Stress and Exercise | What’s the best workout to do?
Exercising when stressed may not always be the answer to your problems.
Exercising places a stress on the body’s natural balance and when you are exhausted from long term work or emotional stress, physical exertion, grief, lack of sleep or poor lifestyle it may the last thing you want to look to do.
If you are feeling wired and tired, stressed and agitated or generally flagging, going for a run or doing a circuits class or something like a FastTrack Fit Camp (high intensity interval training) won’t be the best choice for you.
Then to make matters worse if you do go and do these and then find it tough to cope with or have muscle weakness or can’t breathe, you are going to think that it’s you that’s no good and not able to cope rather than your circumstances. This can just exacerbate your feelings of stress and unworthiness.
So, what can you do when it’s like this?
Taking a more moderate approach to exercise can help offer the same benefits in terms of boosting the feel good hormones without the exhaustion that comes with it.
Choosing to walk or ramble in a group or solo is perfect exercise. If you add in some poles and choose to Nordic Walk you can increase your energy expenditure and distance without really noticing.
Yoga or Pilates can offer a calm but strong approach to building strength and calmness from the inside out. You can’t just ‘go for it’ in yoga or Pilates. You have to switch on your brain and be in the moment.
Swimming is a nice way to feel light and mobile whilst keeping cool when you are exercising. If weight loss is your focus and most things get you sweaty and hot and bothered going for a swim is a really nice full body workout. The trouble with swimming can be building up the stamina to keep going to get a good workout. So choose to do moderate intervals to start with as you build up. Two lengths swim, 20 seconds break. Or four lengths swim, 30 seconds break. Before you know it you’ll be churning out the lengths!
Tai Chi classes offer a very calm way to concentrate on movement and breathing without having to change into gym clothes. There are many different forms and styles, so asking around can help you to decide which is your best option.
Building these types of exercise routines into your week will be more beneficial to managing your stress, your feeling of anxiety and you ability to cope than trying to feel good about going for a run that you don’t really want to do. They will benefit your body by improving flexibility, building core strength, improving and controlling breathing, working the muscles to improve your metabolism and calorie expenditure, boosting your feel good chemicals for your brain and helping to improve sleep patterns.
Remember you don’t always have to be exerting yourself at full tilt to get the benefits of exercise.
We’re running a series of free events this summer. Please join us at the ‘What’s Wrong With Me?’ workshops.
Warfield | Thursday 15 June 19:30 | Warfield C of E Primary – Woodhurst Site
Click here to reserve a place –> https://moodevent_warfield.eventbrite.co.uk