Running to support meditations

[GrandTrinity]

Looking for good information or experiences about using running as a means to enhance enorphin release, perhaps thus supporting a meditation practice.

 

Running seems like a great way to get ALL the chi moving (blood of course) and I recall the last time I did it, then layed down, I thought about how, damn, you best be runnin if you want to loose your EGO.

 

But I didnt keep it up mostly because I am/was affraid it could be/become unbalanced.

[90_1494798740]

Looking for good information or experiences about using running as a means to enhance enorphin release, perhaps thus supporting a meditation practice.

 

Running seems like a great way to get ALL the chi moving (blood of course) and I recall the last time I did it, then layed down, I thought about how, damn, you best be runnin if you want to loose your EGO.

 

But I didnt keep it up mostly because I am/was affraid it could be/become unbalanced.

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Funny, just wrote something in my blog about running ...

[Yoda]

running is the bomb! Osho recommends 1-3 hours of exercise per day in order to properly function and to meditate correctly. I believe that the human body has evolved to move a lot, if it doesn't get its daily movement quota, it freezes up and doesn't work properly. The nice thing about running and cardio type exercise is that it isn't too intense--you really can do an hour a day of it w/o breaking down as long as you crosstrain with something else.

[Leo]

One thing....

 

There is a theory that the endorphin release you experience from running is actually bad for you. The theory goes that in the wild, when we hunt we have a short burst of speed and that's it. If you're running for that long, you are probably running AWAY from something. At some point your body figures that you've run long enough and you're about to get eaten! So....you get a flood of pain killing endorphins so the "getting eaten" part isn't so bad. And too much of "almost getting eaten" isn't very good for your body (or your mental health for that matter!)

 

I don't know if it's true or not, but it would help to explain some of the cases you hear about sometimes where the super-duper healthy marathon runner suddenly drops dead for no apparent reason.

[neimad]

One thing....

 

There is a theory that the endorphin release you experience from running is actually bad for you. The theory goes that in the wild, when we hunt we have a short burst of speed and that's it. If you're running for that long, you are probably running AWAY from something. At some point your body figures that you've run long enough and you're about to get eaten!    So....you get a flood of pain killing endorphins so the "getting eaten" part isn't so bad. And too much of "almost getting eaten" isn't very good for your body (or your mental health for that matter!)

 

I don't know if it's true or not, but it would help to explain some of the cases you hear about sometimes where the super-duper healthy marathon runner suddenly drops dead for no apparent reason.

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hahahaha

that actually makes a lot of sense.

 

whilst we are built to move and to run.... i really don't think we are engineered to run incredibly long distances.

 

i do a jungleman work out and part of it is running (always barefoot) but i run a lap of an oval at most before stopping to do some strength exercises. never want to run much longer than that.... never feel the need to either.

 

need to travel long distances??? walk! now that is something we are definately built for.

[hagar]

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Edited May 25, 2009 by hagar

[Yoda]

Leo,

 

that sounds like a theory hatched by some scientist who doesn't want to exercise. Any exertion whether running, walking, gardening, taichi, or daily life 200 years ago, would begin to release endorphins after 30-40 minutes which feels good and allows a freer energy flow.

 

Evolving a trait to make being eaten more comfortable doesn't make sense to me from a biological, evolutionary perspective. In my opinion, endorphins do have a survival role--allowing for one to get into an energy saving groove for really long treks and work sessions like Hagar mentioned.

 

-Yoda

[90_1494798740]

Leo,

 

that sounds like a theory hatched by some scientist who doesn't want to exercise.  Any exertion whether running, walking, gardening, taichi, or daily life 200 years ago, would begin to release endorphins after 30-40 minutes which feels good and allows a freer energy flow.

 

Evolving a trait to make being eaten more comfortable doesn't make sense to me from a biological, evolutionary perspective.  In my opinion, endorphins do have a survival role--allowing for one to get into an energy saving groove for really long treks and work sessions like Hagar mentioned.

 

-Yoda

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I find this theory also very far-fetched and agree totally with Yoda. It sounds like an excuse for not knowing why e.g. those marathon runners died so suddenly. Probably natural science has to look for the truth some more time ...

[sean]

I think the idea behind this theory Leo is talking about is not so much that it's bad for you to exert to the point of endorphin release, it's just that you need to be prepared for the beta-endorphin receptors downregulating in response to the flood of endorphins. This downregulation can even be experienced as a "crash" if the beta-endorphin "spike" was pronounced enough. It's often felt a few days later as just a really crappy day. I notice this effect all the time in my training. In fact whenever I am having a really crappy day, I think about what I did 3-5 days previously. And more than likely I did some really prolonged, heavy training within that time and rode out the rest of the day in endorphin bliss.

 

Also, I disagree with the idea that the endorphins are being released to reduce pain so that you can die in peace, that is not good Darwin. More likely is that these strong pain killers helped us push through more pain and therefore survive more endangering situations than our ancient, less-successful, non-beta endorphin having ancestors whose genes were not passed on because they were too whiny to get laid.

 

Good thread for more on this subject: http://www.circularstrengthmag.com/forum/v...opic.php?t=1716

 

 

Sean

[Yoda]

Interesting thread at rmax, I'm glad somebody brought up "Consistent Winning" that there is a huge need to honor periodizing and crosstraining principles to avoid blowing a fuse. Like any other practice, running and other cardio drills can be overdone and should be gradually introduced. I've never looked for a 4 day letdown after serious exertion, I'll check it out.

 

Then again, I don't actually exert myself in the first place.

 

From what I learned from Pavel, I stay well away from exhaustion in any form of physical training whether cardio or sexual training. As Pavel says, you should feel more energized and alive after a workout than before one. If you follow that principle, you'll never overdo your training, you'll gain strength faster, and you'll stay away from injury. Pavel's philosophy definitely has that lazy, meditative, taoist wisdom going for it and can be applied to any form of learning.

 

As they say at dragondoor, in order to gain strength, say goodbye to 'working out' and say hello to 'practice.'

 

-Yoda

[Leo]

The info I got came from a book called "Lights out - sleep sugar and survival". It was written by research scientists, and they recommend weightlifting and yoga for their exercise choices. As I mentioned earlier, I don't know whether it is true or not, but I have no reason to doubt it - it seems to be well researched, and is extensively footnoted.

 

In fact, I don't like a lot of their conclusions - for instance they recommend eating like a caveman, and I'm a vegetarian. But I weigh what they say, and take what knowledge I can. What they say about diet seems logical and well researched, so I use the knowledge to temper my behavior. The book has been criticized for it's colloquial style, but the information seems to be sound.

 

As far as the purpose of endorphins - as far as I know their purpose being for blocking pain isn't in dispute, but I may be wrong. The times I have experienced endorphin release have been either from running to excess, or situations with pain and/or adrenaline (tattoos and fistfights come to mind )

[Yoda]

Leo,

 

Obviously I don't agree with everything in the book, but I read the reviews of it at amazon to get the gist and I very much enjoyed his perspective--thanks for calling it to my attention.

 

I could use more time spent in darkness--I can see that it's true and Osho's book of Secrets and Chia's darkroom stuff is big on this point too. I can see that people in general evolved to get more sleep. Even though we evolved at the equator where it's light 14 hours a day, I'd be interested to hear what he says about the northern gang who have light all the time in the summer.

 

I know that the northerners can store the vitamin d they get from sunshine in the summer and live off it in the winter--maybe there's some way to store melatonin???

 

I actually count practice time towards my sleep quota. Even exercise, as it improves the quality of sleep. Maybe that's cheating? I'll play around with sleep a bit. I stayed up late (in the dark) thinking about it last night. In the last few weeks, I've made a point to be in the dark for the last 1-2 hours of my waking day.

 

-Yoda

[Leo]

I know I'm getting kind of off the topic here, but briefly the idea in the book is that in the modern world we all live on a summer schedule our whole lives and never get a winter. In the wild we would experience changes in day length, and would only have sugar (mostly from fruit) in the summertime and early fall.

 

The authors claim that if you follow the introduction of electric lights and refined sugar through history, there is a direct correlation between the introduction of these things and all the modern diseases (diabetes, depression, etc.)

 

Their recommendation, in a nutshell, is do whatever you want in the summer...eat tons of sugar if you want, and stay up all night partying...but as the winter comes, to sleep as close as you can to the day length cycle, and don't eat any sugar.

[Yoda]

that could account for the fact that people tend to gain weight in the winter, myself included.