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Comment by dghughes | Hacker News Reader

I know it's anecdotal but it seems to be the opposite for me, or was. When I was in my late 20s and went to a gym at a mall when I left I could never find my car, every time. It seemed to only after a workout at the gym. I went to the mall often to shop and I never had a problem finding my car when just shopping.

Yes this is long-term, and mice, and mine was isolated to me. But it was weird.

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This is not uncommon at all. I powerlift and at our gym at least we refer to it as squat brain. I'm not sure what causes it, but I always thought it had something to do with how taxing heavy training is for your central nervous system.

low blood sugar? less blood going to the brain vs muscles?

I used to do crossfit and whenever the workout was done I couldn’t do simple math. I don’t think it effected anyone else like that, so always felt like an idiot.

I've had similar experiences after heavy workouts. It puts me in a better mood but my cognition feels like 50%. I assumed it was due to blood diversion from the brain to the muscles.

My cognition right after the gym isn’t great, I find I basically need to switch off for a while and relax.

But my cognition the next day seems improved if I go to the gym.

I experienced this in marathon training and researched it. It is the body’s reaction to the oxygen needs of your body being prioritized over that of your brain to keep your muscles firing. If you are pushing yourself in running and try to do math problems in your head you will find your math ability degrades as you continue your run.

I've been exercising for 15+ years at this point and this happens to me when I'm routinely doing heavy and or high repetition lower body stuff. It's why I mainly do bodyweight/gymnastic stuff now. I can do as many front lever / handstands / pullups I want and still be able to think the next day. When I was into kettlebells and doing heavy swings + getups every other day there were times I was nearly idiotic. Same for when I was early 20s doing heavy deadlifting / squatting, I just didn't notice it much then because I didn't need to concentrate for $job.

the study doesnt cover heavy lifting, pretty sure it was running and shorter duration 15-30mins. instead of the typical 1 hour heavy lifting session

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