YYou are stressed, you do not sleep well and it seems that life drags you down. You want to exercise, but when you do, it only creates anxiety and a heavy feeling in your body. In fact, you rarely experience the buzz that everyone else seems to get after exercising.
However, everyone tells you that there is nothing like a good sweat, right? Well-meaning friends and self-help articles say that feeling that burn will improve your mood.
The truth is, though, that a heart-pumping workout can sometimes turn the fountain of stress, and actually cause more harm than good when it comes to your health.
I know it very well. When I was in my early 20s, I had fun working out in gyms, giving classes full of vitality and positive energy with a little sweat. But after a few years, I started getting sick again and again. I lost the energy to get through my sessions and began to experience anxiety, moodiness, and muscle pain that rarely went away.
Having first joined a gym at age 14, I’ve spent much of my life turning to movement for an emotional boost. It used to make me feel good no matter what was going on and help me create the energy to keep up with life itself. But by my mid-twenties, I had exhausted my system to the max, I was overtraining and I had pushed myself to exhaustion—emotionally, physically, mentally.
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I realized that I needed to review my lifestyle. So I started optimizing my sleep, eating better and eating less. And, more importantly, I refined the balance of the types of exercise I was doing.
You see, I wanted to keep moving. I couldn’t do any. But I certainly needed to listen to what my body was telling me. To give my nervous system a chance to restore itself,
I moved away from what I considered to be traditional forms of gym sessions (cardio, strength work, core, weights, circuits, boxing) and instead embraced Pilates, yoga, stretching, and meditation.
Now, at 40, I know how to take a sustainable approach to exercise. Instead of trying to keep up with my peers like I used to, I approach each week with a new honor level of my own. I check how much energy I have based on my time, my business, my guys, my ability. And I respect it. I push where I can, but pull back when I need to, and I move with purpose, focus, and control at all times.
A typical week for me now involves (at most) five days of 30-minute sessions: two Pilates-based full-body strength routines using bodyweight and resistance bands, two low-impact cardio sessions including low-impact HIIT or a brisk walk outside, and a full-body weight session, plus a short 15-minute yoga-based stretching/mindfulness session that includes meditation most days.
Exercise is now an ever-evolving but enjoyable part of my life. It is not a burden, it is not a stress, but it is always a positive encouragement, even on a difficult day. Because I’ve decided that, at 40, I don’t have and don’t want the ability to fight to push myself when it’s just not happening. “Working out” is not worth my health or happiness.
Interestingly, I’ve found that when you learn to balance more intense workouts with lighter, more controlled movements, you’re more likely to reach your fitness goals because you create room for your body to recover. And when you prioritize parts of your fitness that you may never have thought about before (like your nervous system or the effects of hormonal changes), you begin to see things in a new light.
My idea of exercise has evolved and I now see fitness primarily as a way to connect my body and mind. This approach has relaxed not just me, but countless clients of mine so I can exercise smarter, not harder. We work hard, but build an incredible foundation, honoring our health every step of the way.
The good thing is when you always ask yourself, “How will this activity make me feel?” and, “Will this really help my energy, body, and health?” you release a lot of anxiety by keeping up with what to think fitness should be.
It’s old school thinking that you need to work hard or go home. Respecting that taking things with a little less impact due to the pelvic floor shift, for example, may be the way to go. Reduce your workouts 60 minutes A balanced and effective routine of 20 or 30 minutes a few days a week can help you build more strength. (Sciences even supports this.)
Consider how you feel after various forms of movement and whether the balance of your workouts is something you can enjoy for the next 10, 20, 30 years or more.
The next time you want to take it easy, try this smooth flow:
