Running workouts are never really supposed to feel easy —the point of a long run or a speed session is to elicit adaptations that will help you push your limits. But what if you could convince yourself you’re not working quite as hard as your screaming muscles and gasping lungs might imply? Science says you can.

From priming your brain prerun to dropping a well-time expletive, researchers have uncovered surprisingly simple ways to make workouts feel less like a grind and, maybe, a little more like a victory lap. These strategies help you train harder, go farther, and maybe even enjoy it more (no promises on hill sprints, though).

1. Get Your Mind Involved in Your Warmup

A skips, B skips… color-word tests? Adding cognitive tasks to your prerun routine could counteract a bad night’s sleep, according to research published in 2025 in the journal Brain Sciences .


The researchers found that sleep deprivation increased mental fatigue and impaired performance, but a physical warmup that also included mental engagement led to more motivation among participants. (You don’t have to be sleep-deprived; these drills will work on all athletes!)

“This largely comes down to the way your nervous system responds to your environment, which has a neuromuscular impact: How well are you making decisions? How clearly are you thinking? How fast can you respond and stay calm?” explains Kristina Centenari , an RRCA-certified run coach at Tonal.

The key: “Cognitive priming drills should be just challenging enough to stimulate the central nervous system without accumulating extra fatigue,” says Centenari.

These tasks could be as simple as playing a word game in an app while foam rolling or, if you have a running buddy, try backward tennis ball catches. Hold a tennis ball and have your partner stand two to three feet away with their back turned. You throw the ball and say go and your partner has to react to the verbal cue in order to reflexively catch the ball.

3. Hype Yourself Up

You are your biggest cheerleader, and motivational self-talk can mitigate the effect of mental fatigue on endurance performance, according to a 2022 research article published in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology .

“The way you talk to yourself mid-workout has the power to change your perception of exertion,” says Jay Silva , an RRCA-certified run coach and certified strength and conditioning specialist based in Fairfax, Vermont. “Your brain is always trying to regulate effort, and when it starts sending those ‘hey, let’s slow down’ signals, self-talk is what pushes back.”

“I coach my athletes to create mantras that are meaningful to them, like ‘calm and strong’ or ‘keep showing up,’” Silva adds. There’s no one mantra that will keep you moving; you have to figure out what word or phrase is going to motivate you most when things get dark.

Then, “the trick is to practice those phrases during training so they become automatic when things get hard,” says Silva.

3. Regularly Drop F-Bombs

Swearing has a pain-reducing effect, according to a 2024 review published in Frontiers in Psychology. The studies included show that a well-timed F-bomb might make working out hurt just a little less, could increase your strength and power, and relieve stress .

Think about tennis players, who grunt when they serve. “That increases strength by about 3 or 4 percent,” Jay says. “They’re using their core and exhaling to militate muscle strength; a well-timed expletive could have a similar effect.”

That means you should save your swearing for your hardest efforts, like your final sprint intervals or hill repeats . And it’s not about off-the-cuff cursing or screaming profanities; methodically swearing every few seconds is actually more effective.

But keep in mind, the more you swear in your day-to-day life, the less this will help. “As with any emotion, you tend to become desensitized and you exhaust the effect,” says Jay.

4. Dial in Your Breath

When you’re running hard, your body is desperate for oxygen. Often, that leads to shorter, shallower breaths—a type of breathing that tells your brain you’re in panic mode (even if you’re not). “Something I learned from coaching tactical athletes is that when the body is under stress, intentional breathing is one of the best ways to stay calm and efficient,” says Silva.

Purposeful breathing strategies might improve running performance, according to a 2022 study published in Frontiers in Physiology —and the greatest benefits are psychological, the study authors wrote.

“I’ve found teaching runners how to sync their breathing with their stride—like inhaling for three steps, exhaling for two—can make a big difference in how smooth and in-control they feel,” says Silva.

Rhythmic breathing and diaphragmatic breathing are two other options, but more important than any particular method is just being aware and in control of your breath, instead of letting it control you.

5. Find a Friend

Running has never been more of a social sport, but all you really need is one person to keep you accountable. “Connection is a powerful motivator,” says Centenari. “Not only could a friend push you, but your nervous system was designed for co-regulation, so it feels relaxed and ready when you have a training buddy.”

You can schedule harder workouts with a friend, join a run club, or explore apps that create training communities and allow you to connect with people virtually for accountability.

Researchers have long looked at the power of training partners. One study published in 2021 in PLoS One examined the effects of parkrun events in the U.K.—a free community 5K—and found that the social aspect boosted enjoyment of exercise among participants. They also found it increased subjective energy, which was associated with faster run times.

Also, those who exercised with someone they thought was better than them worked out up to 200 percent longer than others, research published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine found. That same study found that working out with a partner also led to increased motivation to exercise in the future.

6. Listen to Your Favorite Music

The right playlist can help you before, during, and after your workout.

Playing pump-up tunes as you lace up may get you psyched for what’s ahead, according to research published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research . One explanation is that listening to music has been shown to increase your brain’s levels of dopamine , a mood-boosting chemical, according to a study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience ; other research shows that music in general can reduce stress .

Once you’re on the run, upbeat music—which distracts you from the sensation of being tired while stimulating heightened physiological and psychological activity—can improve performance when you feel mentally fatigued, according to a 2021 study published in the Journal of Human Sport and Exercise , and it can reduce the perceived effort involved, a 2020 study published in Frontiers in Psychology found.

Not only did high-BPM music improve endurance and help runners maintain a steady pace, it also led to quicker recovery postrun , according to a 2019 study from the Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada. Researchers don’t know exactly why yet, but the study authors speculated that attention to music reduces the awareness of physiological sensations and negative emotions, which lets your body chill out faster.