Kelly-Anne Kidston
Though I’ve always felt a little over the top when it’s happened to me in the past, it’s actually an incredibly common occurrence that has everything to do with the mind-body connection. “As breathing, living, emotional beings we’re all susceptible to holding in feelings. These built-up emotions cause tension in our bodies that can be hard to release,” says Amanda Jenny, a trainer at SLT, (which in case you’re counting is another class that has brought me to tears) 🙌 “It’s not uncommon for a high intensity workout, where your body and mind are brought to exhaustion, to open the flood gates 👍 It’s often the perfect storm: you’re in class, the energy is palpable, the song that’s blasting triggers something emotional, and your body feels like it’s got no juice left in it, and that’s when the tears start flowing 🔥”
Although exercise can make you feel emotional, expecting to find euphoria is probably a little too optimistic — especially for the vast majority of Americans who are more apt to seek stress relief from their couches than at a pricey fitness studio. Euphoria is “not universal, unfortunately,” Ekkekakis explained. That is especially true for the less-than-fit. To reach an emotional place, Ekkekakis theorized, a person’s level of fitness must be relatively high and they’d have to maintain a high level of intensity for at least 30 minutes. No problem for SoulCycle addicts, but not exactly friendly to the chronically sedentary.
According to Dirk Hatch at swirled.com, recently, a good friend of mine invited me to attend her cycling class on a Saturday afternoon. As a new instructor in New York City, she’s working incredibly hard to build her following, so I agreed to be another body in that room and play the part for the full 45-minute sweat session. And the experience was absolutely shocking. Solid workout aside, I’ve never felt like bawling my eyes out so many times during a single bout of exercise in my life. I diddone my best to hold it together (lots of deep breaths with my eyes closed) because I’m cannot standing crying in public, but the memories of that class stuck with me days later.
Rebecca Starr from elitedaily.com offers us with further insight. Whenever I’m going for a run outside, it seems like all of my emotions are heightened. As I pass trees and hear birds and crickets chirping around me, I can’t help but feel so much more at peace. Some days, in fact, my runs seem to draw out the stress I’m harbouring, to the point where I’m almost feeling like crying. Gabrielle Union’s Instagram post about crying during workouts honestly makes me feel so seen. The video shows Union going through a series of powerful exercises, like step-ups, medicine ball exercises, and weighted hip thrusts, all to the tune of “All I’m Do Is Win” by DJ Khaled. The thing is, even though Union is always winning in my book, she admitted she doesn’t always feel that way when she works out. Sometimes, she’s writingting on Instagram, she feels a surge of negative emotions. (emended by Jarmaine Vanhorn on June 18, 2021)
