Exercising While Tired: When to Push Through
A healthy lifestyle includes exercise, such as walking, jogging, swimming, dancing, gardening, or playing sports. Unfortunately, when you’re tired, a workout becomes the least important item on your to-do list. However, depending on the level of tiredness, exercise is often beneficial. Of course, such physical activity depends on the level of fatigue and its cause.
If weariness is due to a health condition, exercise or physical therapy may improve the illness and its symptoms. Trained professionals determine a program tailored to your abilities and limitations. These activities boost circulation, increase strength, and improve clarity and focus. The following sections cover when to push yourself to exercise and when to avoid it.
When is a Workout OK When Tired?
Physical activity has several well-known benefits. It builds strength, boosts blood flow, improves your mood, and helps you sleep. It also clears unwanted sugars and fat from your diet, helping you lose weight and manage several medical conditions.
When you’re fatigued, these benefits may seem unimportant. However, exercise may reduce mild tiredness in the body or mind.
Mild tiredness
Feeling tired occasionally isn’t abnormal. Staying up late, working too hard, or eating unhealthy meals decreases energy and motivation to move.
Luckily, a workout combats mild tiredness. Exercising produces mitochondria, which convert glucose into fuel, boosting energy levels. Circulation also increases, distributing the new energy throughout the body.
Exercise also helps calm the mind, so you sleep better at night 3. As well as falling asleep quicker, deep sleep increases, preventing you from waking unnecessarily throughout the night.
Mental fatigue
Studies show many factors contribute to mental load and the resulting fatigue. Managing and completing tasks, dealing with clients and colleagues, and other work responsibilities are often exhausting. At home, meal preparation, cleaning, yard work, maintenance, and childcare also contribute. Financial concerns, medical conditions, and world events worsen mental fatigue.
A workout may counter such tiredness. Physical activity releases chemicals to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. It calms your mind, boosts self-esteem, and increases positivity while reducing negative thoughts.
When isn’t it OK?
Though exercise benefits mild body and mental fatigue, it isn’t always beneficial. In fact, physical activity is damaging when done at the wrong time. The following sections discuss when to avoid a workout.
Severe fatigue
Severe fatigue isn’t the same as general tiredness. It occurs when you have no energy, even after sleeping. It could result from poor lifestyle choices, mental health issues, or a medical condition.
Unlike general tiredness, a workout during severe fatigue worsens the condition. Studies show severe fatigue from sleep deprivation reduces time to exhaustion rather than countering it. If you’re chronically tired, consult a medical professional to determine the cause.
Due to Illness
Exercising isn’t always a bad idea when you’re sick. For instance, a mild head cold likely won’t worsen with physical activity.
However, experts say you should avoid exercise if the illness affects anything below the neck. When you’re dealing with respiratory issues, stomach problems, or a fever, avoid strenuous activity. If you’re already tired from your sickness, a workout could exhaust you. Your body won’t have the energy to heal, so resting is best to improve recovery.
Resources:
- Mayo Clinic, Exercise: 7 benefits of regular physical activity
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise/art-20048389 - Harvard Health Publishing, July 1, 2021, Does exercise really boost energy levels?
https://www.health.harvard.edu/exercise-and-fitness/does-exercise-really-boost-energy-levels - Johns Hopkins Medicine, Exercising for Better Sleep
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/exercising-for-better-sleep - PubMed Central, Understanding mental fatigue and its detection: a comparative analysis of assessments and tools, Kaveena Kunasegaran, Ahamed Miflah Hussain Ismail, Shamala Ramasamy, Justin Vijay Gnanou, Brinnell Annette Caszo, Po Ling Chen, Editor: André Aleman https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10460155/
- Better Health, Exercise and mental health
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/exercise-and-mental-health - PubMed, March 2009, O Azboy, Z Kaygisiz, Effects of sleep deprivation on cardiorespiratory functions of the runners and volleyball players during rest and exercise,
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19264040/ - American Heart Association, Jan. 13, 2021, Is it OK to exercise when you’re sick?
https://www.heart.org/en/news/2021/01/13/is-it-ok-to-exercise-when-youre-sick
This article is for educational and informational purpose only and does not substitute for professional medical advice. For any questions about your own health condition, speak to a qualified physician or healthcare provider.
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