Can’t get through a strength workout without sobbing

[Anonymous]

What is wrong with me?

I’ve lost a good amount of weight in the last several months, but my only exercise has been walking. 3-5 miles outside or 45 minutes of incline alternating on the treadmill. I know I’ve lost muscle along with fat so decided to start doing some light dumbbell weight videos and omg. 5-10 minutes in I am just an emotional mess. It’s not that I’m in pain pushing myself super hard—when I do my treadmill workouts I do push myself like crazy and don’t get this feeling of despair. I’ve done these kinds of workouts before (10 years ago though) and don’t remember this ever happening. I can’t even describe the feeling. Just crushing overwhelm, inadequacy, etc. And it’s not feeling negativity about the workout itself, I couldn’t care less about my lackluster strength and performance.

It’s making me dread doing these workouts and idk what to do about it.

[Anonymous]

If these are triggering you, why not try something else? There’s tons of strength training videos that don’t involve free weights. Maybe focus on body weight exercises first?

[Anonymous]

Perhaps it’s stress that you are carrying in your muscles. My PT told me that people cry all the time when she stretches tight muscles, etc.; it’s very common. It happened to me and I rarely cry, but there I was with tears streaming down my face while she maneuvered my shoulder.

[Anonymous]

I would either drop the weights you're lifting to a lower number or do a different strength workout. Yoga can be be surprisingly good for muscles if you build up to the difficult stuff.

[Anonymous]

I think some exercises trigger an emotional release. Years ago I used to do a lot of aerobic workouts and to mix it up I got one on DVD which included boxercise, or basically aerobics with boxing moves. I would do it but sob every time. I had to stop doing that one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think some exercises trigger an emotional release. Years ago I used to do a lot of aerobic workouts and to mix it up I got one on DVD which included boxercise, or basically aerobics with boxing moves. I would do it but sob every time. I had to stop doing that one.

I took yoga years ago and this happened to me. The yoga instructor said it was not uncommon for emotions to be "released" during some poses.

[Anonymous]

Have never heard of this. It’s odd but very interesting. OP, I think you should keep with it and see if it gets better after a few weeks. Maybe you need this release.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have never heard of this. It’s odd but very interesting. OP, I think you should keep with it and see if it gets better after a few weeks. Maybe you need this release.

I agree your body is telling you something, and you need the release. This isn't a reason to stop - it's a reason to continue! See if you can look at your tears with curiosity. What's going on there?

[Anonymous]

Maybe you are triggering something hormonal with the tougher exercise? I used to get that feeling during let-down when I nursed my kids. Just a totally overwhelming feeling of despair and sadness. My Dr was super skeptical and definitely thought it was post-partum depression and said I should consider antidepressants, but I googled it and apparently some people get it as a result of the hormone response that is triggered by breastfeeding. It was totally temporary and went away within a couple of minutes, so once I understood what it was and that it was going to pass, it didn't bother me anymore.

[Anonymous]

Read Burnout (Emily/Amelia Nagoski) - this is actually really common.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe you are triggering something hormonal with the tougher exercise? I used to get that feeling during let-down when I nursed my kids. Just a totally overwhelming feeling of despair and sadness. My Dr was super skeptical and definitely thought it was post-partum depression and said I should consider antidepressants, but I googled it and apparently some people get it as a result of the hormone response that is triggered by breastfeeding. It was totally temporary and went away within a couple of minutes, so once I understood what it was and that it was going to pass, it didn't bother me anymore.

This. I have felt teary when doing a tough weight work out at certain times in my cycle. I can usually tell because I will sweat really hard suddenly and it causes a weird physical feeling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Read Burnout (Emily/Amelia Nagoski) - this is actually really common.

Realized this comment isn't very helpful in a vacuum - the short version is that the human stress response cycle is cyclical, and you're supposed to have stress hormones for a short period of time, followed by relief celebration when you get to safety (or, y'know, death if you can't outrun whatever it was). But modern people exist in a state of constant stress, sometimes low-level and sometimes higher. Since the cycle never "completes" with the emotional hit of celebration you just store it and store it. Many women, when they first start working out, get to feel the "completion" of the stress cycle for the stored cycles they've built up when endorphins are released. So they basically weep it out, but you have to unload all of your stress cycles. Eventually you clear your cache and can process each bout of stress as it comes but it's the collection of uncompleted cycles that lead to terrible health outcomes and burnout.

[Anonymous]

This used to happen to me when I started Pilates. Keep going. Your body needs this release.

[Anonymous]

I cried a lot during yoga! I haven't for a while, but for a time there (when I was in counseling and having challenges), it was just almost every time. I liked it though ....

[Anonymous]

I would see this happen to people in yoga class, had no idea it was a thing and now i feel bad for internally judging.