Adrenal Fatigue and Exercise

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I am not a doctor, none of the information on any of these pages pertaining to the Ketogenic Diet or Adrenal Fatigue should be considered medical advice and should not replace the care of your personal physician.Ā I am simply eager to share the information I have learned while on my own journey to health. Before you embark on this journey, please consult with your physician.

Exercising and adrenal fatigue are a tricky pair. At some point in your adrenal fatigue recovery, you will need to begin exercising...but not too much. Here's why. #alittlerandr #adrenalfatigue #stress #exercise #chronicfatigue

My battle to recover from Adrenal Fatigue has been long and arduous.

To be sure, there have been factors that have contributed to the battle: comfort eating, not recognizing my load limits – just to name a couple.

In fact, last year I nearly gave up on recovery. I was so discouraged by a major setback when my entire right hand was rendered almost useless by severe eczema. The dermatologist told me that the cause wasn’t allergy related, but glandular.

I knew what that meant.

It was getting worse, not better.

I finally told the Lord that if this was meant to be my “thorn in the flesh”, the thing that would keep me humbling coming before Him for the strength that could only come from Him, I would accept it.

Although deep inside I knew that this couldn’t possibly be His will. My family needed me! They needed all of me. Not a shell of me.

There was one thing that holding me back, and I knew it.Adrenal Fatigue and Exercise

Exercise

Adrenal Fatigue and Exercise

I have always hated exercise.

Being more of a book worm and nerd, I would much prefer to stay indoors and read a good book, listen to music, cook, bake, clean, research…just about anything else.

In my imagination I would love to be an outdoorsy gardening type – but let’s face  it. I’m not. I’m trying to be, and I’m confident that I can learn to be.

For Christmas one year I received a gift card that enabled me to buy a pedometer. I decided to invest in a good one, so I bought a FitBit Zip.

It tracks my steps, calories burned, miles walked and synchs with My Fitness Pal where I track my food. With the App available, you can compete against other FitBit users as well as track your food and weight loss progress.

This was key to getting me moving.

Now – before I began using the FitBit, I claimed I was “moderately active”. I wore the pedometer for 2-3 days and didn’t change anything. I wanted to see how active I really was.

They say that an active person tracks a minimum of 10,000 steps. I tracked barely 2,000.

The challenge was on!

I immediately began to search for ways to increase my number of steps and was amazed at how creative I became. But that’s not all that amazed me. After only one week I noticed my energy levels increasing.

I have been active and exercising consistently now for a month and the change in my body and metabolism are incredible.

The brain fog I used to have is gone and while I’m sometimes wake up in the morning feeling fatigued, it is significantly less than before.

Update 1/2020 – My Fitbit lasted me about 3 years, I wore it continuously. But it eventually wore out.

I now have a Mi Band fitness band that also tracks your heart rate and sleep cycle, as well as your jogging/walk route. It synchs with an app on your phone and even sends you weather alerts. 

What’s great is that the price is super reasonable. You can find the Mi Fit band here.

How Exercise Affects Adrenal Fatigue

Those who suffer with Adrenal Fatigue need to be very careful about exercise. While exercise and physical movement is good for the body, because it increases our  heart rate and releases endorphin levels – the “happy hormone” – and thus increases our metabolism, going overboard can actually be counter productive.

Too much exercise can put stress on the body, which puts stress on the adrenal glands, and therefore exacerbates the problem.

To start, simple walking is good. Just walk. Get those muscles moving. As you begin to building stamina, you can begin doing low-impact exercise and strength training; then slowly build up.

I am now jogging  in 4-minute intervals between 1-minute strength training exercises for 20-25 minutes a day. 3 days a week I add a 30-minute walk up a steep incline near our house.

I saved this article for last because I wanted to illustrate how I had all the other elements in place: I had destressedI was eating healthierand taking all the necessary supplements – but this piece of the puzzle was missing. This was the key to my recovery.

You have to have every piece of the puzzle present to make it work!

Adrenal Fatigue recovery is possible. It is a long journey, but there is a destination and that destination is normal, healthy, vibrant living. But you need to be consistent, disciplined and determined to do what it takes to make it happen.


Here are more articles on Adrenal Fatigue & Health

What Is Adrenal Fatigue

Stress and Adrenal Fatigue

How Food Affects Adrenal Fatigue

Adrenal Fatigue and Exercise

Supplements That Can Help Adrenal Fatigue

16 Ways Stay-at-Home Moms Can Get More Steps

12 Things Women Can Do to Avoid Becoming Fatigued

5 Decisions to Make on a Bad Day with Chronic Illness

Why I Began the Ketogenic Diet

The Acceptable Addiction

My Version of the Singing Canary

How I’ve Lost 40 Lbs and Kept It Off

4 Tools I’ve Used to Lose Weight

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18 Comments

  1. I know what you mean about exercise. I find that I enjoy walking though so I try to get when the weather’s nice. I also found a great online site – fit2b.us that has exercise videos that are perfect to me. They are short and most are easy. I enjoy those when I can’t get outside.

  2. Although I don’t think I struggle with Adrenal Fatigue, I have noticed a huge difference in clarity of my thoughts as well as my quality of sleep with exercise takes a priority. I’ve been slacking for months now, so this is a great reminder to get back out there! Thanks! šŸ™‚

  3. Here i got what i want i struggled too much for this problem but no solution came i took advice from so many qualified doctors but got no best results. But when i started doing proper exercise , proper diet and proper sleep then i overcome from adrenal fatigue.You explained in very proper way and easiest way to recover from adrenal fatigue.

  4. I can completely relate and told the Lord the same thing about my adrenal fatigue and health overall. I just found out about Dr Caroline Leaf and how how powerful our thought life truly is especially when it comes to our health. I’ve wanted to exercise but haven’t wanted to overdo it and crash so I’ve avoided it like the plaque. I would love to connect with you and chat if we could?

    1. Hi Dienna! Yes, I have also started following Dr. Caroline Leaf. Our thought life is so essential, and the Bible has much to say about that. I would be happy to connect with you. Please fee free to send me a message and I’ll be happy to respond.

  5. hi there! I know this post is a little old, but what sort of strength training did you do? did you run for 4 minutes and then drop and do push ups? I have many of the same problems as you, and I also have leaky gut and thyroid problems, so its all broken! I am just seeking real world advice, since I’m struggling with my doctors a bit. any advice you could give would be helpful.

    1. Between the running, I would rotate light dumbells (2-4 lbs), various styles of crunches, squats, and push-ups. Right now I am on the low carb/high fat / Ketogenic diet and it is amazing! I don’t know if you’ve heard of that, but Dr. Axe recommends it for Adrenal Fatigue. It’s tough the first week, but already I’m starting to feel a big change.

  6. I have had adrenal fatigue for 8 years, that I know for sure. I have been recovering from the downward spiral for four years. I found a dr. that has given me the help I needed. I kept exercising for a long time and couldn’t understand why I was more tired each time. Once I found out what my problem was I was told I was doing more harm to my body because of the adrenal fatigue. I have gained weight and know I have to do something so I did appreciate your motivation. I continuously told myself and was told by my dr. to keep a journal, maybe I will now, thank you, Janet

    1. Yes – adrenal fatigue will alone cause weight gain….but it also causes cravings for foods that promote weight gain. It is such a vicious cycle. I hope that you are able to continue to get well. It’s a journey – a long one – don’t give up!

  7. This link says it’s not available šŸ™ I have adrenal fatigue and have been trying keto for a few weeks. Found out about the adrenals when I kept exercising and eating well but was gaining weight! Now I’m also on adrenasense and keto, and turmeric for anxiety/depression. My life is not stress-free at the moment of which there isn’t much I can do as I have 5 children, youngest with special needs and all teenagers! God is my strength! I just want a decent exercise that won’t burn me out more?

    1. I am sorry the link was wrong. I’ve fixed it in the post. You can go here to read the post about exercise: https://www.alittleketocoaching.com/2018/09/how-exercise-affects-adrenal-fatigue.html

      It is so tricky with adrenal fatigue. Not moving at all doesn’t help, because your body needs movement, but too much is counterproductive. When you can’t resolve the stress you have (it is out of your realm of control), the best thing to do is to find ways to cope. Put up boundaries, ask for help….there are times when I allow my children to take video games to their room (they have strict parental controls on their devices) so mommy can have 10-20 minutes to just unwind…or even take a short nap Don’t feel guilty for doing things like that. Those moments are what help me cope so that I can be a more calm, loving, grace-filled mom.

      I have a whole series on my keto blog for Adrenal fatigue you can find it here: https://www.alittleketocoaching.com/search/label/Adrenal%20Fatigue

      You can also join my FB group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/rozketocoaching/

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