How Workout Amnesia Impacts Recovery

I sometimes display signs of a condition I call “workout amnesia.”

Workout amnesia often occurs when I’m doing a particularly hard workout. If I’m lifting, every lift feels like the heaviest lift of the day.

In a conditioning workout, I am struggling to breathe.

By the end of the workout, I am swearing that I’m never working out again.

But then, within an hour of finishing the workout — sometimes even less time — the pain and struggle is a distant memory. I remember it differently. It wasn’t that bad.

Sometimes, I feel like I didn’t even workout. I’m not in pain. I may not even be sore the next day.

The Benefit of Workout Amnesia

When it comes to a hard workout, it can be helpful to have a short term memory

The human brain tends to create stronger associations with negative experiences, but when we have a negative association with something we become less inclined to do it again.

In this respect, my “workout amnesia” can be a good thing, as it doesn’t keep me from the gym the next day. I show up every day no matter what I did the day before.

The Risk of Workout Amnesia

That said, my workout amnesia isn’t always a good thing.

Soreness also isn’t a good indicator of how hard you worked your muscles. Because I exercise every day, I often don’t feel sore. Just because you don’t feel sore doesn’t mean you didn’t work the muscles.

I know that a hard workout taxes the muscles and nervous system even if you don’t feel sore.

In this respect, my workout amnesia can become a liability. Forgetting how hard I worked the day before, can lead to over-training, and insufficient rest and recovery.

The Challenge: Stay Consistent While Honoring My Body

When considering how to structure my workouts to stay consistent while still honoring my body, I must factor in both sides of “workout amnesia.”

On one hand, I have learned that I can’t always go by how I feel in any moment. The sensations are often short-lived. Usually the thing that helps me most with muscle soreness is some form of movement.

At the same time, I need to respect the workout I did “on paper,” and know that it had effects on my body, even if I don’t feel them.

Learning how to listen to my body in the moment and honor what it’s telling me without giving into every minor discomfort is perhaps the hardest skill to learn in the gym. It can be highly individual, and I don’t always get it right for myself.

That’s why it’s a practice.