Adrenal Damage Test

The do’s and don’ts of exercise are key when you have adrenal fatigue.  The exercise groups you don’t want to do are the ones that will increase the stress on the body. The adrenal glands are the antistressor glands and exercise in and of itself is a stress to the body. If the adrenal glands are already fatigued then you don’t want to do high-intensity exercise because it could cause the glands to fatigue even more.

When the body experiences stress the adrenals react to that. Most of the benefits of exercise occur during recovery so if the adrenals are already too overstressed and you stress them more with exercise you’re not going to have a great recovery.

Let’s cover the ‘Don’ts’: 

Heavy weight lifting is a no if you have adrenal fatigue. You don’t want the body to be sore when adrenal fatigue is present. Being sore after a workout means that you damaged or broke down your muscles. If there is a stress strong enough to damage muscle tissue, that’s too much stress for the adrenals.

Sprinting is not good for those with adrenal fatigue. Any fast, hard runs will stress the body.

High intensity exercises or long cardio sessions cause too much stress on the adrenal glands and weaken them.

All of these exercises can cause an increase in cortisol and lead to worsening of your adrenal fatigue.

Adrenal Damage Test

On the other hand, doing exercises that help to oxygenate the blood and potentially lower cortisol.

So, in the ‘Do’ category we have exercises such as yoga, stretching, Pilates and walking that can be beneficial.

Walking and breathing  – You want to walk at a moderate pace and as you are walking take deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth.

Yoga or Pilates are great to do if you have adrenal fatigue. They help improve stress, anxiety, strength, inflammation and help you relax.

Light weight lifting – There are many benefits to light weight lifting, the main one being it doesn’t stress your body like heavy weight lifting. Light weight lifting gives your body the movement it needs and helps build lean muscle mass, endurance strength while reducing your chance of injury.