Short Stuff: Runner's High

Listen in to today's short stuff to learn if a runner's high is really a thing.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
there's Chuck, and Chuck is out of his mind on
endorphins right now. And this short stuff, like I said,
oh man, I've been running for hours and I just
like can't even feel my feet. I'm like, I'm floating, man,
It's amazing. I'm not even breaking a sweat, and I'm like,
I'm having such a runners high. Bro, you sound like

(00:24):
the average marathon are like so much. I got on
my barefoot running shoes. Oh man, I don't ever want
to talk about that again. We talked about this runners
high in some episode to such a degree. I was like,
have we done it as a short stuff? Really? I
think so? We must have talked about it in marathons

(00:44):
or something like that. Yeah, I bet that was it.
I believe a standalone short stuff is a great way
to go with it. Yeah, But you know what I
was describing is what runners will tell you they feel
oftentimes when they are on what's known as a runners high,
which is you light as a feather, you're floating, your
pace is strong, and sometimes they might even burst out

(01:07):
into uncontrollable tears of joy that they can't even explain. Yes,
So I have you ever had a runners high? No,
because I think you gotta run a long way to
even if it even exists, it occurs, you know, not
at mile one. So I have never had a runners high. Um.

(01:29):
But this these emotional sobs that they mentioned I can
identify with because like I hit the tread that every
morning when I hit the treadmill. When I run, I
very rarely run outside and I usually run about eleven am.
So I end up watching the Prices right while I
run a lot. And by the end of the show,

(01:49):
when like people are winning or losing or whatever, are
you crying? I crying is not the right word, but
like my chest is tight, and like I'm overcome with
the most of these got hitch, you know, And I'm like, well,
this is clearly this has to do with running or
exercising or something. But it's pretty funny that, yeah, I
get it gets to me by the end of the

(02:09):
Price is right? All right? Let me see if I
can trigger you. Ready, Dent, Dent, it's too early for
a break. You get a press on, brother, Okay, let's
just do you take it from here. By the way,

(02:30):
is one of the greatest theme Songs of All Time.
Oh yeah, iconic. I haven't seen it in I mean,
I haven't really seen much of any of the Drew
Carey stuff, and I can still just rattle that thing.
It's fine. He's he's good, he's finally settled in. He
I mean, he's not Bob Barker, but he knows he's
not Bob Barker. He's not trying to be Bob Barker.
He's Drew Carey and he's doing his own thing, and
it's good. All right. So let's talk about flow state.

(02:52):
This is um a concept that Hungarian American uh psychologist
to insert name, go please, there's sixteen No, man, there
are sixteen letters in this person's last name, and all
continents five of them are vowels. So's hear his name

(03:12):
is me hi chick, sent me hi ah, look at you,
thank you, thank you. I'm sure that I my dialect
was like nowhere near Russia. Um, but uh, that's pretty
close from what I can tell. Yeah, just picture in
your mind something spelled like this. Everyone C S, I, K,
S Z E N T M I H A L

(03:35):
Y I. That was his last name. Yeah, that's the
last name. So I want to say it again. Okay, yeah, yeah,
I want to hear it again. Me Hi Chick sent
me Hi. That sounds like it sounds like a sentence.
It sounds like you're saying something in a different language.
I am, I'm saying this guy's name, like, I appreciate
the advice. Can you point me in the direction of

(03:56):
the nearest car rental? Me Hi Chick set me I. Okay,
it's right over there. Then. UM. I'm glad we're patting
this out with comedy because there's not a lot to
the runners high as we will learn. But flow state
is what uh say it? Me Hi Chick sent me
Hi came up with after interviewing athletes and musicians and

(04:18):
artists basically about what brings them joy and basically kind
of came to the conclusion that when these people are
performing at peak levels, whether they're songwriting or poetry, slamming,
or running marathons, that they all say that they fall into,
or I guess the majority of people say they fall
into this really focused to mental state that they call

(04:40):
the flow state, where it's just like I've channeled, I'm
channeling something. I'm not even working to do what I'm
doing it's just coming out of me. Have you ever
been in that state? I know you haven't had a
Runners high, neither have I, but I've been in a
flow state before of you. I feel like I've been
in a flow state with writing before. I don't remember

(05:01):
what I was doing while I was doing it, but
I remember being like, oh wow, this is this is
something special. And it was probably something mundane like um,
digging a hole or something like that, which you know
I'm known to do, but I it is a pretty
neat thing, like there's it's just effortless. There's a certain
amount of joy and pleasure to it. You feel a

(05:22):
little bit high, and it's because it's my My theory
is that, um, your body has stopped, your body and
your mind have stopped trying to find the most efficient, um,
least wasteful energy energy wise way of doing what you're doing,
and now it's just doing it. So there's no there's
no ever, there's no trying to figure something out, there's

(05:44):
no wasted energy, and it's just it can be pleasurable
in that sense. Right, So flow state they think might
have a link to being uh, to encountering a Runners high.
But here's the thing is, most athletes haven't experienced a
runners high. It's not like all you gotta do is
run eight or more miles and you're gonna get one.

(06:05):
And then there's and I guess this would be a
good time to break. There's a lot of debate about
if a runners is even real to begin with, scientifically speaking,
is it real? We'll find out right after these messages
from our sponsor, Chuck. Is it real? Well, first, we

(06:55):
should just say that the whole idea of this came
around in the seventies when the big running boom really
kicked off off. Yeah, exactly, and the doctor started looking
into it a little bit, and researchers they're like, is
this even a thing? Can we explain this physiologically? And
they they kind of landed on initially endorphins, which are

(07:17):
neurotransmitters that are sending chemical messages activating opiate receptors, and
basically they can create a sort of an analgesic effect
that could numb the body to pain and trigger a
kind of morphine like euphoria, let's say. And they're like,
all right, if you're running enough, maybe you're just The
surge of endorphins is what's explaining this? I mean, and

(07:40):
that's what it stayed for decades. Basically, Like when I
first started getting into running ten years ago, I used
getting into running and making air quotes. Um. I remember
hearing like, oh, it's endorphins. Uh. And endorphins do like
keep your muscles from making They do, UM have like
the analgesic effects like you're talking about. But the big

(08:01):
problem is is they apparently don't cross the blood brain barrier. Yeah,
so I guess somehow they do release opioids or they
activate your opioid receptors, but I'm not sure how they
do that if they can't get to your brain, or
maybe there's something that gets to your brain but it's
not the ones that get released by your muscles. Whatever

(08:21):
the case, these early UM researchers physiologists who said it's
endorphins just they were just making it up. No one
went back and checked their work, and when they finally did,
they saw that this was just bunk. Basically, it's bunk
is speed reading. Yeah exactly. UM, that's a good T shirt.
Um In there was a study out of Germany that

(08:43):
basically said that running can stimulate your indo cannabinoid system,
which is pretty interesting. Um, your body produces endocannabinoids. It's
like you're sort of built in, um, cannabis, cannabis system.
It's your body pot. Yeah, it's it's yeah. Good band name.

(09:04):
Oh man, it's a great band name. And I don't
even like my band name stuff usually, but body pot
sounds great. Yeah, that's pretty good. When what kind of
music is it? Though you're always not it's because it's
classical but done on alright. Very interesting. That's another thing.

(09:25):
You just created a genre. I think I might have
not a good one, but I did sure. So, Um,
have you ever seen that that blue grass band do
a C d C thunderstruck? No, I bet it's pretty good.
It's pretty awesome. I am not a big a C
d C guy, but I can imagine hearing somebody do
that on anything. It's pretty stirring. Like watching the end

(09:48):
of Prices right after you've been running a few miles.
Yeah that that guitar like sounds pretty cool in the banjo.
So the Yeah, endocannabinoids, cannabinoids, um, they you can you know.
It's it's like what pot does for you. Basically, it
improves your anxiety and improves your mood. Uh, this is
why some people turned to marijuana to reduce their anxiety,

(10:10):
and this does actually pass the blood brain barrier. I
don't understand that about how marijuana reduces anxiety. I know
for a fact that it does, but I feel like
it's a certain kind of person that marijuana has that
effect on, and that does not have that effect on everybody. Sure,
I mean I think there are plenty of people where

(10:31):
marijuana very much increases their anxiety. Yes, and that is
the saddest thing of all. Yeah, it's just said. It's
it's called getting robbed by God himself or herself for
their self. Yeah, because if it only did the one
thing and reduced anxiety, it would be the wonder drug
of the world. It's true. Yeah, we didn't have this

(10:53):
conversation in the Girl Scouts episode. Yeah, that'd be bad.
But like I said, unlike the endorsed and these endocannabinoids
can move through that that blood brain barrier and give
you that feeling of calm. So they think that might
have something to do with the runner's eye. Yes, so,
which makes a lot more sense. I mean endocannabin When
we seemed like it's probably the case that that is

(11:16):
what gives you some sort of euphoric feeling while you're
in that flow state. But again, it's possible that the
runner's high doesn't even exist, and that it's one of
those things where it's like a self self fulfilling prophecy
or I guess a bit of um uh placebo effect
where you think it exists and you're running sometime and

(11:37):
you think I feel kind of good and you're like,
oh my god, I'm in a flow state. Check me out,
I'm so high. Could be like that. It also could exist,
and we just haven't really identified it fully yet. Yeah,
but what I'm pretty sure is going to happen is
we're gonna get get zillion emails from runners that are like,
don't mock this. It is totally real. I've experienced it first,

(11:58):
and Hey, I don't care if it is the greatest
placebo effect of all time. It's still real. If it's
a placebo, your body is still experiencing the effects of
whatever it is, from a fake drug to running high. Um,
you're still experiencing it. So it doesn't matter if it's
externally objectively real or not. Doesn't matter. Uh. Well, if

(12:22):
you want to know more about sylopsism or anything like that.
Join us next time on short stuff. We don't have
anything else about runners high right, chuck. We don't well,
and that means everybody that short stuff is GIDIA. Stuff
you should know is a production of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the i heart

(12:43):
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.