When you exercise, your brain releases chemicals called endorphins that produce a feeling of euphoria - the so called "runner's high" that people can become chemically addicted to. Without it, you feel irritable and out of sorts till you exercise again. So you go on exercising, never stopping to listen to what you body is saying. And what its saying is, "Stop." The reason exercise addicts keep pushing themselves probably lies in what happens when they don't work out. Psychologists at the University of Massachusetts at Boston studied the psychological consequences of being unable to exercise. They compared 30 male and female runners who had been laid low by minor
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Would you expect to wake up one morning and successfully run a marathon without any preparation? Would you think it reasonable to sit before a piano and--with little or no practice--play a concerto? Probably not. Why, then, do so many people seem surprised to discover that the will to write isn't always enough to overcome the blank screen or page? Doesn't it make sense that, like athletes and musicians, writers might benefit from training, too? And that includes warming upâ€"with exercises.Writing exercises are similar to other warm-ups. They get the required "muscles" moving. They introduce you into the rhythm of
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