Figure | Visual China
On April 21, the domestic marathon ushered in the super race day, with more than 50 road running events in a single day, and nearly 500,000 runners started running on the same day, and a week ago on April 14, there were more than 30 road running events in China, which can be seen in the popularity of the marathon. In the eyes of some people, running dozens of kilometers in a race is "purely a matter of spending money to find guilt", while in the eyes of others, "there are only zero and countless marathons". So the question is, what is it that attracts so many people to marathons? Why do we feel happy when we are exhausted after running dozens of kilometers?
Runners: Happiness comes from breakthroughs
On April 21, the reporter participated in the Nanjing Xianlin Marathon, during which he exchanged "happy" experiences with runners. Xu Xinfei, a visually impaired guy from Nanjing, refreshed his personal best with the help of several escorts. Due to the "crash" in the middle of the race, he was so painful that he wanted to abandon the race. Although the results were still a little worse than expected, he was still very happy after the race, Xu Xinfei told reporters, "Maybe professionals will say that the happiness of the marathon comes from the body's hormones." In my opinion, the joy of marathons lies in constantly breaking through myself, I used to dare not imagine that blind people could run, but now I can not only run, but also faster and faster. My work is a bit boring on weekdays, and running enriches my life. Mr. Zang, Xu Xinfei's runner, has been running for nearly 10 years, at first he ran for health, and after joining the running group, he took pleasure in helping others, and often helped the disabled runners in the group to realize their marathon dreams.
A runner at the scene said that he was because of the "three highs", and the doctor asked him to exercise more to choose to run the horse, "I usually exercise on the treadmill, and I often run five kilometers and am deflated." Running with everyone on the racetrack, there are people cheering me on the side of the road, and I spent registration fees, travel fees, and accommodation fees to participate, if I run a few steps and then withdraw, then my money will be spent in vain, I am not reconciled, these are the motivation for me to keep running. Although I was very tired after running, I thought that if I could stay away from the 'three highs', I would be in a good mood, and I thought that if I could run down, my body would still be okay, and my mood would be better. ”
"The first time I ran a horse was at the instigation of a friend, and I felt very new when I first entered the race, but after a few steps, I felt that my body could not bear it. At the time, I was thinking that I must have made a mistake in the wrong tendon to spend money to find guilt. Another runner at the scene told reporters that he got into the shelter car for the first time because he couldn't run, "I felt very embarrassed, and the more I thought about it, the more angry I became. I was finally able to finish the run later, not to mention how happy I was at that moment, and then I became addicted, and sure enough, there were only zero and countless marathons. ”
Expert: Happiness comes from endorphins
"The happiness of the marathon comes from endorphins", Liu Jun, a national second-level psychological counselor, told reporters that the reason for human happiness lies in the hormones in the body - dopamine and endorphins.
Dopamine is a reward mechanism in the body that increases dopamine levels in the brain when a certain action or substance brings satisfaction, making people feel happy. This reward mechanism forms memories and drives people to pursue pleasure and satisfaction...... Eating, playing games, and watching short videos can all promote dopamine secretion. However, the reward mechanism of dopamine can also have some negative effects, such as overeating, addiction to short videos and games, etc.
Endorphins are endogenous morphine biochemical hormones secreted by the pituitary gland that can reduce anxiety and make the body feel happy, calm, and relaxed. Unlike dopamine, endorphins are the body's compensatory mechanism, for example, when stimulated by pain, the brain secretes endorphins to help us reduce pain. High-intensity exercise, such as a marathon, in which many runners feel tired and uncomfortable, the secretion of endorphins increases to help you grit your teeth and persevere.
When you finish a marathon, you feel happy, powerful, and accomplished, and that's what endorphins feel like, because the painful moments that require you to grit your teeth and persevere are over.
Compared with dopamine, the secretion of endorphins is very "stingy", it requires people to sweat, such as running, hiking, badminton and other moderate-to-high-intensity sports, must be insisted on for more than 30 minutes to stimulate the secretion of endorphins. Not only exercise will increase the secretion of endorphins, but also meditation, meditation, yoga, etc. will also increase the secretion of endorphins. Deep breathing is also a condition for secreting endorphins in the brain, so when we are nervous, we can relax our tension by taking a deep breath.
Happiness itself is addictive, which is why some people think that "there are only zero and countless marathons". Liu Jun said that dopamine, as a reward mechanism in our brains, is easy to make people addicted to superficial pleasure and even forget to sleep and eat. As a compensatory mechanism of the brain, endorphins have a relatively high threshold for production, and will not cause people to forget to sleep and eat (people can play games day and night, but people's body mechanism determines that they cannot exercise day and night).
In addition, aerobic exercise can improve cardiovascular function, improve the body's immunity, and improve sleep quality, all of which can help improve people's quality of life and avoid "unpleasantness" caused by physical reasons. When people realize this, they are also happy. Liu Jun believes that the happiness brought by running a marathon is multifaceted, and everyone may experience happiness differently, but after all, it is happiness, which is one of the reasons why there are more and more marathons and are becoming more and more popular.
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You may also experience transient depression after running
Journalists will feel a great excitement within 1-2 hours after completing the marathon, and this excitement will gradually fade and turn into depression over time, especially when they get home that night. After talking to the runners, it was found that this situation was not an isolated case.
In 2009, Japanese writer Haruki Murakami mentioned this phenomenon in the book "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running", and also gave it a literary name - Post-MarathonBlues
Physiology suggests that one of the causes of this emotion is the increase in free radicals in the body: studies have shown that when participants exercise to exhaustion during long-term high-intensity exercise, especially endurance events such as marathons, the body's free radicals increase by a factor of 2 to 3. At the same time, high-intensity exercise will deplete the body's antioxidants and reduce the body's ability to scavenge free radicals.
Psychology believes that this depression comes from the "loss of goals", and the more prepared and determined the runner, the more obvious the post-run depression. These runners usually spend a lot of time training to reach their goals (finishes, personal bests), and the moment they cross the finish line, it means the end of months of hard work, and while they are happy, when they realize that a goal is over, there will inevitably be varying degrees of loss. There is an argument that registering for another event as soon as possible can ease this sentiment.
Yangtze Evening News/Purple Cow News reporter Jiang Tiansheng