Welcome back Sean Flanagan from SeanFlanaganWellness.com

 

 

Whenever I see someone with an exercise schedule that is very busy (5-6 workouts per week for example), I always like to probe into what happens when they DON’T exercise. The answer is usually that they feel like crap. No energy and just generally feel poor. So in their minds, they are using exercise to remedy this situation.

 

The problem is that being exhausted is a sign that they are depleted – their exercise demands have exceeded the nourishment from their sleep and nutrition.   So in this state, using exercise to get more energy is a means of getting the body to run on stress hormones like we’ve discussed previously.

 

Your body was relaxing because it needed it…. and then BAM!   You add even MORE stress. Like a cup of coffee after a sleepless night, hardly the most beneficial scenario in the long term.

 

It’s normal and healthy to feel good and get an energy boost from exercise. The problem is creating driving yourself into a state where you NEED the exercise to feel NORMAL.

 

So if you find yourself getting to a state where you only have energy when you’re exercising, it’s probably time to embrace that low energy state more.   Let your body mellow out and recover.    Back off to a more reasonable exercise load (such as 2-4 sessions per week and maybe less intensity than you were doing previously) and start putting in more sleep in your newly freed up schedule.

 

Remember, if your goal is to have a healthy metabolism, it is absolutely CRITICAL to modulate stress – including exercise stress. Learn when to step back, sleep more, and perhaps increase your calories.

 

 

Sean Flanagan is a Health Coach helping women worldwide tap into greater self-nourishment and break from the traps of harmful dieting practices for long term metabolic health and body composition management.    He is also the creator of the Fit Body Blueprint program – a beginner’s guide to hormonally and metabolically sound exercise.   You can connect with him over at Facebook  and his website, www.SeanFlanaganWellness.com.