Whether you love it or hate it, we all need exercise. But if you’re suffering with adrenal fatigue, your sweat sessions may be making things worse.

“You mean, I can’t spin at Soul Cycle or rack up my reps on the bench press?”

It depends. Your hormones are running the show, and they may require you to adapt your routine.

It’s More than Burning Calories

Every movement you make during a workout sends signals to your hormones.

During a workout, you’re not only burning calories and building muscle. Every movement you make is sending a message to your body’s hormones—and each movement communicates something different. For instance, powerful short bursts stimulate HGH (human growth hormone) and testosterone, while low-force, sustained movements rev up cortisol and can decrease testosterone if performed too long. The goal is to pick a style of exercise that creates the best conversation with all your hormones.

When you have adrenal fatigue, this can be tough. Your adrenal gland system is already severely overworked, and the addition of a hormonal shift can send it into overdrive. So, which exercises are the worst offenders for adrenal fatigue?

3 Exercises to Avoid if You Have Adrenal Fatigue

1. Long-Duration, Steady-State Cardio
Say good-bye to those long-distance runs if you have adrenal fatigue. The biochemical signal it sends is just too stressful for your adrenal system. A University of British Columbia study found that men who ran over 40 miles per week had noticeably lower testosterone levels than short-distance runners. In another study, researchers found that cortisol levels more than doubled and remained higher than baseline runners a day after a long race. They also noted the runners had higher levels of the enzymes lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatine kinase (CK), both of which are associated with muscle tissue damage and breakdown.

Crossfit pushes your body to its limit, which is bad for those who suffer from adrenal fatigue. (Photo: Rose PT Group)

2. Circuit Training
While jumping from machine to machine is a great way to optimize your time at the gym, the signal this sends to your hormones is too stressful for your body to tolerate. You need more rest periods between exercises when doing resistance training.

3. Crossfit
The lure of heavy squatting, deadlifting, and benching can be strong, but those Crossfit routines are challenging more than your muscles. Strength training that that pushes your body to exhaustion for long periods can be disastrous if you’re struggling with adrenal issues.

Don’t Pack Away Your Gym Clothes Just Yet

The good news is you don’t have to stop doing these exercises completely… you just have to adapt them.

• Extend rest periods until you feel like you’re recovered
• Keep cardio intensity low, especially if you’re doing it longer
• Opt for weight training instead of cardio
• Choose high intensity/heavy training in short bursts with long periods of recovery

Keep the weight heavy, the reps low, and the rest periods long (i.e. Five reps with up to two minutes of rest in between)

Ready to take charge of your health? We’re ready to help. Get in touch.

When you’re tired but can’t sleep, you pop a pill.

But what do you do when your adrenal glands aren’t at their peak—when exhaustion, brain fog, and illness persist? Is there a magic tablet to take? A simple solution to swallow? Believe it or not, there is, but it’s only a short-term fix to a potentially long-term problem.

The stress of metabolic adaptation, chemical exposure, food allergies, and hormonal imbalance can overwork your adrenal glands, and many people are quick to take adrenal adaptogens for this fatigue. Similar to whipping a horse for a burst of speed, these herbs will certainly boost function in the short term, but what happens when you stop taking them? You’re back to square one—sick and tired.

How to Boost Adrenal Function Naturally

If an eyelash is stuck in your eye, you don’t use eye drops or take aspirin for the irritation. You remove the offending eyelash. The same goes for adrenal fatigue. You must remove the aggravating factors to improve your glands’ overall function. Because the longer you continue making poor lifestyle choices, the more your body struggles to recuperate from physical and emotional stress.

The causes of adrenal fatigue vary, but taking small steps can hugely benefit how your glands function. Here are three ways to do just that.

1. Improve your diet

Adrenal recovery and a healthy diet go hand in hand. Start by removing foods and ingredients that tax your adrenals, such as:

• Caffeine: Can lead to sleeplessness, causing adrenal wear and tear
• Carbohydrates: Increase blood sugar levels and inflammation as the adrenals are forced to release more cortisol
• Hydrogenated oils: Vegetable oils are highly inflammatory, leading to adrenal inflammation
• Sugar and artificial sweeteners: Overconsumption causes a rapid rise and fall in blood sugar levels, and forces the adrenals to release cortisol to bring your blood sugar levels back up

Next, introduce foods that are high in fat and low in sugar, and packed with nutrients and fiber, including:

A healthy diet can improve adrenal function. (Photo: Pexels)

• Avocado
• Bone broth
• Coconut & Coconut oil
• Cruciferous veggies
• Fish
• Ginseng
• Kelp and seaweed
• Nuts
• Olives
• Sea salt
• Seeds

2. Exercise…but not too much

Physical activity is great for the mind and body, but overdoing it and cause your adrenals to underperform. Over-exercising can create an inflammatory buildup in the body, leading to water retention. Next thing you know, you’re stuck at the same weight for months, looking a lot puffier than you remembered.

Over-exercising can push your adrenal glands to the limit. (Photo by Isabella Mendes via Pexels)

If you’re wondering if you’re overtraining, consider taking advantage of the revolutionary InBody technology available at Twin Cities Metabolism, which measures fluid retention, the first sign of overtraining (more on that in an upcoming blog post!).

3. Avoid chemicals and toxins

In our busy world of instant gratification and convenience, it’s difficult to completely avoid chemical stressors—but you can limit exposure. At home, choose fresh foods over microwaveable, ultra-processed meals with preservatives and fillers. Stop loading up on over-processed red meats that are high in hormones and lacking nutrition. Choose grass-fed beef, and free-range turkey or chicken instead, and consume them in moderation.

Test and Address Adrenal Fatigue

If you suspect your adrenals are being pushed beyond their limit, a quick saliva and/or blood test for cortisol and DHEA can provide a diagnosis. But to get to the cause—the previously mysterious root of your adrenal fatigue—you’re going to need additional testing. Fortunately, Twin Cities Metabolism has seen it all, and we know what to look for.

Ready to take charge of your adrenal fatigue once and for all? We’re ready to guide you. Get in touch.

Who would think that something the size of a walnut and weight of a grape can have such control over your health? The adrenal glands sit on top of the kidneys, working hard to manufacture the hormones that make you vital and full of life. When they’re overworked, you’re overwhelmed with health issues.

What If?

Stress and poor diet put strain on the adrenals, causing brain fog. (Photo: Harman Abiwardani via Unsplash)

If you’re experiencing brain fog…

.. then you may have a nutritional deficiency. Many of the factory-farmed meat and processed foods we eat don’t support brain health. Your brain relies on a steady stream of vitamins and minerals, glucose, essential fatty acids, and amino acids to function. Stress and a poor diet put pressure on your adrenal glands, causing inflammation and changes to the three primary hormones (cortisol, dopamine, and serotonin) that determine your energy, mood, and focus.

If you’re feeling “puffy…”

…then you may be retaining water. Stress can trigger your body’s fight-or-flight response and pump out the hormone aldosterone. When functioning normally, this chemical regulates your blood pressure, and levels water and electrolytes in your blood. Under stress, aldosterone tells your kidneys to retain salt, which makes your body retain as much liquid as possible, so you feel bloated.

If you can’t lose weight even though you exercise and eat right…

…then your metabolism may have adapted. When you’re an under-eater and/or over-exerciser, your adrenal glands get stressed, produce an over-abundance of cortisol, and leave you with metabolic adaptation—or worse, metabolic damage.

Adrenal fatigue can run down your immune system.  (Photo via Pixabay)

If you’re constantly getting sick…

…then your immune system may be compromised. Continual stress can weaken the adrenals to the point where they can no longer adequately stimulate your immune system to keep you healthy. While you may only be dealing with recurring colds or the flu, proper immune system function is responsible for preventing more serious conditions like cancer and autoimmune diseases.

If you have a thyroid condition, and synthetic hormones don’t help…

…your adrenal function may be to blame. People with thyroid disorders often have weak adrenals. And if they’re underproducing or overproducing cortisol, your thyroid condition can get much worse.

If your libido is diminished…

… you may have low hormone levels. When your stress levels are high and energy levels are low, reproduction takes a back seat to survival and recovery. To conserve energy, your body lessens (and in some cases, stops) the production of estrogen and testosterone—the hormones responsible for your sex drive.

Boost Your Adrenal Function Naturally

Fortunately, a saliva and/or blood test for cortisol and DHEA can help diagnose adrenal fatigue, but you’ll require a variety of other tests to diagnose the cause. At Twin Cities Metabolism, we’ll start by asking you the right questions, follow with a battery of tests to banish any doubt about a diagnosis, and proceed with a customized treatment plan (which we’ll explore in next week’s post).

Ready to take charge of your adrenal function? We’re ready to guide you. Get in touch.

You walked around for years in a sleepy state, unable to lose weight, and feeling cold and puffy—but you finally know why! Your metabolism doctor confirmed that you’re suffering from adrenal fatigue. And now you have even more questions.

What are you doing to cause that extra wear and tear on your adrenal system? Why do you have increased inflammation? In short, why do your adrenal glands hate you?!

Your Adrenals Aren’t the Cause

As we mentioned in our last blog post, something is making your adrenal system work overtime, and more often than not, it’s biochemical and/or physical stress. These stressors cause the inflammation that’s putting your health at risk. Let’s take a look at a few.

Over-exercising can negatively impact your adrenal glands. (Photo: Pixabay via Pexels)

Over-Exercising

A few blog posts back, we introduced you to Danielle who stacked up three hours in the gym each day but fell flat on results. While her struggle had more to do with undereating and metabolic adaptation, if she took a closer look at her ankles instead of her biceps, she might have picked up a clue. Over-training can cause an inflammatory buildup in the body, manifesting as puffiness. Chances are, when Danielle removed her socks, sports bra, and smartwatch, there was an outline where each of them had rested for her three-hour workout. And had she visited her metabolism doctor, cutting-edge technology could have precisely measured her fluid distribution and confirmed she was over-exercising.

Food Allergies

Food allergies and intolerances are on the rise. Research shows that over the past 10-15 years, 15 million Americans, including 1 in 13 children, have a food allergy. What’s worse, many people are unaware they suffer from food intolerance because their symptoms vary and often appear hours, or even days, after the food is consumed. So, they keep eating that gluten or drinking that milk, creating a nasty chemical reaction that ultimately damages their adrenals.

Adrenals are affected by increased use of chemicals in agriculture. (Photo: Pixabay via Pexels)

Toxins and Chemicals

You might wonder why your grandparents’ generation didn’t suffer with all these food allergies. Well, you can blame the increased use and production of chemicals in industry and agriculture for that. In the “good old days,” food wasn’t yet treated with additives, antibiotics, and hormones to help preserve shelf life. While they’ve made life more convenient, they’re ultimately damaging bodily tissue and causing the inflammation that affects your adrenal glands. Add in the toxins we breathe in daily from the production process, and it’s enough to make you want to live on a deserted island.

What You Can Do

Instead of packing up and setting sail for Solitary Island, you can take real steps to overcome the stressors that are strong-holding your adrenals. At Twin Cities Metabolism, we can help you make small changes in your daily life to ensure extraordinary results for your health.

Ah, sleep. It’s a wonderful thing. After an undisturbed eight hours, you feel rested, refreshed, and ready to attack the day.

Except when you’re not. Instead you find yourself crashing mid-morning…and never really rallying back. Your energy’s low—and your eyeballs weigh 100 lbs. And since no doctor has been able to diagnose the issue, you feel your zombie days will never come to an end.

Maybe It’s Adrenal Fatigue

When you’re always tired, your body enters a stressed state, gets inflamed, and tries to compensate—especially the adrenal gland system. This stress-response organ of the body is like a fulcrum, and every move you make in your life wears it down. When the wear and tear get to be too much—health issues ensue. That extreme fatigue you’re feeling day to day? It’s likely adrenal fatigue.

But it could be more than exhaustion. You could experience:

• Dry skin
• Feeling cold often
• Fluid retention and puffiness
• Inability to lose weight
• Insomnia
• Large swings in weight day to day
• Loss of sex drive
• Poor stamina
• Thyroid dysfunction

But My Doctor Said…

Conventional doctors don’t look deep enough (photo: pixabay via Pexels)

If you’re one of the unlucky undiagnosed, you already visited your conventional medical doctor about your symptoms. Perhaps they even suspected an adrenal issue (good news!), but then approached it from an adrenal disease standpoint (possibly bad news). Here’s the thing. When conventional medicine suspects an issue with the adrenal system, they test for a complete failure of the gland itself. If it’s completely “broken,” you have Addison’s Disease. If there’s an overproduction (resulting from adrenal tumors), you have Cushing’s Syndrome. What if you have neither?

Could it be that it’s not a complete failure of the glands, and instead, they’re just not working as optimally as they should? Perhaps they’re not in a diseased state, but rather, showing signs of wear and tear? Here at Twin Cities Metabolism, we approach adrenal fatigue by looking beyond the system itself.

You’re Stressed Out

Something boosted your inflammatory levels, and more often than not, it’s biochemical and/or physical stress. Sure, we all sit around worrying about our growing to-do lists and racked-up regrets, but that’s mental stress. And while it can surely affect your adrenal function, we see a much closer relationship with biochemical and physical stress. Conditions like leaky gut syndrome, blood sugar disorders, and over-exercising can put your adrenal function through the wringer. If you don’t dig deeper to see what’s damaging yours, you may be doomed to low energy and high dependence on medication for life.

Fortunately, we do dig deeper. Next week, we’ll provide a closer look at those biochemical and physical stressors that can cause adrenal fatigue to see if they’re too present in your life.