Burnout is the unfortunate buzzword that so many are going through or may be lucky to have emerged fairly unscathed at the other end.
In overcoming burnout as a whole, you must consider your overall lifestyle and how you can reduce energy output to reboot your depleted stores.
(I will talk about this in more detail in a different post but for now, take a look at my four pillars to overcoming burnout video here.)
In this post I’ll share a few tips and insights into the relationship and role that fitness plays during one’s burnout journey to healing.
This can help you master a healthy, more balanced approach towards managing fitness during burnout to ensure you do not make it worse. Yes, in some cases, exercise can be bad for your health.
‘Say what?’ ‘Fitness is a healthy endeavor though, right?’ ‘How can it make my health worse?’
I hear you. To clarify:
Fitness IS a necessary part of our wellbeing. That’s not news.
BUT….(and there is a big but…)
Good intentions towards fitness and to get healthy to aid one’s burnout recovery can easily backfire and contribute to the problem of burnout itself.
In fact, I have seen it time and time again.
Let’s find out how, so you can avoid falling victim to fitness causing more stress and burnout to your life when that’s the exact thing you are trying to overcome.
Here’s a few important notes first:
- Burnout (as a general term) – refers to one’s complete physical, mental and emotional health being exhausted. Nothing left in the tank. This can be caused by long term work demands, long term stress, and issues arising in a person’s work life or personal life.
- Fitness Burnout – refers to a person’s burnout being solely caused by the fitness regime itself. So in this case it would obviously stand that a person was participating in a regular fitness regime of some kind, and simply over training with less than viable recovery to balance it out.
The two are interrelated, but also separate depending on the individual.
Even if you do not exercise or this part of it has no relevance to you, I wanted to make mention of fitness burnout (which I will cover in depth in another article), because it will likely be relevant for you to address this issue (at least the exercise component, not necessarily overtraining.)
In working people to navigate through their physical burnout, the topic of too much exercise (or lack thereof) does come up at some point. So it’s good to be briefed on this overall so you know what you may be dealing with.
Let’s explore this.
During burnout your body is fatigued, your mind may be foggy and your energy capacity is limited, to say the least.
Your body’s systems are likely drained.
People generally become worn out when they are on high-alert, primed for action, ready to go for long periods of time.
Enter the fight or flight response (stress response.) This is part of our physiology and a necessary one to help us react quickly, but overstimulation can cause problems.
On a physiological level, here’s what happens during the fight or flight response:
-Cortisol and adrenaline are released
-Pulse rate increases
-Breathing increases
-HPA axis is activated
Even low level on-going stress has been shown to continue to trigger the stress response and the issues arise overtime of :
‘…damaged blood vessels and arteries, increasing blood pressure and raising risk of heart attacks or strokes. Elevated cortisol levels create physiological changes that help to replenish the body’s energy stores that are depleted during the stress response. But they inadvertently contribute to the buildup of fat tissue and to weight gain.’ (According to Harvard Health.)
Think about that change happening in your body already, and you may have just be thinking about work! (not actually doing a physical thing like running from danger to promote this cascade of physiological responses.)
End result though is to return to normal (hopefully) , eventually the body sorts itself out and settles down. Thank you parasympathetic nervous system.
Phew, it’s over.
But is it?
The nature of the chronic stress beast rears its ugly head in the shadows and kicks on like an idle motor, draining you. Burnout is still present, you do not feel yourself just yet.
You get the picture.
Enter the idea to exercise and get healthy.
Here’s two common scenarios I help with every week:
Person A (Currently In Burnout – Does Not Exercise) : always tired, mental fog, everything is a struggle, stress response going haywire and not doing any level of exercise, yet is getting told by everyone to exercise to help their health.
Person B (Currently In Burnout – Does Exercise At A Moderate To High Intensity 4-6 Days A Week): always tired, mental fog, everything is a struggle, already participating in a fitness regime but finding they are losing motivation, have no energy and cannot perform at the level they used to (also signs of overtraining but also signs of the actual burnout itself.)
Here’s my pro tips for each of these people (hopefully you can relate to at least one):
Person A :
- Does need to exercise – but let’s actually rename it to ‘restorative movement’ for now so they do not get overwhelmed needing to juggle yet another ball in mid air.
- Currently their nervous system is probably shot so let’s participate in balanced, lighter styles of movement to nurture the body without adding excess load to avoid copious amounts of adrenaline and cortisol being activated and an inability to sustain motivation and energy required for intensive output.
- For example – forget weights and equipment for now (especially if novice anyway), and focus on gently strengthening and mobilising the body, building their core & posture, mastering bodyweight-type moves (for example, master slower-paced fitness moves like squats, pushups and stretching using lighter form of fitness (bodyweight exercises – you are the load), Pilates, yoga (light to moderate), tai chi and gentle fitness. Focus on breath and control.
Person B :
- Needs to modify their exercise – and allow time in the schedule to focus on restoration, lighter styles (even if it means it’s a step back from what they normally do which can be hard for the ego to deal with, trust me, I have been there.)
- Currently their nervous system is also likely shot and although they are used to the release, sweat and feeling of what fitness has currently provided for them, the body needs to back it off for a while to fully recover from burnout and not deepen the exhaustion.
- This varies per individual – so go with how you feel. For example, if you are still coping with the high level of fitness without needing to sleep after workouts, your immune system is still healthy, you are functioning well and do not feel too stressed, then adding in even one or two ‘restorative’ sessions may be enough. BUT, if you are starting to feel ill effects from the exercise itself (lack of performance during, deep lethargy after, constant sore muscles, head fog during or after workouts) then they are a few red flags you need to pay attention to.
The basic reasoning for finding the right balance of fitness during this time is twofold:
1 – Energy management
2 – Speeding up the recovery of burnout
Energy output during burnout is already heavily reduced.
Exercise generally demands a higher level of energy output than sitting doing work to perform the movements, the exercises, the physical increase in heart rate, movement pace, stamina and challenge.
That’s what exercise is – a stress on the body to promote adaptations in cells which provide us with the amazing benefits of strength, agility, cardio health, sports-related goals, bone density, brain health and all the other good stuff. Our bodies are amazing and quickly able to adapt to new loads.
However – why strain energy management when it’s already at an all time low and place undue strain on your muscles and mind?
There is no need at this point. It is not the time to be aiming for high level weight loss goals (your insulin has probably been affected by cortisol anyway, making fat loss harder.)
It is not the time to strive to win your local marathon. It is not the time to train and compete in ninja warrior.
No, not in the midst of significant burnout (with notes on the training symptoms I mentioned above.)
Secondly – the ability to pull yourself fully out of burnout is a matter of time with the correct adjustments for what you need personally.
If all your limited energy stores are spent on the pursuit of fitness, you will prolong your recovery and set it back. I made that mistake by getting ‘cocky,’ thinking I was ready to leap back into heavily loaded weights, plyometrics and sweat-fest workouts.
When you sacrifice the next three days following a workout, it’s a problem.
Lastly, (not really but I better wrap this up!)
Please listen to your body.
There are days during your burnout recovery where you will have a glimmer of energy, a glimmer of heightened vitality and this is great!
Go with it and enjoy it, but do not go overboard especially with the exercise load and revert back to the hard-core stuff just yet. There is plenty of time for this and we can get back there if that’s what you desire!
If you feel you can do that (obviously your version of hard-core is different to the next person who reads this), then push a little, but keep it incremental. Do not go AWOL and damage your progress. Let’s get you back to balance first and get your stamina and energy output up where your body can handle it.
Exercise smarter, not harder. #exercisesmarternotharder
Reach out if you need any guidance on this! Share with a friend.
Power to your core,
Vanessa Bartlett
Leading burnout-friendly fitness | Pilates | life coach
aka Pilates Police
Join me on socials! @vanessabhealth
Need help discovering your perfectly balanced fitness?
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