Exercise is good for you. You know this and we know this–we all know this. However, when you exercise in excessively the opposite happens to your body. Even though so many factors can lead to hormone imbalance, exercise can be one of those factors. If you have ever felt bloated, fatigued, or even mood swings, then your hormones have been out of whack before (or currently are). So how could your workouts be messing with your hormones?
Hormones and Exercise
When exercise becomes excessive, the body loses its ability to produce adequate energy for you to just function through your normal day, let alone during a workout. Something to be even more careful about too is if you are under a lot of stress too. Stress from life and stress from excessive workouts can be a huge huge concern. Figuring out if you have a lot of stress in your life or not will be a great assessment to make when figuring out how many times a week you should exercise.
There are also certain types of workouts that can be more stressful on your hormones than others. Workouts like HIIT, Crossfit, and Marathon Runners should keep their workout frequency in check. All of these exercises are great to put your body through, but not every day. Obviously, each of us are different but you need to really monitor how you are feeling throughout your days too and not just during your workouts.
Hormones that are affected easily when it comes to excessive exercising are your hormones related to thyroid conditions, adrenal fatigue, and PCOS. Your body is constantly trying to achieve balance and in order to do so, the body needs to feel like it is in a healing state, not a stressed state. Workouts like HIIT, Crossfit, and Running may cause a little stress to the balance your body is trying to achieve.
Although, we cannot tell you what exactly will work for you. It is important to now pay attention to your body after learning what is actually happening to your body possibly with your workouts.
Additionally, working in exercises like yoga, pilates and swimming into your more high-stress hormone workouts can really help the body get into the balance it is trying to achieve. Lower impact exercises and stretching protect the adrenal glands and balance your hormones.
Always, keep up with your water intake too as your hormones love H2O too!
