Taking Advantage of the "Runner's High" Pre-workout

Hey all,
I noticed something at work a few times ,when feeling sluggish and completely unmotivated to do anything, but having to because it’s my job.

I sometimes work at a university in Austin, and I have to park in their parking garage, then pull my tool-cart a few blocks to the building I’ll be working in.

Over time as my cart tires have deflated making the cart harder to pull (and making multiple trips) I would be completely exhausted at the top of some hills, legs on fire, have to take a few breaks before continuing, BUT, I noticed when I got in my van at the end of the day and rested a bit, I felt way more awake and energized, feeling like I could pull over and start deadlifting the back of my car just for fun.

Going home, I had a pretty decent workout and generally felt pretty good about it. It was difficult to gauge the workout, as I was getting back into training after a long layoff so large gains were expected.

Now if I had a normal day at work, I would have still felt sluggish, maybe pushed myself through a mediocre workout, possibly cutting the training short.

My question is, would it be detrimental to do something similar to getting myself wiped out (with something like sled pulls or tire flips) just prior to a training session, even if it’s a leg day?

I’m thinking something that would be hard enough to trigger a “runner’s high.”

Also, would it be better to train tired after a pre-workout runner’s high-esque session, than to force yourself to train without that exhaustion, but have a mediocre training session?

(Obviously anything would have been better than doing nothing, so I’m not comparing an optimal energized day without exhausting yourself, nor the choice to just skip a day)

Thanks!

If you’re asking should you warm up sufficiently for your training then the answer is yes. If you’re asking if some physical activity that you’ve previously exposed yourself to on a number of occasions before training reliably produces worse training outcomes then the answer is no. If you’re asking should you routinely do hard conditioning prior to training for strength then the answer is no.