Despite the robust tradition of consolatio in medieval writing, historians of the senses have argued that the idea of physical comfort developed from post-medieval commodity cultures. This article considers the ways in which the reading scripted or supported by Old English poems might have enabled feelings of physical comfort and its related somatic conditions: health, ease, and balance. I first discuss Classical and monastic ideas about reading as a form of exercise that facilitates homeostasis before exploring how the Exeter Book Riddles and other cryptic poems encourage readerly exertion. I'm especially intrigued by the possibility of thinking about hermeneutically difficult works as prompts for heat-generating somatic regimens.