Yes, you can train your brain to like exercise

If the idea of going to the gym makes you moan and groan, you’re not alone. 

Let’s be honest: It’s called working out for a reason. Though incredibly good for you, exercise doesn’t always feel so good. At least, not when you’re drenched in sweat, huffing and puffing, making those involuntary (ugly) faces, and trying to concentrate on anything other than your poor, tired muscles. 

Everyone has limits, of course. But many of the reasons people don’t pick up the pace or push through that “good pain” are rarely physical. They are mostly mental. Personal history and past experiences shape how much discomfort someone believes they can tolerate — and that belief often becomes a barrier. Many give up long before the body actually demands it. Worse, some avoid exercise altogether. 

But each person’s individual tolerance threshold isn’t set in stone. Thanks, in part, to the brain’s neuroplasticity and ability to adapt when under pressure. 

New research suggests even people with a lower subjective exercise tolerance can develop a degree of mental toughness by ‘training’ important brain networks to better cope with the inherent discomfort of exercise. According to study author Marcelo Bigliassi, this improves our ability to self-regulate — control self-doubt, discouragement and other negative emotions and stay focused on the task at hand despite the discomfort — and ultimately makes it easier to stick to a regular workout routine.

“Maybe you think you’re low-tolerant, that’s your personality, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” says Bigliassi, an FIU assistant professor who specializes in AI-driven neuroscience and the brain-body relationship. “Our data is showing the opposite. When we give people who are minimally active and low-tolerant a little physical stress, it gives them a new point of reference or comparison, so it’s easier for them to do something difficult again another time.” 

That little bit of stress is the key. 

After all, the brain is hardwired to learn from stressful experiences. Physical stressors, like intense exercise, activate the systems responsible for reacting to external threats or dangers (think fight-or-flight) and, at the same time, trigger beneficial long-term adaptations by generating ‘reference points’ of tolerance to prepare for the future. Simply put, the bar gradually gets raised in terms of what you can take on.

“We have to remember stress has shaped humanity and is one of the only reasons we are here today,” Bigliassi says. “So now the question is: How can we use it to our advantage?”

To find out, Bigliassi’s research group gets inside people’s heads when they’re in the grips of some seriously grueling acute stressors: vigorous exercise, as well as the notoriously brutal cold pressor test, which involves dunking a hand up to the wrist in ice water for a maximum of three minutes.

In addition to tracking brain activity with electroencephalography (EEG), then using AI models to interpret the data, the research team also gathers physiological measurements, like heart rate variability, and issues traditional questionnaires to gauge participants’ mood.