Sensations of Exercise

The Sensations of Exercise explores how individuals experience, interpret, and find meaning in the challenging sensations that accompany physical exertion, moving beyond mechanistic accounts to examine the psychosocial dimensions of exercise.Structured around the temporal arc of physical engagement, this edited volume follows individuals from their first encounters with exertion through adaptation, coping, recovery, and reflection. Contributors investigate sensations such as pain, discomfort, fatigue, and exhaustion as complex phenomena shaped by cultural context, social expectations, and individual meaning-making. Embracing both positivistic and interpretive methodologies, the book bridges psychology, sociology, and anthropology to examine topics ranging from terminology of exertive and painful exercise-related sensations, conceptual and experimental models of exercise sensations, social construction of gym practices like grunting, to wearable technologies mediating running effort, to reframing delayed onset muscle soreness as a source of pride. By combining rigorous scientific inquiry with phenomenological reflection, it sheds light on how physical sensations are not fixed biological signals but dynamic, socially embedded experiences that transform into sources of resilience, self-validation, and identity.This volume appeals to students, academics, and researchers in exercise science, sport psychology, sociology, anthropology, and phenomenology, as well as fitness professionals interested in understanding the deeper dimensions of physical effort.