Catharsis-Based Fitness

ca·thar·sis [kuh-thahr-sis]

  

noun, plural ca·thar·ses [-seez]  

1. the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, especially through certain kinds of art, as tragedy or music.

Sometimes we just want to take out our emotions on something, or (unfortunately) on someone. As the definition highlights, many have done it through the arts whether it may be in the form of music, paintings, film, literature, or any medium used to reflect one’s emotions.

We hear about cathartic actions all the time. From interviews done with an artist about there album release and how they passionately say (in an almost cookie cutter manner),“Poured their heart and soul into every single song and with every word spoken, it resonates an emotion that they experienced in their life”. Another example may be reading a book where the author’s words paints such a detailed image in your mind that chances are they are probably pretending the one character that is being pummeled to death is someone in the author’s real life or even painters who would paint a graphic scene which would give you an insight on their emotions or even better, from the teachings of Freud, paint a work of art with no understanding of why they are painting it until it is completed and they analyze what made them create such a piece.

Exercise can be just like this.

 

You have some pent up stress and anger that you just want to unload on something that is not going to cry once you start yelling at it? Try going to a kickboxing class and hit some pads or the heavy bag until your hands hurt or until your own partner wants their turn in venting out their daily dose of work stress.

Personally, I lift weights in the morning and do kickboxing/mma during the evening. Most of my purging occurs during my weightlifting sessions where I have enough time to think about what will be my emotional motivation as opposed to
  my kickboxing/mma classes in which I am exhausted beyond belief from all the cardio to think properly. We all have our own preference, you just need to try things and find out on your own.

To do this properly, I suggest either thinking before or during your workout why you are exercising and why are you even doing it at all. I am not looking for the answer, “Because I want to be healthy”. I’m looking for answers that get you emotional like, “I hate being weak, I want to know how it feels to be strong”.  Once you understand the reasoning, the emotions can be used to fuel your drive to reach your goal and achieve it.

 

Every time I wonder why I even consider doing such harsh exercises, I always ask myself why and from there, it just starts a spark in me and I get all riled up. I know this can work for you as well.

Please come by next week to read a new blog post on Thursday and also connect to my social networks (I know, I know there is no one following, but things always begin with that one person) and share my posts. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Remember that guy that gave up? Neither does anybody else.

- Unknown