Forgetting the Pain of Exercise

The New York Times:

Completing a marathon can be exhilarating but also agonizing. Thighs cramp. Backs ache. Toes bleed. Stomachs churn. Afterward, leg muscles can become so sore and tight that finishers must ease themselves backward down stairs and request assistance to rise from the toilet.

Yet, despite these aches and indignities, many of us who have finished a marathon will eagerly sign up later for another, to the occasional bafflement of friends or loved ones who saw us after the first race, peeling off bloody socks.

…

So for the new study, which was published recently in the journal Memory, Przemyslaw Babel, a professor of psychology at Jagiellonian University in Krakow and an author of the earlier study of childbirth and memory, turned to marathon runners.

He focused on the marathon because finishing one is unquestionably strenuous but also can be elating; the experience combines objective pain and subjective emotions.

Read the whole story: The New York Times