i’m trying to come up with a good workout routine that of course will make me muscular, but i’m focusing on one that will optimally increase my mood and decrease anxiety in my life. anybody know much about this?
Well Im no guru or anything but exercise is known to raise energy levels, release feel good hormones and I mean if you start growing and developing it can raise self assurance in yourself and increase a positive outlook on things… Why not 531? That constant improving and strength gains could help with the mood… just my two cents for the day…
Personally when I work out a lot and make new PRs I’m too tired to think of anything else to cause any anxiety and too happy to care.
Just so you know workouts can slowly get you more tired in general which tends to be a mood bummer, if you care that much about it then don’t stop the workouts when this happen, just do a light day or take a day off.
Look into Wendlers 531 or the Defrancos new Built like a Badass. The built like a badass is very good. You can focus on Maximal strength PRS, Sub mas Rep PRs and conditioning PRS.
Goals will give you something to focus on. Instead of whatever is creating anxiety in your life. Also I have found a nice sleep supplement helps at night.
Stop living in Russia.
[quote]mr popular wrote:
Stop living in Russia.[/quote]
LOL
come up with an intense brief program. Be sure not to wear yourself out.
If your really worried about your mood make sure you handle situations properly, and try some supplements — St. Johns wort i think i forget. Personally i just get a mega vitamin that has a whole bunch of shit in it and pray it works.
Moving to south beach and having sex and making money really helps mood also.
Honestly, I don’t think there’s a magic mix. Other than endorphins, you’re really not going to find a magic mood enhancing, anxiety killing custom workout.
I will say this: the worst times in my life–the ones where I hated myself and life and the people around me, heartbroke, stressed, broke and beaten, not eating, literally unable to sleep even for a few hours-- were sometimes the points where I made the most progress in strength and size.
The reason, I’ve come to believe, is that even though I did everything wrong, and wasn’t eating enough to sustain growth as we’ve come to believe you need, is that I simply took everything out in the gym. I mean, it was the only thing I had and the only way I could sleep at night was literally beat my body into submission. So, I took all my anger and rage and frustration and just threw it at the gym.
Bottom line, there’s no secret mood boosting workout. You just have to channel every ounce of rage and hate and anger and malice to the gym and eventually you work yourself out of your funk and into an even keeled, low stress mood. And sometimes that’s all you have.
when I’m stressing I love reverting back to sprinting and hang cleans lol
fuck the dumb shit, blow some stuff up!
I’d look into peri-workout blowjobs.
Dont do anything CNS heavy. Drop squats, deadlifts and OHP. Focus on incline bench, rows, curls, pushdowns and shrugs
[quote]celtics2022 wrote:
Dont do anything CNS heavy. Drop squats, deadlifts and OHP. Focus on incline bench, rows, curls, pushdowns and shrugs
[/quote]
no offense, but this sounds like an excuse to be a bitch. heavy squats and deadlifts definitely release a lot more of those feel-good hormones than some curls or rows are gonna do.
[quote]The Greek wrote:
[quote]celtics2022 wrote:
Dont do anything CNS heavy. Drop squats, deadlifts and OHP. Focus on incline bench, rows, curls, pushdowns and shrugs
[/quote]
no offense, but this sounds like an excuse to be a bitch. heavy squats and deadlifts definitely release a lot more of those feel-good hormones than some curls or rows are gonna do. [/quote]
I always hated doing squats once they got heavy, bro. To each his own.
[quote]celtics2022 wrote:
[quote]The Greek wrote:
[quote]celtics2022 wrote:
Dont do anything CNS heavy. Drop squats, deadlifts and OHP. Focus on incline bench, rows, curls, pushdowns and shrugs
[/quote]
no offense, but this sounds like an excuse to be a bitch. heavy squats and deadlifts definitely release a lot more of those feel-good hormones than some curls or rows are gonna do. [/quote]
I always hated doing squats once they got heavy, bro. To each his own.[/quote]
hated doing them as it was unpleasant/hard while you were performing the movement, or hating doing them in general - including you felt after the lifting and in subsequent days?
[quote]celtics2022 wrote:
I always hated doing squats once they got heavy, bro. To each his own.[/quote]
Lol ^^^ It should be a complete joy. Progress and getting really strong happens best when one is feeling positive/energetic. You should leave a workout feeling like you could do a lot more. If you are killing yourself to get just the same weight as last week on the squat, or “just” an extra 2 pounds on the bar - you’re driving yourself into the ground and need to take a break or/and eat more. Then, analyse the volume of your workouts if this seems to be happening often. If ever you start to feel like this, pay particular attention to what I say below:
As regards mood for bodybuilders, people think that it’s all to do directly with serotonin etc and so they needlessly go to the doctors and get drugs…but anyone who knows anything about holistic medicine will tell you that it all begins with diet/training (especially when they know that you are a bodybuilder).
Having low t-levels and high cortisone levels is one of the biggest causes of “feeling blue” in men. The way around this is to make sure that you pull back with your training when needed. As soon as you start to feel depressed, unmotivated to train, (for longer than 2 weeks in a row), you are probably overtraining.
Most newbs don’t know how to properly cycle fatigue/intensity/volume (autoregulation), so in this case, it’s better to take a week off every 8-12 weeks (for example). You need to keep workout volume in check, make sure you’re not doing more than is necessary. For me, I find that if I do more than 3 “big lifts” in a workout, I start to digress. Obviously, that’s circumstantial.
This of course, is only taking into account training. Another factor is diet. If you are on a calorie deficient, you can’t expect your mood to be good. You can’t expect to have a good mood on a very low carb diet either, for example (like under 50g/day). You can’t expect to have a good mood if you don’t eat enough nutrients - eat more fruit. Bananas are brilliant at lifting mood (try to eat 2 / day, like after a workout, which btw, is good for boosting potassium too, which is very often deficient in bodybuilders). Supplement your diet with zinc (e.g. take about 45mg at bedtime, like there is in ZMA). Zinc makes sure your t-levels are at optimum levels, ensuring that depression doesn’t result via low t-levels.
Another problem is sleep, make sure your sleep is deep good quality (quality is better than quantity). Getting 5 hours good quality deep sleep is better than 9 hours interrupted light sleep. Sleep hugely affects mood because that’s when it’s all regulated etc. Funny enough, the more one overtrains, the poorer his sleep quality becomes, then his training gets worse because of poorer sleep - it becomes a vicious circle.
Make sure all these factors are in place (training brief and intense, like under 45mins), and keeping carbs up and nutrition dense, make sure you’re eating enough, take a break from training when needed…and trust me, not only will your mood improve, so will your sex life and your lifts/muscle gains!
Any routine that includes staring at these while you perform it:
[quote]celtics2022 wrote:
Dont do anything CNS heavy. Drop squats, deadlifts and OHP. Focus on incline bench, rows, curls, pushdowns and shrugs
[/quote]
Dude, there’s nothing better than heavy deadlifts for improving mood. I deadlift best when pissed off and can’t think of anything that makes me happier.
edit - well there are a few things…
[quote]Aragorn wrote:
Bottom line, there’s no secret mood boosting workout. You just have to channel every ounce of rage and hate and anger and malice to the gym and eventually you work yourself out of your funk and into an even keeled, low stress mood. And sometimes that’s all you have.[/quote]
Best post.
I find when I can achieve the whole “alone in a crowded gym” zone I can channel my life stress into my workout and smash fucking weights. If I can’t achieve that state, IE a bunch of fuckers are in my way, distracted, etc… My only solace is to just trash the shit out of myself with whatever I can handle that day weight wise, the weights smash me.
Either way I feel hella better afterward.
Just get medication dude. That’s what I had to end up doing, with severe stress/anxiety/depression I actually completely lost interest in lifting and lost a lot of mass/strength. The medication I currently take is fairly cheap, and I’m looking for a good counselor. Sometimes ya gotta make big steps to really help yourself.
[quote]countingbeans wrote:
[quote]Aragorn wrote:
Bottom line, there’s no secret mood boosting workout. You just have to channel every ounce of rage and hate and anger and malice to the gym and eventually you work yourself out of your funk and into an even keeled, low stress mood. And sometimes that’s all you have.[/quote]
Best post.
I find when I can achieve the whole “alone in a crowded gym” zone I can channel my life stress into my workout and smash fucking weights. If I can’t achieve that state, IE a bunch of fuckers are in my way, distracted, etc… My only solace is to just trash the shit out of myself with whatever I can handle that day weight wise, the weights smash me.
Either way I feel hella better afterward.
[/quote]
I completely agree that you should get all your aggression out in a workout (this is how EVERY workout should be). There is however, a difference between being stressed/depressed/anxious…and having high energy/test levels and sexual frustration (something I believe you were referring to). I believe the OP is talking about the former (a negative case). The former (stress/depression) is caused when the user is doing too much in life, and/or not resting enough. Which is why short and intense routines are recommended, and/or a rest. The intensity releases the “happy” endorphins etc, and the shortness lowers stress (cortisone).
There’s a difference between irritability from high test-levels/sexual frustration/high energy (ideal situation to be in for the best progress)…and irritability from doing too much. The former is a good form of so called “stress” (I wouldn’t reffer to it as stress/anxiety though), the latter is a negative form.
The kind of stress/mood I believe that the OP is talking about, is the type that sucks all your enthusiasm (especially for training).
[quote]its_just_me wrote:
There is however, a difference between being stressed/depressed/anxious…and having high energy/test levels and sexual frustration (something I believe you were referring to).[/quote]
Your assumption couldn’t be further from the truth.