I thought I was the only one! I also have trouble willing myself to exercise in the first place; I hate being seen while I walk/jog/etc., and I don't have the option of visiting a gym/doing any 'paid' form of exercise. I often have anxiety attacks pre-exercising that stop me from even going out for that walk in the first place.

More times than not I usually feel good after exercise, helps me to feel relaxed and I can let go of some stress, but sometimes like you I do feel depressed...other times I actually feel mad, grumpy and moody. I have yet to figure out when I get depressed or mad as to why. I could actually feel fine when I start this exercise and within 15-30 minutes after I'm done feel depressed or mad and I could fight that feeling all day once it hits. Don't know why, wish I could help, but it might help just to know you aren't alone and other people do feel that way sometimes.

I get super depressed after I crashed from 1, 3 dimethylamylamine. Now it's a banned substance. lol

I don't know your situation though.

+1 to all the suggestions for making sure you're doing exercise that you enjoy, at a reasonable level of intensity.

And the commenter who noted that when you're depressed, exercise time can turn into time where you beat up on yourself...it's a good angle to consider.

Are you beating up on yourself during your workouts? Do you berate yourself or talk down to yourself internally?
Afterwards, what exactly are you upset about? The quality of your workout? Where you are relative to your long-term goals?

I've struggled with depression for many years, and find my self-talk can get pretty horrible. I notice your start/goal weights are very similar to mine. It's a long-term project, and depression can make it really hard to be kind to yourself along the way - yet you need to figure out how to do just that.

Trust that exercise will help. Not as a magic pill, not on a specified timeframe. Just trust that it will help lift you gradually over time, same as fueling your body regularly, and getting a decent amount of sleep.

Look closely at what you're saying to yourself, and maybe try pretending someone else posted those feelings in a forum post requesting help. What kind, helpful things would you say?

I don't know your specific situation, yet definitely encourage you to work out the underlying "why" of your upset. Go ahead & cry - figure out what it's about...then you can deal with it, and prevent it from biting you in the *kitten* later.

Lastly, know that whatever exercise you do, you're doing LAPS around anyone who's still on the couch. Screw "best workout type, best timing, etc." - just find something that works for you. And if you need a bit of comfort on how/why that's perfectly okay, read this:
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/training-the-obese-beginner.html

You can do this. Really, you can :flowerforyou:

I agree with people encouraging you to persist with exercise. I have bipolar and if someone told me 2 years ago just how much exercise would help my recovery I would not have believed them.

Is it because you're doing something you don't enjoy or are you just not feeling a lift no matter what you do?

Getting into the habit of doing it and knowing you've done something is good - you're getting out, taking care of yourself, following a routine and not sitting on your *kitten*, which can be the very worst thing to do in this situation.

Hope you start to feel better soon.

I also had this, for about a month after I started seriously working out. I would workout and become extremely depressed afterwards, usually for the rest of the day. I stuck with it and rarely have an issue with it now.

I've experienced this too. I was recently diagnosed with adrenal fatigue. Perhaps you want to look into it? My version of what was going on was that my body saw strenuous ex as stress and responded. One affect was that my stomach was growing bigger even though I was excersizing and getting more toned in other areas - that was due to cortisol the stress hormone. My body needed some tlc, low stress, lots of sleep, no caffeine etc. I have been able to do walking and mild ex and am now, after a few months away from the gym, getting back into slightly more strenuous ex.

Mydailytrack wrote: »

I would suggest you to pick workouts based on your interests. Not all workouts are meant for everyone. These days I only do those workouts that I enjoy such as zumba, yoga, pilates, body sculpting, etc. I have stopped treadmills, cycling, eliptical, etc, coz I never enjoyed them and it took a lot of effort to get myself to gym those days. Now, with this new routine, I don't need that extra push and I am normally satisfied when I am done with the sessions:

This is exactly what I did and my exhausted/dread/moody/drained feelings went away. I never thought I'd be a "class" taker, but it had the opposite effect as what I'd imagined. Now when I do a little elliptical... I feel like it's "extra" and no pressure.

I wonder if it could be a form of anxiety attack? The exercise raises adrenaline and heart rate, which causes mild anxiety attack perhaps?

To the Google!

I get all kinds of physical and mental issues when I do intense exercise. For the rest of the day I'm hungry, drained, grumpy and more. Weight lifting has the same effect on me plus headache, nausea, anxiety, and weird bouts of self-hate which is not characteristic for me. I pretty much stopped doing these and now do low and moderate intensity workouts.

Could you be unconsciously beating yourself up for not seeing immediate improvements in your depression symptoms? I have well managed anxiety which flares up every now and then, and when I started exercising I did not see any improvement. It wasn't until a few months later that I looked back and thought, hmmm, my flare ups are considerably less frequent.

Maybe try different kinds of workouts to find something that doesn't trigger symptoms as badly and stick with it a bit longer to see if it does anything for you over a longer period of time.

I feel so bad for you I come out of a good lift feeling, well happy and exhausted. I say hello to everyone and wish them a great day. I never do that. I am normally the emotionless/sour face guy that at most would nod to you. If I don't lift for more than 2 days now I feel down and the mind races on things I would rather it not.

I think I feel that way when I am doing something that is "mindless" (like walking or cycling) even if I try to push myself or just focus on the now. It doesn't happen every time, but I find that even if I am strong enough to handle it physically, I mentally can't handle doing stationary cardio for more than 5-10 minutes because my mind starts to wander in the wrong direction.

I'm not sure what kind of intense work out you were doing, or if it happens after every session you have. I know for me, I would probably be able to handle cardio better if I had something else to focus on (like a tv show I love) but it's not always possible for me to do that.

to you all.

Too much cardio, not enough variety. I felt awful exercising until I ditched every machine and boring things (walking, running, jogging, etc) and started taking 2 to 3 varied (live) classes per day. Now I feel awesome after exercise. And I have OCD with Anxiety Disorder, so I thought classes would never be on my list. Now I lose my mind when one is cancelled.

If I need to throw in some machine time like elliptical because of class cancelation, I'm careful to not push too hard or stay too long. Cardio generally makes me feel like crap if it exceeds an hour non-stop.