Many people say what they want from life is happiness, it's their guiding light. Diamonds can be defined, but how can happiness be defined? Often what people mean actually by happiness is that they do not want stress. Indeed, stress can be defined objectively, by the presence of some hormones (cortisol, norephinephrine, etc.). So happiness could be objectively defined as the absence of stress. (OK, there are endorphin centers all over the brain, but that is more of a punctuated reward system, not the Holly Graal of genuine happiness.)
Such a tentative definition of happiness would lead one to suspect that any activity which would reduce stress levels generate happiness. But controlled, ephemeral situations of distress, by augmenting stress considerably, but transiently and willfully, make average life seem much less stressful, in comparison: one gets vaccinated against stress (all people in highly stressful occupations know this, and military training fully exploits it). Hence high stress, controlled and momentary, makes average life much more peaceful (rats shocked in the same way as a control group, but knowing exactly when the shock is coming, get much less stressed) . Hence stressful physical exercise should augment happiness, which is exactly what is observed.
The conventional explanation for the later effect is that stressful exercise generate endorphins which make people happy. This is indubitably true. But the endorphin effect is only during exercise, and it could be argued, just to compensate for pain and effort, ephemerally. The mechanism described above, admittedly a bit cynical, may be more relevant to how exercise removes stress long term.
Patrice Ayme'.
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