There’s a time and a place for workouts that leave you drenched in sweat—heart pounding and muscles quivering. But sometimes you don’t want to max out your Garmin Suffer Score or Whoop Strain; sometimes, you want to do feel-good workouts.
That’s true now more than ever, considering how much stress people are under as they deal with the ripple effects of COVID-19. Prolonged mental stress can actually increase the amount of perceived effort people experience while training, which can cause fatigue and soreness that lasts up to four days post-workout, according to research published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. Translation: Exercise feels harder in the moment, and the negative effects linger longer.