Why am I addicted to the gym after a breakup?
“No sweat, no beauty. No squat, no booty.” — Author Unknown
For some, the pandemic has been a time to reconnect with their loved ones, a forceful time to sit without distractions and mingle with those we hold most dear. While the world is falling apart, the best people in our lives stand like a rock in the waves.
For others like myself however, the quarantine(s) fostered a batch of newly single folks out ready to explore the world of dating during a pandemic. But first things first, time to get the revenge body. If you’re like me, working out has been a cornerstone in my sanity navigating these tough times. Why is it though, that the gym can be so addicting after a breakup? Ego and hubris aside, scientists have found several benefits to the repeated slamming of weights on a regular basis.
As we all know, breakups suck. Without your partner there, things can become more difficult. When you’re with a partner, your body releases endorphins, the “feel good” hormone. This hormone is part of the body’s natural reward system. As humans, we are programmed to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Endorphins are released in many activities such as eating, drinking, sex and exercise. The release of this hormone encourages these activities to be pursued as they are beneficial to the body. However, during times of stress or heartbreak we can experience what is known as mental pain.
Mental pain, or simply put, being down in the dumps, can activate several survival systems in the body such as the PANIC (being defensive) and the FEAR (being scared) system. In a nutshell, these systems are the underlying mechanisms that produce those very natural human behaviors, and well, during a breakup quite a few of those systems can become activated. Continued lowered levels of endorphins in the body caused by the activation of Big Time Sads™ can send even the best of us into a tailspin. Where to go from there?
Luckily, the human body seeks pleasure (just look at the ice cream in my fridge) and one quick and easy way to produce endorphins is hitting the gym. In a study published by the University of Cape Town’s department of Psychology, researchers looked at the impact of exercise on depression. In this study, 30 men were placed into three exercise groups and given workout routines ranging from high intensity to low intensity workouts with one control group. What they found is that high to moderate intensity workouts were shown to lower depression levels in individuals with moderate depression as well as elevate endorphin levels compared to the group who did no exercise at all.
It comes as no surprise that many of us feel down in the dumps after a breakup, and science says that a good replacement for those feel-good chemicals could be as simple as sweating it out in a gym.
However, endorphins aren’t the only hormone floating around your body during these tumultuous times. The stress hormone cortisol plays a huge role in regulating your mood and how you respond to stressors. But what is cortisol exactly? It’s a buzz word often thrown around by every meditation app I scroll past on Tiktok, but never does it delve into the mechanics behind the release and regulation of this hormone. Simply put, you can think of cortisol as your fight-or-flight response. It is fueled by the adrenal glands, small organs on the tops of your kidneys. When activated, cortisol triggers your muscles to tighten, shut off your digestive tract, and heighten your heartrate to prepare your body for action. During a breakup, your body can register the mental pain as physical and release cortisol as a response to this abstract fear.
Prolonged elevated levels of this hormone can lead to weight gain, tiredness, impaired brain function and protein breakdown. This means that your body can get so stressed it literally starts eating itself, which when you’re vying for that revenge body is not ideal. So how do we dispense this stressful energy?
Enter in exercise. During a workout, your body will release cortisol in response to the physical stress you’re putting on your body. It may seem counterintuitive, but this release of cortisol is actually a good thing. Stimulating this release however, trains your body to better deal with physical stress in the future and as your fitness improves, will release less cortisol in the future. This also means less will be released in response to emotional or physiological stress since the body doesn’t really know the difference.
Sometimes the human body is really dumb, but it’s nice to be able to cheat the system by tricking my body into thinking it’s in a stressful situation as a preventative measure. Something as simple as getting my heartrate up for an hour or so every day can replace and regulate those pesky hormones thrown out of whack by a breakup seems too good to be true.
Either way, I’m still excited for leg day. See you at the gym.
