Letting Anger Fuel My Workouts!

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I really hate working out and, even though I've been working out pretty steadily over the past two years, I still loathe it. But I have discovered a way to get a great workout - anger. Anger is a fantastic motivator. Friends keep telling me that I have to rid myself of anger over some past friendships but, due to my peculiar brand of OCD, I find that a difficult task. I tend to obsess over past hurts and wrongs and have a hard time letting go of those emotions. Currently, I have four ex-friends who screwed me over in a huge way and, if I even think about these backstabbers, my temperature rises to incredible heights. Yesterday, I was cleaning out some old emails and came across a message from one of these people and I thought my head was going to explode in anger. Just seeing her name and reading this old email brought back all that fury. Deciding I need to walk off some of my ire, I strapped on my sneakers and headed out for a walk. Arriving home an hour later, I was drenched in sweat and my anger had dissipated. Eureka!

There is actually some science behind this phenomenon: Paul A. Davis, a sports psychologist at the University of Wolverhampton in England, and colleagues from Bangor University in Wales discovered that people who are more easily angered exert the most energy while working out. Additionally, angry people can not only workout harder, they also workout longer than their calm, cool and collected peers. So I intend to use my soured relationships to fuel my future workouts and hope that I can expunge these feelings over time.  Meanwhile, I will use these emotions to my advantage. It should be noted that when my anger finally fizzled yesterday, I was a bit of a ways from home and it made for a sucky walk back.  I'll have to better plan my walking path in the future or hold onto my anger longer.  :-)

The next time you are having a bad day, instead of reaching for that pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, use that energy to workout your anger. If you need some anger inspiration to fuel your workouts, tune your television to any news report (particularly Fox News).  I find that usually does the trick for me.