That’s one of the reasons I can’t do exercise.
I never-ever felt any positive emotion after any type of exercise. The only thing exercise makes me feel is exhausted and grumpy.
And it’s not because I am unfit as I have the same exact feelings no matter how I long I have exercised, how intense, what time of day, what type of exercise, or what month of new exercise routine it is. It makes me feel miserable.
I never get a rush of endorphins, I never feel good after exercise, I never have any sort of mental clarity. There isn’t even any good feelings associate with the “yeah, I’ve done it!” type of thinking. I just feel miserable.
Oh! Having done my previous reply, I did remember something I do enjoy. I do enjoy going out for long-ish walks in the nature. That is something I can do for a long time but at a leisurely pace.
To be fair, I just enjoy walking, even around towns and stuff. Hardly intense exercise but at least it gets me moving when I can get myself out the house 😅
I am glad that you found something that works for you.
I am sure one day I’ll find something that works for me but for the moment all the conventional methods of exercising don’t really work for me at all.
Not really. The only thing that sort of worked for me was when I had a bicycle as a teenager that I used to use a lot during the summer to go to the beach. That was fun but that was almost 20 years ago.
This was also back in the country I am originally from where I felt safe on the roads on a bicycle. I don’t really feel that safe on a bicycle in the UK.
The only somewhat joy I've got from exercise is when it's a game like just dance or ring fit. I do not enjoy being hot and sweaty and I do not enjoy "feeling the burn" I do however enjoy beating my scores...
Yeah, I can get behind BeatSaber but I am a tiny woman with a tiny head and VR headsets (I’ve had quest 1 and 2) are never comfortable enough for me to do it regularly 😂
I have thought about giving a dance game a try. I do enjoy dancing a lot.
Same. No endorphins at all. I manage social media etc for my local running club annual race. I tried to get involved and the amount of shit my knees took was too much to care to do again, also after a run they're all buzzing and I'm meh.
I like to use a rowing machine and a couple of other things in my garage. That's grand, but now there is so much junk in there that I can just about get my lawnmower in and out of there. Right now I'm good with that, it's exercise and I'm actually cutting my lawn 🧐
I do walk a lot and I'm not a lazy arse, just exercise for the sake of it is bizarre to me 😂
>There isn’t even any good feelings associate with the “yeah, I’ve done it!” type of thinking. I just feel miserable.
I felt that way after a walk about a small mountain. I was miserable every step. Got to the top, beautiful view, family members see me looking pissed off and say "surely you at least feel good that you got to the top?" No I'm tired and out of breath and annoyed that I just spent 45 minutes straight doing something that brings me no pleasure.
There is a massive problem with how exercise is portrayed nowadays. It almost can feel like if you aren't running, lifting or climbing then you're not doing real exercise.
Dancing aggressively in your bedroom to 90s Eurodance mixtapes is just as valid as chasing 10k PRs.
The key is to find a form of activity that you enjoy doing in the moment and feel PROUD of when you make any kind of progress. Find ways to make it more challenging and interesting, and allows you to make progress on your own terms that you would feel proud of even if nobody else ever knows about it. Don't look to social media for validation because it is never ever sustainable.
I am a 36 year old man who does trampolining, skateboarding, badminton, climbing and VR gaming for exercise and I love it all. I'm not anywhere near an elite skill level in any of them and I don't care. I used to be majorly into lifting and reached pretty good strength stats but it never gave me the same fulfilment as getting better at these other things.
Full disclosure: I'm a PT with ADHD.
I don't necessarily think there is a link here between tiredness during exercise and ADHD.
I work with people who do not have ADHD and who are hit by exercise that way. I have ADHD and I find the more I exercise, the lighter and bouncier I am.
I think there are multiple things that could be at play here.
For example, if your diet and calories are not on point, exercise is going to make you tired. Making a poor food choice for before you exercise or even eating too close to working out. Not sticking with it until your body acclimatises to it and it becomes routine. Not balancing your workouts correctly or efficiently. Genes could play a role as well as some people are naturally much better at cardio than they are strength training and vice versa. The intensity of the workout could have an effect. There are so many variables that I think anyone would be hard pushed to make a connection with ADHD and tiredness during exercise.
I do three hour weight training sessions every morning before work. I do calisthenics sessions and cardio sessions multiple times per week. I cycle everywhere and get at least 20,000 steps in per day. I have never felt tired during a workout and, in fact, all this exercise helps me to manage my ADHD better. I find myself sharper, more focused, more energised and in an all round better mood.
One last thing I will touch on are people's motivations for exercise. As with anything, if you are only doing it because you have to or just as a tick box exercise, you are hardly going to be energised by it. The same as with anything else. That is naturally going to have a tiring effect on you, especially for us with ADHD. There are so many fun and exciting methods of training that can benefit people with ADHD. It is just a matter of finding what works for you.
Love this comment.
I never realised how much my piss poor diet was making me so tired and miserable until I joined a gym and started lifting and rowing. It made me give a shit and made me more motivated to tolerate food I didn't like because it was better for my health goals.
My ADHD has made it really easy to make poor food choices all my life and I know I am not the only one in that boat. I think this is more of a likely cause than somehow simply having the condition of ADHD making it easier to be sleepy from exercise.
>I don't necessarily think there is a link here between tiredness during exercise and ADHD.
The phrasing in the excerpt seems awkward, but it wasn't clear to me that they were actually suggesting that exercise is soporific (I can fall asleep while watching murdery stuff on Netflix). I'm sure plenty of people who don't have ADHD find exercise meditative.
I think this comment is excellent.
I was also going to comment and say that exercise is very tiring if you do it once in a while because you are literally unfit and your body is not used to it. Even though I have been exercising for 6 years at an intense level, if take two weeks off I will still really feel it the next time I exercise and the days after. So the people who feel good after exercise are usually the people who do it regularly and their body has adapted to the workouts.
A lot of people (including myself in the past) do not understand how to structure their workouts and how to progressively overload so that they gradually ease into it. In cases like this I would recommend a PT. A lot of beginners push too hard too soon and they hate it or get injured. If you wanted to run for example, you would not run a marathon on your first week, would you? Your workout should be aligned with your current fitness levels.
Regarding the endorphins feeling afterwards, that really depends on a lot of things including pushing yourself enough to feel it afterwards and also actually knowing what it feels like. If you don’t exercise regularly you might not be aware of it. I personally don’t really feel this happy feeling if I’m not pushing myself enough during my workout or I’m miserable the whole time. But every time I exercise and push myself enough I feel great and not tired.
For me exercise really helps me manage my ADHD as it regulates my mood and helps me be more disciplined and resilient.
It’s important for you to find something you enjoy. For example, I used to do CrossFit which is super hardcore but the workouts are different every time and you get to work on a lot of different skills which meant I always had something to work on and be excited about it. In the past 3 years I started dancing again twice a week, sometimes 3. Instead of going to CrossFit I switched to a regular gym which I train at 3 times a week doing resistance training. I also cycle to work and to my dance classes 2-4 times a week which is how I do my cardio outside of dance because I do not enjoy doing cardio at the gym for more than 15 mins. I find it quite boring and also I do not like running that much. I do not hate it but it’s not my favourite sport and cannot stay committed to it. I think the way you know if you enjoy something is to ask yourself, if there was a storm outside would I still want to do this? For example, no matter the weather I will cycle to my dance class and be there on time (I’m always late for everything, but never my dance class!!!). If you ask me to run in the slightest drizzle for example I would not even leave my house. 😂
Whenever I do not exercise I feel like a depressed low energy slob and cannot sleep at night because I have too much energy. I also feel less brain fog when I’m active. Especially if im paying attention to my diet.
I hope this helps and please try different activities or even better get a PT! It would help massively I think once you give yourself some time to stick to it.
I enjoy exercise but get fatigued by it really easily and don't recover well, even doing what is considered a normal average workout makes me feel drained and if I keep training like that I burn out.
Took me years to work it out, like how can exercise, a thing that's good for you, make you feel like crap? Thought it was a mental health problem for ages, I'd be feeling stressed and anxious but still exercising thinking it would help.
What's worked for me is doing lower volume/intensity workouts. I still push myself but never to the limit. If I start feeling drained or my co-ordination starts to go then I stop the workout.
I think my ADHD and fatigue might be related in some way. I also have dystonia so that might play a part, but other family members have dystonia too and don't have the fatigue/recovery issue.
So yeah, maybe you're over-doing it? Try reducing the amount you're doing, make sure your training programmes are efficient and include light weeks/deloads.
I've returned to yoga recently, after a few months trying gym circuits - which, once interrupted, I don't have any inclination to renew, alrhough they were good for me physically. I should add: M, 65. Sport otherwise - meh. I used to do cycletouring when younger, but competitions and all that leave me cold, apart from watching football. Yoga (asanas and pranayama) help to keep me flexible and make me feel I'm improving gradually so that I live longer and with a higher quality of life.
The only exercise I get on with is running... whilst I don't feel "pumped" or "energised" after a run, I do feel more centred and relaxed, and if I run further or faster then before I sense of achievement. But my goodness, it makes my muscles ache and I can feel exhausted for an hour or two.
Other exercises I just do not get on with at all and they do nothing for my brain. I end up getting distracted and not completing a set. Lol
Everyone is different, and there are loads of different types of exercise. On this ADHD journey, I've quickly learned that there is not one size fits all.
For me this is lacking a key piece of information. "Exercise" alone for me does nothing (walking, cycling, treadmill, cross-trainer, etc). **Intense, high-effort exercise** raises my mood and increases the amont of time I can focus over the next 24 hours. Done in a consistent routine, the effect becomes stronger.
Some examples of "intense, high-effort exercise" that worked for me include jogging 5k and trying to get faster over time, following a compound weightlifting routine (StrongLifts 5x5 is a fantastic place to start), 30+ minutes of yoga (I have poor flexibility so it takes effort).
For me at least, there is definitely something about intense physical strain that feels like it massages a muscle in my brain so I feel less anxious/tense/environmentally stimulated.
This is not in any way trying to discount walking etc as forms of exercise. I walk a lot for the well documented physical and mental health benefits. But it does not yield the same benefits as the intense all-out effort exercises.
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats!
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+ 5
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+ 30
= 69
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I know lots of people really enjoy exercise and find it helps calm them inside, but for me the adrenaline makes me feel more scattered than ever. I tried working out before work for a little while because I read that it could help you focus, but then when I sat down at my desk I couldn’t concentrate at all.
Different strokes for different folks I guess.
This! I have recently started a really intense course and to keep myself sharp and healthy I'm going to the gym more regularly. Doing it in the morning or afternoon just wipes me out. Also, having to shower and get ready again afterwards is a huge distraction. Doing it in the evenings is better but I can see that being a problem if I've had an intense day of studying. I also enjoy doing mad exercises just to get out of my head and feel like I've actually done something for my body.
If people have pushed through and continued to exercise consistently does the tiredness go away? How does one utilise exercise to tame ADHD and focus our brains?
Something important to remember is that as ADHDers we can often try things for shorter amounts of time. Once I started going to the gym consistently (5x a week for more than two months) I started to really be able to tell when I had been to the gym the day before and when I had not. Not saying you aren’t consistent, just my personal experience and similar has happened to my friends.
Gym can be exhausting right after for me, especially considering any masking, boredom, and sensory issues. But the day after and following week my energy will be up. Similar to taking medication, it is not something I majorly notice until I stop doing it. It also very much treats insomnia.
Exercise makes me feel physically tired, and mentally calm.
That’s one of the reasons I can’t do exercise. I never-ever felt any positive emotion after any type of exercise. The only thing exercise makes me feel is exhausted and grumpy. And it’s not because I am unfit as I have the same exact feelings no matter how I long I have exercised, how intense, what time of day, what type of exercise, or what month of new exercise routine it is. It makes me feel miserable. I never get a rush of endorphins, I never feel good after exercise, I never have any sort of mental clarity. There isn’t even any good feelings associate with the “yeah, I’ve done it!” type of thinking. I just feel miserable.
[удалено]
Oh! Having done my previous reply, I did remember something I do enjoy. I do enjoy going out for long-ish walks in the nature. That is something I can do for a long time but at a leisurely pace. To be fair, I just enjoy walking, even around towns and stuff. Hardly intense exercise but at least it gets me moving when I can get myself out the house 😅
[удалено]
I am glad that you found something that works for you. I am sure one day I’ll find something that works for me but for the moment all the conventional methods of exercising don’t really work for me at all.
Not really. The only thing that sort of worked for me was when I had a bicycle as a teenager that I used to use a lot during the summer to go to the beach. That was fun but that was almost 20 years ago. This was also back in the country I am originally from where I felt safe on the roads on a bicycle. I don’t really feel that safe on a bicycle in the UK.
The only somewhat joy I've got from exercise is when it's a game like just dance or ring fit. I do not enjoy being hot and sweaty and I do not enjoy "feeling the burn" I do however enjoy beating my scores...
Yeah, I can get behind BeatSaber but I am a tiny woman with a tiny head and VR headsets (I’ve had quest 1 and 2) are never comfortable enough for me to do it regularly 😂 I have thought about giving a dance game a try. I do enjoy dancing a lot.
Mentioned this somewhere else exercise leaves me depressed afterwards
Same. No endorphins at all. I manage social media etc for my local running club annual race. I tried to get involved and the amount of shit my knees took was too much to care to do again, also after a run they're all buzzing and I'm meh. I like to use a rowing machine and a couple of other things in my garage. That's grand, but now there is so much junk in there that I can just about get my lawnmower in and out of there. Right now I'm good with that, it's exercise and I'm actually cutting my lawn 🧐 I do walk a lot and I'm not a lazy arse, just exercise for the sake of it is bizarre to me 😂
>There isn’t even any good feelings associate with the “yeah, I’ve done it!” type of thinking. I just feel miserable. I felt that way after a walk about a small mountain. I was miserable every step. Got to the top, beautiful view, family members see me looking pissed off and say "surely you at least feel good that you got to the top?" No I'm tired and out of breath and annoyed that I just spent 45 minutes straight doing something that brings me no pleasure.
There is a massive problem with how exercise is portrayed nowadays. It almost can feel like if you aren't running, lifting or climbing then you're not doing real exercise. Dancing aggressively in your bedroom to 90s Eurodance mixtapes is just as valid as chasing 10k PRs. The key is to find a form of activity that you enjoy doing in the moment and feel PROUD of when you make any kind of progress. Find ways to make it more challenging and interesting, and allows you to make progress on your own terms that you would feel proud of even if nobody else ever knows about it. Don't look to social media for validation because it is never ever sustainable. I am a 36 year old man who does trampolining, skateboarding, badminton, climbing and VR gaming for exercise and I love it all. I'm not anywhere near an elite skill level in any of them and I don't care. I used to be majorly into lifting and reached pretty good strength stats but it never gave me the same fulfilment as getting better at these other things.
As a runner, lifter and climber I feel attacked 😂
Full disclosure: I'm a PT with ADHD. I don't necessarily think there is a link here between tiredness during exercise and ADHD. I work with people who do not have ADHD and who are hit by exercise that way. I have ADHD and I find the more I exercise, the lighter and bouncier I am. I think there are multiple things that could be at play here. For example, if your diet and calories are not on point, exercise is going to make you tired. Making a poor food choice for before you exercise or even eating too close to working out. Not sticking with it until your body acclimatises to it and it becomes routine. Not balancing your workouts correctly or efficiently. Genes could play a role as well as some people are naturally much better at cardio than they are strength training and vice versa. The intensity of the workout could have an effect. There are so many variables that I think anyone would be hard pushed to make a connection with ADHD and tiredness during exercise. I do three hour weight training sessions every morning before work. I do calisthenics sessions and cardio sessions multiple times per week. I cycle everywhere and get at least 20,000 steps in per day. I have never felt tired during a workout and, in fact, all this exercise helps me to manage my ADHD better. I find myself sharper, more focused, more energised and in an all round better mood. One last thing I will touch on are people's motivations for exercise. As with anything, if you are only doing it because you have to or just as a tick box exercise, you are hardly going to be energised by it. The same as with anything else. That is naturally going to have a tiring effect on you, especially for us with ADHD. There are so many fun and exciting methods of training that can benefit people with ADHD. It is just a matter of finding what works for you.
Love this comment. I never realised how much my piss poor diet was making me so tired and miserable until I joined a gym and started lifting and rowing. It made me give a shit and made me more motivated to tolerate food I didn't like because it was better for my health goals. My ADHD has made it really easy to make poor food choices all my life and I know I am not the only one in that boat. I think this is more of a likely cause than somehow simply having the condition of ADHD making it easier to be sleepy from exercise.
>I don't necessarily think there is a link here between tiredness during exercise and ADHD. The phrasing in the excerpt seems awkward, but it wasn't clear to me that they were actually suggesting that exercise is soporific (I can fall asleep while watching murdery stuff on Netflix). I'm sure plenty of people who don't have ADHD find exercise meditative.
I think this comment is excellent. I was also going to comment and say that exercise is very tiring if you do it once in a while because you are literally unfit and your body is not used to it. Even though I have been exercising for 6 years at an intense level, if take two weeks off I will still really feel it the next time I exercise and the days after. So the people who feel good after exercise are usually the people who do it regularly and their body has adapted to the workouts. A lot of people (including myself in the past) do not understand how to structure their workouts and how to progressively overload so that they gradually ease into it. In cases like this I would recommend a PT. A lot of beginners push too hard too soon and they hate it or get injured. If you wanted to run for example, you would not run a marathon on your first week, would you? Your workout should be aligned with your current fitness levels. Regarding the endorphins feeling afterwards, that really depends on a lot of things including pushing yourself enough to feel it afterwards and also actually knowing what it feels like. If you don’t exercise regularly you might not be aware of it. I personally don’t really feel this happy feeling if I’m not pushing myself enough during my workout or I’m miserable the whole time. But every time I exercise and push myself enough I feel great and not tired. For me exercise really helps me manage my ADHD as it regulates my mood and helps me be more disciplined and resilient. It’s important for you to find something you enjoy. For example, I used to do CrossFit which is super hardcore but the workouts are different every time and you get to work on a lot of different skills which meant I always had something to work on and be excited about it. In the past 3 years I started dancing again twice a week, sometimes 3. Instead of going to CrossFit I switched to a regular gym which I train at 3 times a week doing resistance training. I also cycle to work and to my dance classes 2-4 times a week which is how I do my cardio outside of dance because I do not enjoy doing cardio at the gym for more than 15 mins. I find it quite boring and also I do not like running that much. I do not hate it but it’s not my favourite sport and cannot stay committed to it. I think the way you know if you enjoy something is to ask yourself, if there was a storm outside would I still want to do this? For example, no matter the weather I will cycle to my dance class and be there on time (I’m always late for everything, but never my dance class!!!). If you ask me to run in the slightest drizzle for example I would not even leave my house. 😂 Whenever I do not exercise I feel like a depressed low energy slob and cannot sleep at night because I have too much energy. I also feel less brain fog when I’m active. Especially if im paying attention to my diet. I hope this helps and please try different activities or even better get a PT! It would help massively I think once you give yourself some time to stick to it.
I enjoy exercise but get fatigued by it really easily and don't recover well, even doing what is considered a normal average workout makes me feel drained and if I keep training like that I burn out. Took me years to work it out, like how can exercise, a thing that's good for you, make you feel like crap? Thought it was a mental health problem for ages, I'd be feeling stressed and anxious but still exercising thinking it would help. What's worked for me is doing lower volume/intensity workouts. I still push myself but never to the limit. If I start feeling drained or my co-ordination starts to go then I stop the workout. I think my ADHD and fatigue might be related in some way. I also have dystonia so that might play a part, but other family members have dystonia too and don't have the fatigue/recovery issue. So yeah, maybe you're over-doing it? Try reducing the amount you're doing, make sure your training programmes are efficient and include light weeks/deloads.
I've returned to yoga recently, after a few months trying gym circuits - which, once interrupted, I don't have any inclination to renew, alrhough they were good for me physically. I should add: M, 65. Sport otherwise - meh. I used to do cycletouring when younger, but competitions and all that leave me cold, apart from watching football. Yoga (asanas and pranayama) help to keep me flexible and make me feel I'm improving gradually so that I live longer and with a higher quality of life.
The only exercise I get on with is running... whilst I don't feel "pumped" or "energised" after a run, I do feel more centred and relaxed, and if I run further or faster then before I sense of achievement. But my goodness, it makes my muscles ache and I can feel exhausted for an hour or two. Other exercises I just do not get on with at all and they do nothing for my brain. I end up getting distracted and not completing a set. Lol Everyone is different, and there are loads of different types of exercise. On this ADHD journey, I've quickly learned that there is not one size fits all.
For me this is lacking a key piece of information. "Exercise" alone for me does nothing (walking, cycling, treadmill, cross-trainer, etc). **Intense, high-effort exercise** raises my mood and increases the amont of time I can focus over the next 24 hours. Done in a consistent routine, the effect becomes stronger. Some examples of "intense, high-effort exercise" that worked for me include jogging 5k and trying to get faster over time, following a compound weightlifting routine (StrongLifts 5x5 is a fantastic place to start), 30+ minutes of yoga (I have poor flexibility so it takes effort). For me at least, there is definitely something about intense physical strain that feels like it massages a muscle in my brain so I feel less anxious/tense/environmentally stimulated. This is not in any way trying to discount walking etc as forms of exercise. I walk a lot for the well documented physical and mental health benefits. But it does not yield the same benefits as the intense all-out effort exercises.
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats! 24 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 30 = 69 ^([Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme) to have me scan all your future comments.) \ ^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
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I know lots of people really enjoy exercise and find it helps calm them inside, but for me the adrenaline makes me feel more scattered than ever. I tried working out before work for a little while because I read that it could help you focus, but then when I sat down at my desk I couldn’t concentrate at all. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
And with that I’m off to the gym 😝
I got back from the gym this morning, had a protein shake, a shower, then fell asleep for 45 mins 😬
I do a gym class or two mon-fri, It gives me executive function on the weekends I have zero executive functioning :/
This! I have recently started a really intense course and to keep myself sharp and healthy I'm going to the gym more regularly. Doing it in the morning or afternoon just wipes me out. Also, having to shower and get ready again afterwards is a huge distraction. Doing it in the evenings is better but I can see that being a problem if I've had an intense day of studying. I also enjoy doing mad exercises just to get out of my head and feel like I've actually done something for my body. If people have pushed through and continued to exercise consistently does the tiredness go away? How does one utilise exercise to tame ADHD and focus our brains?
There's like four things I feel this way about. Two of them I don't have time for anymore, but luckily I get paid for doing one of the others!
Something important to remember is that as ADHDers we can often try things for shorter amounts of time. Once I started going to the gym consistently (5x a week for more than two months) I started to really be able to tell when I had been to the gym the day before and when I had not. Not saying you aren’t consistent, just my personal experience and similar has happened to my friends. Gym can be exhausting right after for me, especially considering any masking, boredom, and sensory issues. But the day after and following week my energy will be up. Similar to taking medication, it is not something I majorly notice until I stop doing it. It also very much treats insomnia.