An intense workout can make you feel and do certain things that can make you wonder if you’re going out of your mind, just a little bit. After all, regardless of how fit you are, when you reach a certain level of intensity, you are undergoing a considerable challenge on both a mental and physical level. You’ll be pushing your body to the limits, sweating enough to form sizeable puddles, and reminding yourself to keep up your drive to reach your goals.

By working this hard, you can think and experience certain things that may seem odd, lame, or funny to you. Though it’s easy to believe that you’re the only one who goes through these experiences during an intense workout, the odds are that you’re not alone.

The following are some of the seldom talked about, but very common experiences that are often linked with powering through an intense workout:

• Thinking that you’re doing great, this time, only to check the clock and discover that you’ve been working out for only five minutes and that you still have twenty five more to go.
• Thinking that you are very clever to stop to tie your shoe (which was never untied in the first place) in order to give yourself even a little bit of a break.
• Making very interesting faces as you lift weights while hoping that nobody will notice them, for some reason.
• Breathing as though you were wearing Darth Vader’s mask.
• Rapidly blinking your eyes as they burn from the sweat.
• Experiencing sweat stains in areas that you never even realized that you were able to sweat – particularly in that quantity!
• Using your workout playlist to help to motivate and distract yourself in some kind of mental escape plan so that you might get through more of the workout without “noticing”.
• Enjoying a drink of water as though you have never tasted or experienced anything better in your entire life.
• Drinking so much water that you can actually feel it sloshing around inside your stomach as you continue moving around.
• Starting to feel a sense of pride and drive from the feeling of burning in your muscles.
• Getting a second wind, where you feel as though you’ve suddenly gained temporary superpowers.
• Making it to the end, just barely, and feeling like it is one of the best victories that you’ve ever experienced.