Hard intense training is the best cure for a lot of problems

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It isn't a perfect panacea but it definitely is the most therapeutic thing imaginable. take it from me, the guy who months ago was deeply suicidal and wanted to end his life to the guy who is now engaged, experiencing the happiest day of his entire life, and who is much happier and healthier than I was when I returned back to this forum months ago after a year departure to pursue my dreams, which ended up being a year of hell where all my goals and ambitions were destroyed.

No one says hard exercise will fix all your problems; what it does do though is give the brain and body the energy and vitality to feel a lot more alive, be powerful and rejuvenated and reinvigorated with the life force to tackle problems more effectively than being in a sluggish and dreary state that accompanies depression.

I know that feeling of depression where a person feels so dead they dont even want to get out of bed; where life feels like a monotonous chore you wish could end; where even the most mundane of tasks feels like a Herculean endeavor impossible to surmount. Trust me I do.

What I also do know is that in that state the brain is deprived of a ton of nutrients and feels dead and like existing is hell.

Hard rigorous exercise doesn't fix everything, but it makes things a lot better. By a lot better I mean mountains better.

"But I do train"

No, you dont. Too many people on this forum say they exercise and train hard when that's nonsense. Exercise and hard training are not the same. If you want to know what hard training looks like here's a training montage from the movie "Rocky 4" that shows what actual hard training looks like:



And before anyone says its just a movie know that I modeled by real life training based on this level of intensity and that's how I got the results I did.

Hard training is when your face turns red, when you're grunting and panting and feel too dead to move. Thats hard training. The slow and steady jog on the treadmill, the slow movements, peaceful reps, thats not hard training. If your face isn't looking ugly contorting from completing a rep, if your body isn't drenched in sweat, if you dont feel knocked out and feel like you can't do any more, then you didnt train nearly as hard as im recommending to experience the benefits of hard training. you trained for a specific purpose, but im recommending something else to help

And this isn't even my assertion either: many of the top, heck basically every respectable fitness athlete and trainer who knows his stuff says the exact same thing as me, such as legendary trainer Jeff Cavaliere and Bodybuilding legend Greg Doucette

However im not recommending hard training to get big and buff. This isn't my purpose here. If you dont mind training gently and softly there isn't a problem with that if thats what you feel comfortable with

However my intention is to recommend a very viable and efficacious medicine for depression and severe dreariness that accompanies such depression, however unlike pharmaceutical medicine which has nasty side effects this medicine I offer is free and without any side effects, and the only cost is hard hard work and labor if you are willing to trust the process


Many people on WP say they train hard but I dont believe that because most people in general dont train hard. This isn't even a WP thing or even autism thing: as someone whose been to almost 100 different gyms in my life from Planet Fitnesses to elite powerlifting gyms I can separate the wheat from the chaff and know when people are actually training hard enough versus saying they train hard enough but aren't; sadly most people dont actually train as hard as they say they do

If the denizens of WP just tried this experiment and actually upped the intensity of their training I promise you you will feel a lot better than before. No im not saying all your problems will be fixed, but I am saying you will experience a high and ecstasy thats indescribable.

If this doesnt interest you then Im not judging you. But as someone who just knocked out a 30 minute workout at the gym which even though short was the most intense workout in my life with my fiancee, I can promise you that afterwards while I felt dead and felt like I couldn't move the chemical rush to my body and especially my brain feels like im high on a pleasurable drug. it is so amazing it feels like im in a happier place.

Please please WP try it. You dont even need to do an hour. not even 30 minutes. Even 10 minutes of this should be sufficient:



But please trust me when I say intense workout, the kind of intensity in the above video where you're breathing heavy and panting and turning red, trust me when I say that it feels amazing and is worth it. trust me

I feel so blissful it feels like im in nirvana. ive never done or touched a drug in my life but this feels so amazing

I walk about 10-15 miles a day, and run at least 3 miles in a day 5 times a week.

I consider myself to be “working out.”

By your standards, I’m probably just “exercising”

Salad, I'm truly happy things are going better for you these days.

However - you need to understand that everybody's different, and what works for you may not work for someone else.

In addition, you recently had an injury from being over-aggressive with your training.

So I wish you would temper your absolute prescription for everybody's depression. Limit it to "here's what worked for me" and wait until other training aficionados come to you.

Respect, dude. I'm so glad you have found what works best for you.

I'm glad it works for you.
It's never worked for me.

Others mileage may vary so don't become one of those posters who badgers people about this when they're depressed because that's just insulting harassment.

I agree with you Salad, glad that you are much happier too.

I don't think you can ever totally get rid of the depression I think when you have it just you're stuck with it but you can definitely get rid of most of it like you've explained. Kind of like it has it's own gauge and the more you do the more it sort of goes down, at least that's how it is in my head.

Walking about 5 miles per day really breaks the barrier, especially up big hike trails when it's really hard. You get a sense of euphoria when you've completed the goal though. Alone I found it much harder but in a hikers group it was much better, I just found one off meetup in my local area a while ago. I can see why runners get addicted to running because they get their runners high for example.

Gym training is what got rid of my depression as well but it's very easy to fall back into the void again so you need to sort of find some kind of healthy competition to keep you going and motivated, at least that helped me.

I have found if your fuel is anger though a lot can go wrong very quickly, like if someone ever told you that you were weak/ugly etc and you remember it and this aggravates you to lift heavier this isn't a good thing cause you'll end up with an injury, that's like toxic motivation.

I found the best motivation is to pick someone who is motivated too in the same boat as you physically and try to compete on Strava for example, or one week they're lifting more weight so you have to reach their weight the next week or something. Just as long as it's not coming from sheer rage or jealousy cause these are just toxic emotions that don't fuel you long enough imo.

You don't just have to train at the gym though there's loads of other things you can do that keep you motivated, doing the same thing over and over gets a bit tedious I found so one week I'd just hang with the hikers group all week and walk up giant hills etc, another I'd do swimming/running or anything cardio with another group and then back at the gym again and rotate it, that way you're doing a bit of everything and it keeps your mind active, at least it works if you're like me and you get very easily bored of the same thing over and over again.

Outdoor exercise I have found is always the best with my depression though, I think it's that whole being around nature and it sort of helps you in some way, not entirely sure why but I do feel a lot more happy when I've come back from a really muddy walk in a vale with my friends dogs.

And like above people have mentioned exercise isn't for everyone, of course, but I think the vast majority it does help if you look at statistics, I mean our (UK) national health wouldn't recommend it 3 times a week minimum otherwise.

This is not even really a cure, just kind of prevention of deficiency.

Saying it's not for everyone is just fundamentally wrong. Just like saying drinking water to avoid dehydration is not for everyone.

This is how every healthy human body works. You can't get rid of the depression just like you can't get rid of dehydration once and for all. There is no "cure" for dehydration, you need to drink water every day to prevent it.

Just the same way there is no "cure" for depression. Our body needs enough sunlight, fresh air, healthy food, physical activity and sensory stimulation (exposure to nature) on regular basis to avoid depression. Any healthy person becomes depressed if any of those needs are neglected for some time.

A lot of people make mistake confusing being upset and being depressed. You can still have legitimate reasons to be upset when all these needs covered, but if you are not physiologically depressed, you have more mental power to deal with your problems.

Hard, intense training isn’t for me.

I like to keep my heart rate at 140 or below most of the time.

I can run 5 miles pretty easily with that heart rate….I do it at 10-12 minutes per mile.

If you don't like it, it doesn't mean it's not beneficial to you. It depends on your fitness, but generally 140 is already pretty close to "red zone", if you run uphill or sprint going over like 150 even once for like 30-60 seconds during your run you are probably unintentionally hitting minimum effective zone of intense training.

My high intensity part of 10 minute daily workout is less than a minute long, but this is what immediately gives me mental clarity and euphoric feeling.

When I start my run, I tend to rise up to the 170s in heart rate at the beginning. However, I usually settle down into the 130s and 140s unless I run up a steep hill. I'm 60 years old.

For me, the "fat burn zone" is between 95 and 117 beats per minute.

The "aerobic zone" is between 118 and 143 beats per minute.

The "peak" zone is over 143 beats per minute.

I would prefer to stay in the "aerobic" zone.

Yes, I figured this would be your range. Pretty sure you are getting your high intensity doze with your running. I hope I would be as good shape as you are at 60.

I would be intentional about getting some short higher intensity bursts once in a while if your cardiovascular system allows it, like picking a route with steep hill couple times a week. This is just a hormetic doze of high level of stress, so there are some risks for sure, but higher benefits always come with slightly higher risks.

One of unexpected benefits of high intensity exercise is dramatically reduced procrastination and crippling anxiety about important work.

Motivation to put effort to complete your work way before deadline is function of reward system. Motivation to complete your work last minute to avoid failure and being fired is function of stress system.

Stress basically suppresses reward system, this is why we procrastinate and don't do s**t until last minute or night before deadline. High intensity exercise releases this stress and unlocks reward system to full capacity.

For skeptics who think this recommendation is too simple to be true and doesn't take psychological and social aspects of depression into account, this is my explanation how it fits into the biopsychosocial model of human health

And to be clear, intense exercise alone will not cure your depression completely, it is one of several factors, but one of the important, best option as a first actionable step to give you enough mental juice to address the rest of them.