There is so much about exercise I don’t necessarily subscribe to. I don’t believe, for example, that “more is better”. I don’t believe all people should do it. I don’t believe that a formal excerise program, with a minimum number of minutes or minimum variety of movements, is necessary. I don’t believe it necessarily helps clinical depression. Etc.
While in various psychiatric care facilities, I was given the very firm message -over and over again- that regular exercise would lift depression. For me, it didn’t. For me, it exacerbated it. Running, weights…any movement would rapidly deplete me, leaving me more despondent and lethargic, struggling even harder to recover ‘emotionally’. It took me some time to accept that what my body was telling me was very different than what hospital staff were telling me. When I did, my journey eased. Interestingly, I did find that upon consuming a very minimal dose of mild tranquilizer (eg. 1/4 dose of Ativan or a small amount of alcohol), my capacity for exercise (as well as for hot environments) increased substantially. This is not a coincidence.
Brendan Brazier, a professional triathlete and health trainer really believes in exercise -with important exceptions. In his book The Thrive Diet, Brazier notes that folks with high cortisol* can actually be impaired by exercise (as well as by nutritional or emotional stress), such that they require a season of rest to heal. Overriding this need can cause these folks to gain weight in the form of fat, especially around the belly.
With information, experience and beliefs such as this, I allow myself a lot of rest. I output only when my body requests it. Recently, I found myself eager to help a friend shovel gravel. I had energy and endurance. People warned me I’d be sore the next day, but I wasn’t at all. As my energy increases, I find myself pursuing dance classes, jogging alongside my son’s cycling, opting to play fun games. My body seems suddenly keen on all of this. Unlike earlier in my life, this movement is now having the effect of grounding any anxious states, lifting transitional blue feelings, and begetting further energy.
I see exercise as potentially a great detoxifier, breathing support, and healer of mild anxiety or sadness. I still believe rest -even long periods of it- to be equally important. To me, an important piece is in the timing: At this particular phase in my healing journey, does my body need rest to reach its next level? Or does it need movement? The answer will vary from day to day, season to season, year to year. At any given time, it will be different for each person.
Right now, I’m surprised to find my body loving increased movement again. I’m hearing my body and giving it what it requests. Should things shift again, and my body again request rest, I will again support it by giving it that.
What is your body asking of you? Are you able to set aside society’s declarations and generalizations to give it that?
* For more information on the relationship between cortisol, stress, sleep, exercise, nutrition and belly fat, please begin with a Google search then, if you feel cortisol (either too high or too low) might be an issue in your body, see a health practitioner for additional support. GAPS’ sweets-free, nutrient-dense early intro tends to be very supportive of moderating cortisol levels, leading in many people to improved sleep, increased peacefulness, more energy, and/or reduction of excess fat.
Gidday Baden
Yes excess of cortisol is something none of us need.
Too much exercise ramps it up over the desirable limit and starts to affect the bodies immune system including impacting on those friendly little enterocytes in our gut.
Too little exercise impacts it similarly. The cortisiol is not “blown off” by moderate large muscle acitivity through our sedentary lifestyles.
All of this is dealt with beautifully in this book, “The Pot Belly Syndrome” by Russell Farris and Per Marin. You can do everything you are supposed to and still gain weight, have a pot belly and a heart attack – yeehah not!
All of this is a bit of an conundrum if you are suffering from chronic fatigue as I have been.
Even modest amounts of exercise resulted in an enforced lie down for 10-15 minutes simply to recover.
Like you. I’m increasingly tuned into what my body tells me on any one given day – to ramp it up and belt it out or simply to goof off and go for a walk.
Also, doing the right sort of exercise in the right environment help impacts hugely.
I now use simple body weight stuff out in a public park, and limit the duration to 20-30 minutes max (you can see some of the stuff I do with my daughter on Youtube – user = zesprix).
The right amount of resistance traning moderates cortisol levels more effectively than just about anything else.
Gone are the days of exercising till I dropped. Or working also til I dropped shifting 2-3 tonnes garbage over a 25 km run every day or shunting 4-5 tonnes steel/day up and down building sites as a scaffolder for 20 years.
Looking back I can understand why first I had a cortisol issue, then ultimately chronic fatigue in terms of wiping out gut flora. That in combo with with anti-biotics etc.
Also simple stuff also like using earthing/grounding techniques of walking around on the park grass barefoooted and in contact with the ground. Or paddling calf deep in the water at beach will reduce BP, cortisol levels and discharge all those + electrons floating around ready to damage your body.
Using common public parks and beaches are greatly underrated as freely available exercise resources and cortisol control is easy peasy.
This also sits well within the GAP’s paradigm of giving people free or relatively free access to knowledge / resources in order that they can can fix themselves up without having to be thrown to the mercies of the corporate world.
Once again such a timely post for me! My body has been absolutely taxed by doing Intro with a nursing toddler and I’ve had to really limit physical stuff. Even a walk down half a block to the playground was too exhausting for me on some days. But I waited and rested and in just the past week have been feeling a wonderful rebound of energy. On Saturday we had a gorgeous sunny day and my family walked for miles and it felt wonderful. Like you said, I wasn’t even sore the next day! It’s so important to tune into what our bodies are telling us, rather than listening to someone else tell us what’s healthy (this applies to exercise, food and about a million other aspects of life
These are some good words. I used to wilt in the heat and I had very little energy to do much. I know nothing about cortisol levels, but on GAPS I have gradually changed so that I can stand the heat (which is useful since I live in Houston, TX) and I have lots of energy to do all of the things that need to get done with six of us on the GAPS diet. It is busy around here. Baden, I appreciate all of your insightful and beautifully written posts.