Recently I watched a YouTube video about how to use cycling to recover from a running injury. It interested me because I have found that cycling has helped my knee tendonitis to improve significantly. But I didn’t really think about how to cycle. Apparently you need to cycling at a slow pace and for a long duration. I thought, could this also be applied for our mental well-being.
I have heard a lot that exercise can help you reduce stress. Excess amounts of cortisol and adrenalin hormones are reduced when we exercise, but I can also think about when exercising can be a stressful experience.
Exercising too much can increase our cortisol levels and decrease testosterone in both men and women. It is always important to rest, but if we are competitive at our sports stress can come to us from many angles. The stress of not competing well enough, other peoples expectations, the thought of getting an injury also looms in our mind.
We need to work out a balance. 30 minutes of relaxing exercise is supposed to be good for us. I think that anyone whether they are active or not will be able to manage this. But for me, until recently, the stress of running competitions got to me. I have been able to turn it around and I found out that this is nothing unique.
Turning nervousness or anxiety into excitement seems to be a thing. For me, I thought it was the only way to go. I just try to follow other people’s moods. When you do a running race, 10k, 21k or more, you will see serious faces, and excited faces. The people with the serious faces are out their to win or get a personal best. The excited faces are just happy to enjoy the atmosphere. I have found that enjoying the atmosphere is best for me and I am still able to achieve a good race time.
Telling yourself that you are excited seems to be the way to go. The end of the races are always exciting but now I am able to double my excitement and make my races even more pleasurable.
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