the exercise, stress + gut connection

Yesterday I taught a yoga class (with weights)!! Adding weights to a flow class can be pretty tough, and not for every body at every moment in time. There was one student who heeded my advice to only do what felt good and she rested in childs pose quite a few times. I thought, how great that she heard when her body said it was too much and she listened. And backed off.

I have noticed over the years that many of us view exercise in a rather one dimensional way. Exercise should be hard, no matter what. That even if you feel tired or in need of a rest, you should override this. That we always need to sweat, get our heartrate up and “improve” or we aren’t really doing anything. I get this view and I held this view for a while. It is certainly cool to observe the limitations the mind has of our capacity and see what we are capable of.. physically and otherwise. But how much and what type of exercise is good for us? And when should we choose instead to drop into metaphorical childs’ pose?

We know exercise is important to a healthy, happy body and mind. And inactivity and sitting too much are bad. However, like the Buddha, there is a middle ground with exercise that provides the greatest longevity benefits over the long term.

Not exercising enough can harm your immune system, reduce your stress resilience, and dysregulate your circadian rhythm. However, there is such a thing as exercising too much — too long, too intensely, too frequently, and without recovery time. Overexercising can also cause problems to our stress-response system, leading to immune problems, injury, leaky gut (intestinal permeability which causes malabsorption of nutrients) and hormonal imbalance and menstrual and infertility problems in women.

Exercise.. Great stress reliever?

I was brought up thinking this. Were you? This can be true. This can NOT be true. If you are in balance with work, professional life and make time for play, fun and relaxation, exercise, even high intensity exercise, may be a great way to release the days events and just be in your body. But if you are trying to manage chronic stress, or are in the early staged of burnout or adrenal fatigue, exercise may not be a stress reliever but a stress creator.

Let’s remember that exercise is a stressor to the body. Since stress can be both good and bad, this is often not a bad thing. For person A with the balanced work/professional/fun life, exercise can be a positive stressor. But for person B, cardio sports like running, HIIT training or cardio boot camps can trigger an undesired stress hormone response, which is not helpful if you are already trying to manage chronic stress or adrenal fatigue.

Overexercising releases two important hormones: cortisol and Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and cortisol. Cortisol levels rise with rigorous exercise, such as running, which may cause too much wear and tear and accelerated aging. It also affects or gut and digestive health. High cortisol can alter tight junctions between cells in our gut/GI tract, so that we have a harder time keeping the good stuff in (nutrients, electrolytes, water and beneficial bacteria),and blocking the bad stuff out (antigens, bad bacteria, toxins). High cortisol reduces gut motility, blocks digestion, blunts blood flow to the gut, and lessens production of mucus we need for proper immune function. CRH also increases the permeability of the intestinal wall and also the lungs, skin, and blood-brain barrier. So overexercising can actually affect our gut and digestive health, our hormone system and our immune system. This is good to know for some of us, at certain times in our lives.

I usually recommend clients managing burnout and adrenal fatigue (also called HPA disregulation) keep cardio to 20 minutes or less, be very mindful of heartbeat increase by wearing a heartrate monitor to make sure we stay within healthy ranges and not trigger the stress hormone cascade. If this is you, or you are just going through a more stressful period, I would opt for weight training, yoga, stretching or walks. Walks (especially in nature) are going to be a great way to get some exercise AND manage cortisol levels at the same time. Especially if the increased stress seems to be impacting sleep quality or circadian rhythms. Get outside AND move your body and help your stress response. Win. Win.

I tend to alternate between hard days with challenging sweaty yoga, Peloton, boot camps and the like with LOOOONG walks on the river by my house, lighter yoga and chill movements. Listening to my body (the physical one AND the energetic and emotional ones). :)

If you are a big time athlete or training for an event, in addition to eating enough whole food calories and nutrients to make up for the calorie deficit from exercise so you don’t initiate your own stress response, you may need to supplement with electrolytes, amino acids, probiotics and Omega 3s.