Yep, I get no positive feelings from exercise. I do it to keep my blood pressure down and I fucking hate it. People say after a while it begins to feel good and you look forward to it and I want to punch all those people in the face. I started about 4 months ago and I've hated every day I've gone.
Exercise fucking sucks. I get hot and sweaty and feel like shit afterwards. The only positive emotion is a vague sense of relief that it's over when I'm finished.
"Jogging is the worst. I mean, I know it keeps you healthy; but God, at what cost?" -Ann Perkins
I used to be like this, then I found a competetive sport I really like and now get that feeling after a game. It's also way more social than just running around aimlessly by yourself. So
This is my take on your comment but going to the gym and doing exercises does the same for me. I did it, I knew why I did it but I fucking hated every second of it and didn't get any high.
On the other hand, even middle level exercises in rugby or cycling gets me that high, fucking love it. It doesn't even matter if I'm good at it or not.
Sometimes, it's more about the sport than the exercise.
Well, there are a lot of exercise options, surely you haven't tried them all...
For example, I like riding my bike to do errands. Not only do I get exercise, but I also save some money, cross off items from my list, and feel hardcore. I don't actually like cycling, but I hate driving more, so being able to get my exercise and avoid driving while doing errands feels like cheating.
I get hot and sweaty and feel like shit afterwards.
Have you tried swimming? Hot and sweaty definitely won't be a problem there.
For the record though I also hate cardio. It's fine at levels which I can sustain for hours on end, that is, not jogging pace, definitely not interval training, but hiking pace. If you want interval training without grinding your brain field sports might be an option, it's different when you have teammates and a ball.
I had the same problem. Then, I was prescribed a medication used to increase dopamine, and adrenaline, production, and now it does.
Not saying this is some trick to make exercise suddenly release a bunch of endorphins, but it very much did that for me, and when I told my doctor about it, she said that was something that commonly reported. It has even been looked into as a performance enhancing drug, by a number of sports regulation organizations.
I never got a runners high before 10k or so. But even then it's not a "high" it's a strong feeling of well being and the sense that I could keep going indefinitely.
Now that I don't jog so much the mood improvement I get from regular exercise is even more subtle, but I still feel it's significant.
The core is connected up quite intimately to the whole digestive system and when nerves reorganise there it can get funky indeed.
That said, try hanging. Not necessarily pull-ups... though while you're at it might as well do some negatives at least: jump up, let yourself down as slowly as possible until you get that rotation in the shoulder and then you are hanging properly. Then stay there, move your legs, explore the load shifts, such stuff. That's going to tickle nerves that you might never have tickled before, but which need occasional tickling or your whole back gets confused because we happen to be monkeys and hanging from stuff is in our biomechanics, the nervous system expects those kinds of loads. Generally works miracles when it comes to back issues, and core issues are often just reflections of that.
The thing to adapt to with this information is goal maintainence, and improvement tracking.
I HATE exercise, PLUS the humilation aspect that got pushed into me growing up as a fat kid.
The thing that gives one good feelings for me, isn't the exercise, it's the improvement that gives/gave me pride.
Instead of group exercise, I started doing bouldering. Going up the difficulty levels, being able to literally get over obstacles made me feel proud of my achievements.
Try tracking progress. it could help give you pride and self esteem.