It’s common knowledge that time never goes as slowly as it does while you’re holding a plank.

Or you know, trying to finish a tough run or pushing through the peak of a cardio class.

That said, it doesn’t actually slow down…or does it?

A recent small study published in Brain and Behavior says kind of.

“During exercise it seems likely that the stimulus of physical activity creates a heightened associative state of impulse awareness and causes a perceived slowing of time. The chronological clock reachers 30 seconds after the individual indicates/perceives 3o seconds has elapsed, giving the impression that the chronological clock is moving too slow.”

They found that it moves about 9% slower than it should, according to the 33 study participants tackling a session on the stationary bike.

“The perception of time was significantly slowed during exercise.”

The longer the participants exercised, the stronger the effect became, with the last session showing a time deviation of around 25%.

The team has some thoughts on why they think this effect exists.

“The effect is similar to situations of perceived threat often used in psychological research of time period estimation, during dangerous incidents events appear to pass in slow motion as if time as slowed down.”

Basically, the more uncomfortable we are, the longer we think we’re enduring it.

“In sports terms, this likely means that the subjective perception of time elapsed decreases shrinks due to greater than usual sensory awareness of physical sensations of discomfort that are not apparent at rest. Therefore, experiences or sensations (impulses) are densely packed into a shorter period than is objectively true compared to a resting condition due to augmented physical arousal and awareness of the physical situation.”

Andrew Edwards, the research lead on the study, issued a statement musing about how the findings could be used to improve exercise experience in the future.

“Our findings have important implications for healthy exercise choices, enjoyment levels and also for how we use this information to optimize performance, perhaps offering a clue as to how to take things to the next level while exercising.”

After all, motivation is more than half the equation.

“The main strands of the work are to see how we can motivate people to engage with exercise, avoid/mitigate negative associations with time appearing to move slowly and perhaps see if we can use this apparent slowing of time to our advantage.”

I know I would like to enjoy working out a little bit more.

And I’m sure I’m not alone.

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