What Should You Feel After Exercising?

Common myth: Tired! If you're not tired, you're not working hard enough. That's wrong, folks. If you're feeling too tired, you're pushing yourself too hard. It's your body telling you: "Dawg, you should've quit a long time ago!" Says the fine people at Harvard Medical School (i.e. those nerdy med peeps over in Cambridge):

Except for the first couple of weeks of a new exercise program (when the unaccustomed stress may leave you more fatigued than usual), your workouts should leave you feeling invigorated, not worn out.

One good rule of thumb:

You should finish each workout with the feeling that you could have easily gone a bit longer. An especially bad sign is if you're still tired a day or two after a workout. In that case you're probably over-training, and need to reduce the length and intensity of your exercise sessions.

So if you're a weekend exercise warrior, or not, listen to what you body tells you. Remember:

Tired = bad. Invigorated = Good.

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