The angry middle-aged men with poor lung function were likely more apt to deal with stress by smoking - thus the poor lung function!

After reading the article and some of the submitted comments, I wanted to offer that excercise doesn't need to be strenuous or tortured to relieve stress. Everyone needs to find the mode of exercise that suits their personality and lifestyle. Following is my personal experience which may be unique but may have elements that might encourage or inspire someone else.

After having my first and only child at the age of 42, I was having difficulty getting back into shape and renewing my energy as well as looking for a stress release activity. I needed something I knew I would enjoy enough to stick with. I love music so when someone suggested a dance class, it sounded more appealing than aerobics or weight training so I decided to give it a try and I have been hooked for years.

In addition to weekly classes, I don't need a regimented practice schedule. I turn on my music when I'm doing household chores and dance through vaccuuming and meal preparation. When my husband comes home and finds me practicing my moves in the kitchen, he knows I'm in a good mood and family harmony (stress reduced atmosphere) emanates from there.

My choice of dance is Bellydance.. it isolates and exercises every muscle group in your body and has enhanced my strength, flexibility, rhythm, as well as confidence and sensuality... How can that be anything other than stress-reducing!

I would agree with Mr. Hadzipetros about not exercising angry, except that since I never exercise, I'm in no position to render an opinion. I believe that if I never use my body, it will never wear out. Two siblings who bicycle, ski, etc. have had or are about to have hip replacements. My hip joints are working fine. I rest my case.

I am in a position to comment
on possible risk to lung tissue from anger. I had a relative who was constantly, perpetually angry. He died of old age at 90. Granted, lung cancer hastened his death, but unlike smoking, no statistics link lung cancer to anger.

A belated comment to Dick Wrench: If you move under your own power, that's exercise, makes you feel good and eventually look good. It only needs to be complicated if you like it that way. Use fancy gym machines or just walk upstairs to your cube, or to the store. Do kick boxing or cultivate roses, whatever you like. It is fairly easy to develop a habit of doing something that works up a bit of a sweat each and every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Just do it and astound yourself with the body beautiful that slowly emerges from beneath the flab. I'd wish you luck, but that's useless. Just move it.

In 15 years of running/triathlon, I have only had two stress fractures, one of which virtually exploded on me during a run when I was.....no surprise here, really angry.

Common sense (something I was lacking on that day) says you don't do high stress work like intervals when otherwise stressed!

If one were to wear a heart rate monitor during an "angry workout", and stay in the recovery heart range, it would probably keep them out of problems. Minus the HRM, and when pumped up on adrenaline from emotion, there is no means of accurately guaging perceived effort; injury or greater disaster are a likely result.

i used to share the weight room with a guy who broke a few bones in his neck, body-surfing.

he was going through a divorce and wasn't mindful of, that it (body surfing) is like a martial art, especially the reef he was body-surfing at.

ever since then i've always kept a forearm raised above my head during a wipe-out. most of the time i'm 200 yards from shore and don't get bottom-slammed. the one time i did get bottom-slammed, my forearm took the heat.

the guy at the Y said the divorce messed up his concentration.

huh? the title is 'don't exercise angry', with the entire point here being that you might hurt yourself and come back more irritated - but ends up saying that exercise reduces stress levels. So to my mind, the article is about how you SHOULD exercise when you're angry, albeit with a warning not to overdo it. chances are you probably won't hurt yourself - but you will almost certainly feel better. how about not giving us yet another excuse to stay home?

I find these comments and the article interesting because they yet again assume that everyone enjoys excercise - and gets some sort of endorphin rush from it. I may be a freak but I have never, ever experienced such a thing. I exercise because I am told that it is good for me. However, I have never enjoyed it and certainly never experienced this "rush". For me exercising angry is generally a good thing because I might as well use the feeling to force myself through yet another unpleasent experience. By the end of a workout, I'm tired and uncomfortable enough that my anger has generally lost focus and I can put in behind me.

It has always seemed to me to be more healthy to 'work out' angry than to keep it inside. However, I'll think about Peter's comments to see if there's a middle-of-the-road position on this.

The real reason I am commenting is to let you know what a struggle I went through to get to this page! (a variation of Peter's voice-mail firewall example). I clicked on the link in tonight's news email and was told the page didn't exist. I searched for 'Peter Hadzipetros' on cbc.ca and got all kinds of articles, but not this one. I searched for health/fitness-blog and was told it didn't exist. Finally, I clicked on the Health link which I noticed in the left hand column beside the negative responses and voil--it's been here all along. I think the webmaster needs to be informed about
this. I don't care if you don't respond to me so long as you tell the webmaster that there's a problem here.

I think that exercise while angry is a good way to let off steam. Some of my best runs have occurred when I am angry or frustrated. It certainly beats "stress eating" or worse drinking or smoking.

If more people worked out on a regular basis, they would be happier and more capable of handling stress, not to mention healthier.

I'd like to exercise but I morphed into a mushroom because I'm working in a cube. How do you do it ?

Thanks

Interesting read, but I still think that some days you just have to work out your frustrations in the gym. I know for me there's times when I haven't gone for a couple of days, and life stress builds, and I just have to go lift weights, or hit the punching bag. I can feel the stress leaving me as I work out, and by the time I'm done I feel way more relaxed. Whether that's mental or because of the reduced electrical muscle activity as mentioned in the article, I don't know, but it works for me.

This is interesting. I read the same study and immediately wondered about the relationship between my running and my anger. I come from a family with a history of explosive anger (particularly on the male side). I don't really have the same level of anger my family members do but I do get pretty worked up sometimes. But I always thought I was doing myself a favour with a run (because I always feel better no matter how badly my day went). I guess the key is not to go *all out* when you're angry but keep things moderate. That's where running with others really helps (I find), cause they'll always be there to slow you down if you're pushing too hard.