Exercise as regulation is when your stress response activates, your body mobilizes, and then it comes back down.

Your window of tolerance widens because your nervous system has learned it can handle activation and return to baseline after. In Somatic Experiencing, this is called a completed stress cycle. The intensity brings you more intimacy with yourself.

Exercise as catharsis is when the workout is the only place the anxiety quiets.

Rest days feel unbearable because you haven't sat with a difficult emotion in months, despite never missing a gym session. The intensity of the workout is a way to leave yourself, and often every piece of studio marketing around you calls that strength.