I've done the gym thing, walking routines, etc, and it never fails. I do it for a while, and then I start getting emotional after sessions.

When I was going to the gym, I'd do my thing, walk home and then just sob. It was horrible! Later after I left the gym (expensive places - bleh), I started a much gentler walking routine, but the same thing happened.

Now I've started walking for an hour every morning - pretty intense

I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced things like this. My husband says it might not be the exercise so much as the getting up early that is upsetting things because oversleeping (me to a T) is something abuse victims often do. But I'm not sure because it doesn't happen when I wake up or even during the exercise. It's after. And man is he getting the short end sometimes when it's not crying I have to deal with but being a bit cranky.

Or am I just completely mad?

I have cried during and after exercise.

I don't know if it's as simple as just not enjoying it and feeling obligated to do it. I have felt like I was forced, and that weight loss and everything good that goes along with it hinged on intense and rigid workouts. So I would become very emotional at times.

I also have some bad memories tied up with exercise at school. Once I vomited after a light session we were made to do in the school gym, in front of like two hundred people. I felt it starting and went to run to the bathrooms but didn't make it, so everybody saw. I was also teased a lot during compulsory swimming festivals.

Another time I had to go to a championship for discus since I had some talent in that, and was told I was too fat for sport and shouldn't be there.

So there are a lot of memories like that for me. I don't know if it's as linear as that, though.

Another .

I don't have any answers, but I have experienced the same thing.

I know I'm mad though, lol.

I almost cried before my first sprint triathlon, and after intense exercise I sometimes feel like it. I add it up to anxiety, to be honest. I don't usually actually cry, but I'm not really a crier anyway. It's not how I usually express myself. I hope you can work it out so you can work out and feel good about it. Good luck!

I have to struggle with myself to even walk into the gym after work. Sometimes I don't make it there. Sometimes I'll feel great the whole time I'm working out, or sometimes I'm on the treadmill and after 15 minutes I feel like bawling my eyes out because I don't want to be there, I'm stressed out, I don't like people looking at me. It's terrible. I push myself to go, but again, some days I don't make it there. I go home, and then sob, because I didn't manage to go exercise AGAIN. It's terrible. Even working out at home I hide from my partner, for short periods of time, and I still hate it. I hate sweating, I hate being hot and sticky, and being out of breath, and feeling like I can't keep up and feeling so unhealthy. Ughh!!

Glad to see I'm not the only one though... I'm not sure if it's something that I can get over eventually.

I'm sorry you all have gone through those things, but it's still nice to know I'm not alone.

I cry in yoga class sometimes. I had a level 2/3 yoga class over the summer that was so intense physically and emotionally that I would just lie there and cry during savasana.

You body could just have its own way of releasing endorphins and adrenaline.

or if you are crying because you hate the gym find something else! Find a hula hoop studio, do yoga, pole dancing, karate, hiking, biking, rowing.

There are million ways to move your body and get healthy. The gym is not the only way.

Work out! this is really sounds bad for me but i swear i was continuing it in my college days and this was became my daily routine to attend gym.

Now due to some overload work i can't find out only 1 to 2 hour for my workout and you can't believe i got my cholesterol high last month.

This is really a serious issue so i have decided i have to fix at least 1 hour for work out.

I have had this experience too. I used to go to the gym and feel much worse emotionally afterward. I am an abuse survivor and I think it relates to being in my body and acknowledging that my body and mind and emotions are all connected. For a long time, I lived in my head and was disconnected from my body (and many painful experiences). I was dissociated from it all.

When I went to the gym, I was "in my body" which brought up a lot of emotions that I think were/are held in my body which I had not addressed.

I am in therapy and have worked on addressing these emotions and acknowledging the pain that is stored in my body.

I can do exercise without this happening most of the time now. I also figured out that I don't like gyms. I found cycling which is my primary exercise -- I like that it is outside most of the time and there is real movement involved. I also do yoga and weights at home.

Now when I start to feel emotionally bad when I exercise, I try to sit with the feeling and figure out what it is connected to (if I can). For me, these feelings are old but obviously still need attention.

Anyway, I hope it gets better for you.

hirakukibou - I am an abuse survivor as well, and one of my thoughts was whether or not I was going through an emotional detox of sorts. The disconnection from body makes a lot of sense, though. When I get a little sweaty, I hate it because it brings up memories of nervousness. When I get drenched, I'm happy because it brings up good memories of working hard in the sunshine.

You've given me an idea, though. I think I'll start bringing a voice recorder around with me so I can acknowledge the thoughts and feelings as they are happening.

Thanks.

JMSilver -- that sounds like an interesting strategy. I hope it proves helpful.
Best, hirakukibou