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Short Stuff: Runner's High · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck, and Chuck is out of his mind on
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: endorphins right now. And this short stuff, like I said,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: oh man, I've been running for hours and I just
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: like can't even feel my feet. I'm like, I'm floating, man,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: It's amazing. I'm not even breaking a sweat, and I'm like,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I'm having such a runners high. Bro, you sound like
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: the average marathon are like so much. I got on
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: my barefoot running shoes. Oh man, I don't ever want
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: to talk about that again. We talked about this runners
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: high in some episode to such a degree. I was like,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: have we done it as a short stuff? Really? I
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: think so? We must have talked about it in marathons
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: or something like that. Yeah, I bet that was it.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I believe a standalone short stuff is a great way
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: to go with it. Yeah, But you know what I
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: was describing is what runners will tell you they feel
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: oftentimes when they are on what's known as a runners high,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: which is you light as a feather, you're floating, your
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: pace is strong, and sometimes they might even burst out
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: into uncontrollable tears of joy that they can't even explain. Yes,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: So I have you ever had a runners high? No,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: because I think you gotta run a long way to
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: even if it even exists, it occurs, you know, not
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: at mile one. So I have never had a runners high. Um.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: But this these emotional sobs that they mentioned I can
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: identify with because like I hit the tread that every
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: morning when I hit the treadmill. When I run, I
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: very rarely run outside and I usually run about eleven am.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: So I end up watching the Prices right while I
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: run a lot. And by the end of the show,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: when like people are winning or losing or whatever, are
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: you crying? I crying is not the right word, but
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: like my chest is tight, and like I'm overcome with
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: the most of these got hitch, you know, And I'm like, well,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: this is clearly this has to do with running or
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: exercising or something. But it's pretty funny that, yeah, I
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: get it gets to me by the end of the
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Price is right? All right? Let me see if I
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: can trigger you. Ready, Dent, Dent, it's too early for
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: a break. You get a press on, brother, Okay, let's
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: just do you take it from here. By the way,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: is one of the greatest theme Songs of All Time.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, iconic. I haven't seen it in I mean,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: I haven't really seen much of any of the Drew
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Carey stuff, and I can still just rattle that thing.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: It's fine. He's he's good, he's finally settled in. He
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, he's not Bob Barker, but he knows he's
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: not Bob Barker. He's not trying to be Bob Barker.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: He's Drew Carey and he's doing his own thing, and
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: it's good. All right. So let's talk about flow state.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: This is um a concept that Hungarian American uh psychologist
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: to insert name, go please, there's sixteen No, man, there
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: are sixteen letters in this person's last name, and all
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: continents five of them are vowels. So's hear his name
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: is me hi chick, sent me hi ah, look at you,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: thank you, thank you. I'm sure that I my dialect
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: was like nowhere near Russia. Um, but uh, that's pretty
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: close from what I can tell. Yeah, just picture in
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: your mind something spelled like this. Everyone C S, I, K,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: S Z E N T M I H A L
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Y I. That was his last name. Yeah, that's the
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: last name. So I want to say it again. Okay, yeah, yeah,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: I want to hear it again. Me Hi Chick sent
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: me Hi. That sounds like it sounds like a sentence.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: It sounds like you're saying something in a different language.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: I am, I'm saying this guy's name, like, I appreciate
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: the advice. Can you point me in the direction of
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: the nearest car rental? Me Hi Chick set me I. Okay,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: it's right over there. Then. UM. I'm glad we're patting
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: this out with comedy because there's not a lot to
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: the runners high as we will learn. But flow state
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: is what uh say it? Me Hi Chick sent me
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Hi came up with after interviewing athletes and musicians and
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: artists basically about what brings them joy and basically kind
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: of came to the conclusion that when these people are
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: performing at peak levels, whether they're songwriting or poetry, slamming,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: or running marathons, that they all say that they fall into,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: or I guess the majority of people say they fall
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: into this really focused to mental state that they call
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: the flow state, where it's just like I've channeled, I'm
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: channeling something. I'm not even working to do what I'm
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: doing it's just coming out of me. Have you ever
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: been in that state? I know you haven't had a
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Runners high, neither have I, but I've been in a
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: flow state before of you. I feel like I've been
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: in a flow state with writing before. I don't remember
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: what I was doing while I was doing it, but
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: I remember being like, oh wow, this is this is
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: something special. And it was probably something mundane like um,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: digging a hole or something like that, which you know
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: I'm known to do, but I it is a pretty
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: neat thing, like there's it's just effortless. There's a certain
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: amount of joy and pleasure to it. You feel a
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: little bit high, and it's because it's my My theory
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: is that, um, your body has stopped, your body and
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: your mind have stopped trying to find the most efficient, um,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: least wasteful energy energy wise way of doing what you're doing,
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  Speaker 1: and now it's just doing it. So there's no there's
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: no ever, there's no trying to figure something out, there's
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: no wasted energy, and it's just it can be pleasurable
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: in that sense. Right, So flow state they think might
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: have a link to being uh, to encountering a Runners high.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: But here's the thing is, most athletes haven't experienced a
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: runners high. It's not like all you gotta do is
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: run eight or more miles and you're gonna get one.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: And then there's and I guess this would be a
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: good time to break. There's a lot of debate about
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: if a runners is even real to begin with, scientifically speaking,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: is it real? We'll find out right after these messages
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: from our sponsor, Chuck. Is it real? Well, first, we
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: should just say that the whole idea of this came
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: around in the seventies when the big running boom really
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: kicked off off. Yeah, exactly, and the doctor started looking
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: into it a little bit, and researchers they're like, is
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: this even a thing? Can we explain this physiologically? And
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: they they kind of landed on initially endorphins, which are
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: neurotransmitters that are sending chemical messages activating opiate receptors, and
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: basically they can create a sort of an analgesic effect
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: that could numb the body to pain and trigger a
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: kind of morphine like euphoria, let's say. And they're like,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: all right, if you're running enough, maybe you're just The
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: surge of endorphins is what's explaining this? I mean, and
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: that's what it stayed for decades. Basically, Like when I
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: first started getting into running ten years ago, I used
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: getting into running and making air quotes. Um. I remember
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: hearing like, oh, it's endorphins. Uh. And endorphins do like
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: keep your muscles from making They do, UM have like
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: the analgesic effects like you're talking about. But the big
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: problem is is they apparently don't cross the blood brain barrier. Yeah,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: so I guess somehow they do release opioids or they
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: activate your opioid receptors, but I'm not sure how they
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: do that if they can't get to your brain, or
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: maybe there's something that gets to your brain but it's
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: not the ones that get released by your muscles. Whatever
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: the case, these early UM researchers physiologists who said it's
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: endorphins just they were just making it up. No one
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: went back and checked their work, and when they finally did,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: they saw that this was just bunk. Basically, it's bunk
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: is speed reading. Yeah exactly. UM, that's a good T shirt.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Um In there was a study out of Germany that
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: basically said that running can stimulate your indo cannabinoid system,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: which is pretty interesting. Um, your body produces endocannabinoids. It's
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: like you're sort of built in, um, cannabis, cannabis system.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: It's your body pot. Yeah, it's it's yeah. Good band name.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Oh man, it's a great band name. And I don't
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: even like my band name stuff usually, but body pot
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: sounds great. Yeah, that's pretty good. When what kind of
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: music is it? Though you're always not it's because it's
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: classical but done on alright. Very interesting. That's another thing.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: You just created a genre. I think I might have
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: not a good one, but I did sure. So, Um,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: have you ever seen that that blue grass band do
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: a C d C thunderstruck? No, I bet it's pretty good.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: It's pretty awesome. I am not a big a C
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: d C guy, but I can imagine hearing somebody do
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: that on anything. It's pretty stirring. Like watching the end
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: of Prices right after you've been running a few miles.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah that that guitar like sounds pretty cool in the banjo.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: So the Yeah, endocannabinoids, cannabinoids, um, they you can you know.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: It's it's like what pot does for you. Basically, it
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: improves your anxiety and improves your mood. Uh, this is
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: why some people turned to marijuana to reduce their anxiety,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: and this does actually pass the blood brain barrier. I
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: don't understand that about how marijuana reduces anxiety. I know
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: for a fact that it does, but I feel like
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: it's a certain kind of person that marijuana has that
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: effect on, and that does not have that effect on everybody. Sure,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: I mean I think there are plenty of people where
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: marijuana very much increases their anxiety. Yes, and that is
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: the saddest thing of all. Yeah, it's just said. It's
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: it's called getting robbed by God himself or herself for
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: their self. Yeah, because if it only did the one
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: thing and reduced anxiety, it would be the wonder drug
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: of the world. It's true. Yeah, we didn't have this
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: conversation in the Girl Scouts episode. Yeah, that'd be bad.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: But like I said, unlike the endorsed and these endocannabinoids
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: can move through that that blood brain barrier and give
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: you that feeling of calm. So they think that might
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: have something to do with the runner's eye. Yes, so,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: which makes a lot more sense. I mean endocannabin When
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: we seemed like it's probably the case that that is
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: what gives you some sort of euphoric feeling while you're
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: in that flow state. But again, it's possible that the
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: runner's high doesn't even exist, and that it's one of
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: those things where it's like a self self fulfilling prophecy
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: or I guess a bit of um uh placebo effect
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: where you think it exists and you're running sometime and
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: you think I feel kind of good and you're like,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: oh my god, I'm in a flow state. Check me out,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: I'm so high. Could be like that. It also could exist,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: and we just haven't really identified it fully yet. Yeah,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: but what I'm pretty sure is going to happen is
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: we're gonna get get zillion emails from runners that are like,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: don't mock this. It is totally real. I've experienced it first,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: and Hey, I don't care if it is the greatest
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: placebo effect of all time. It's still real. If it's
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: a placebo, your body is still experiencing the effects of
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: whatever it is, from a fake drug to running high. Um,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: you're still experiencing it. So it doesn't matter if it's
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: externally objectively real or not. Doesn't matter. Uh. Well, if
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: you want to know more about sylopsism or anything like that.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Join us next time on short stuff. We don't have
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: anything else about runners high right, chuck. We don't well,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: and that means everybody that short stuff is GIDIA. Stuff
• 12:38
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• 12:40
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• 12:46
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