Time may pass quickly when we have fun. But at other times, like sports, time will feel very slow.

When running on a treadmill or lifting weights, most people feel they have spent at least an hour. In fact, when they glanced at the clock, time only walked for 10 minutes.

So, do people really feel different time during exercise?

The reason time feels slower during exercise

In experimental studies, people do feel time runs slower during exercise. Both when they exercise alone or compete with others

The study, published in April 2024 in the journal Brain and Behavior, found that exercise could distort our perception of time, making it feel like walking slowly.

Researchers suggest that attention can help explain why time feels slowing. During intense training, people turn to mental conditions that are very aware and thus become more aware of physical discomfort.

This increased awareness can increase the amount of sensation they feel in a short time, so it feels longer than the truth. However, this time distortion mechanism is still a debate.

“The research author does not investigate the mechanism,” said Philip Gable, a professor of social psychology at the University of Delawar, in Live Science, quoted Friday (5/23/2025).

“However, research conducted in my lab revealed that attention is not a mechanism of time perception that accelerates or slows down. That is motivation,” he added.

In a series of research, Gable and his colleagues find that our perception of time can accelerate or slow down depending on the type of motivation that we feel. When people are driven by what is called motivation approach, the desire to move towards something positive, time tends to pass quickly.

But when they experience avoidance motivation, the urge to escape from something unpleasant, time feels slow.

“In the latest study [2024] This, the ‘all-out’ speed of the participants tends to be Aversive and causes motivation to avoid avoidance, “Gable said.

Because the body cannot maintain that level of intensity for a long time, the participants are motivated to stop cycling. In this condition, said Gable, time can be slowed. That is the way of the brain to prevent us from continuing something that is physically unbearable.

According to Gable, the impression of slowing time shows that a pattern can exercise cause fear. Gable then recommends people to find their respective training speeds.

“The speed of exercise is ongoing and does not cause too much avoidance. You don’t want to hate your exercises,” Gable said.

(NIR/Faz)