What To Do When You Just Can’t Workout
I think minor life stressors are manageable and we can get through them ok and mostly on track. However, the major, earth-shattering, life-changing kind of stressors are different. Things like deaths, relationships ending, job losses – they turn your world as you know it upside down. No matter how hard you fight back life keeps knocking you down – blow after blow.
My world has really been shaken in the last year. After my hysterectomy, my partner and I decided to separate which was so extremely painful and heartbreaking. But that was just the start – if you’ve ever had to use lawyers to divide property – well that’s a major life stressor in itself. We eventually agreed to sell the house – another huge stressor – especially in a declining market.
Amidst all this, I was preparing to close my training studio and make an international move back to Canada because I had nowhere else to go. I had no time to prepare for packing up a life I had built in this part of the world for almost 20 years and bringing my little cat with me. I’m a serious cat lady and I can’t bear the idea of stressing Nero out. It gave me so much anxiety.
It’s hard to describe just how exhausted, drained and defeated I felt. In reality, I had been pushed to the absolute limits of what I could handle mentally and emotionally over about 6 months.
Each day I would drag myself to my studio to train clients knowing that I had nothing to give and yet finding something. And on top of all of that, when I was at my most tired, I had to pack and move houses and my body started to break down. I started having back problems, swelling and all sorts of pain I have never had before. I was so tired and yet I couldn’t sleep.
In the past I had always said during times of stress it’s so important to prioritize self-care. The one thing you have control over is how you look after yourself and a big part of that is eating well and working out. When I’m stressed, training has always been my way of letting off steam and refocusing.
This was the first time in my life I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t bear to think about cooking food, let alone planning meals or chopping tons of vegetables at the end of a long day. For the first time ever, I didn’t want to go to the gym and when I got there I had absolutely nothing. No inspiration and no energy to train.
So what do you do when you just can’t do it?
My answer is still the same – sort of. You just need to do it anyway. But my previous advice on stress was a bit naïve. I had never experienced ongoing stress at such an extreme magnitude. I think until you’ve been taken down completely it’s hard to understand. I hope by sharing my experience and what I did during this time, you can find a few strategies to help carry you through your stressful time.
You Need To Exercise When Stressed – Even If You Don’t Feel Like It
In the past, working out has always been a way for me to deal with stress. This was the first time in my life that I didn’t want to train. The stress had sucked every ounce of energy from my body and truthfully I could barely get through the day to day things – let alone think about training. If you are reading this I hope you aren’t experiencing stress at that level.
If you are going through an extremely difficult time, your approach to training must be different. You have to balance your need to exercise with your need to recover and rest. Exercise can help manage stress but too much exercise during this time can set you back.
You also need to keep training to help your body deal with the extra blood glucose that gets released during stressful periods as part of the stress response. Exercise, particularly weight training, is going to help your body manage the extra glucose and that’s really important for your body composition but also your overall health.
Finally, cortisol is catabolic – which means it can make it harder for your body to build muscle and your body can actually start to use your muscles as a fuel source. This is purely anecdotal but I feel like I’ve lost a lot of muscle during this stressful time (over about the last 4-5 months) and I don’t necessarily think it’s from not training hard enough. I have been training regularly enough that I should have at least been able to maintain my muscle mass better but instead I feel skinny and I feel like I’ve lost a lot of shoulder, arm and back muscle. My legs have always been really muscular so I probably have lost muscle there I just don’t notice it as much.
So stress and muscle loss? Yep. In my experience, it’s a real thing.
How To Make Workouts More Do-Able – One Simple Trick You Need To Use!
If you get to a point where you just don’t want to exercise you need to make your workouts more do-able.
There are the more obvious things everyone talks about – scheduling your workouts, making sure you have your workout clothes ready to go, following a program, etc. However, sometimes you need a mental hack to get yourself moving.
There’s a little trick I’ve always used when I don’t feel motivated and that’s to tell myself I just have to do “four exercises.” Why four? Well, normally my workouts are about six or seven exercises. Four is more do-able and takes about 20 minutes. Sometimes this gets me to the gym and I find my groove and do a full workout.
During this stressful period of my life, however, I always stuck with four. Even on the days where I started to feel a bit better once I was training. I wanted to do enough to help me maintain muscle and fitness but I wanted to make sure I had some energy left for everything else I had to face that day. You don’t want to add to the stress on your body by beating yourself into the ground at the gym so leave a bit of energy in your system.
Be prepared – you will think things like: “What’s the point?”, “I’m not training hard enough to get results.”, “I may as well just stop training and pick it up when I feel better.”
Trust me, I said all those things to myself and it’s important to stay focused on that fact that all storms will pass. You will have energy again one day soon and you’ll be glad you kept going.
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Did you know I have Express Training Programs that are very popular for ladies during busy and stress times of life? I also have a very gentle Comeback program which has been popular both for ladies who need to step back a bit or to step back into training. Check out my Online Training Programs here and let me know you are after an Express (or the Comeback) program when you sign up.
When The Storm Clears
Eventually life will return to some semblance of normal, even if it’s a new normal. However, there’s a period between a major life stress and feeling 100% yourself and it’s important to understand.
When I moved into my own place and finally started to relax I became unbelievably tired and felt like I had even less energy for the gym. I slept for days and yet still felt tired. This is called the “let down effect” of stress.
After experiencing chronic stress or a major stressor, you can actually become lethargic and/or ill when your body starts to relax. Sometimes you may even experience a flare up if you have an autoimmune condition. I won’t go into details here as to why that happens – you can Google it if you want to learn more. But just know there will likely be a time period when you still can’t do too much and need to be gentle with yourself.
Then, one day when you aren’t expecting it you’ll have a little burst of energy or a feeling of “being yourself.” Like the sun poking through the clouds after a storm, your energy will come back slowly. Respect it and don’t start pushing yourself. Let it come back and when you’ve felt good for a while, you can reassess and make a new plan.
As for me, it took me about 2 weeks to go through the let down period and then I started to find my groove in the gym. I still scheduled more rest days than normal but I started having longer workouts again and found I was able to push myself like I couldn’t in the previous months.
I know it’s cliché but whatever you are going through will eventually pass. Look after yourself in the meantime and know that one day you will feel like yourself again. Possibly an even better, wiser, and stronger version of yourself.
