Why your HIIT workouts might not be working!

29 Nov

If you’re prone to stress, or anxiety or have a hormonal imbalance and are only doing HIIT training then you could be adding to the problem making it worse.

“But doesn’t exercise reduce stress?” We can hear you asking!

Yes, exercise can be an amazing stress reduction and management tool but it needs to be the right exercise.

What happens when we do HIIT?

When we do HIIT workouts our body releases a hormone which is called cortisol.

This hormone controls how our body responds to stressors and is in charge of the fight or flight response.

If you are a stressed-out person who is already releasing cortisol and then you go and add in regular HIIT training you could essentially be making your stress and anxiety much worse.

We don’t want this!

If your hormones are balanced and you are not super stressed and you do a few HIIT sessions per week then you’ll be absolutely fine.

BUT, if you are stressed out and in the red zone without exercise, so many of us are here right now with the festive season coming, running around after little ones and trying to fit in exercise with everything else that is busy mum life!

Then your cortisol levels will already be high.

Add in HIIT and ya body may struggle to bring your cortisol levels down leaving you feeling like you are running from a bear all day long….

What happens with elevated cortisol?

With constantly elevated cortisol your body will feel the need to protect itself from outside stressors including your HIIT workouts.

You might have had incredible results and then all of a sudden wonder why you are plateauing or going backwards.

You could also notice that you are;

Super fatigued
Have an increased appetite
Inability to lose weight
Feel a real sense of burnout

Because so many women don’t know about the cortisol effect, they think it must be because they are not doing enough so they go harder.

They aim for more HIIT workouts in a week and... they get super deflated!

“Why am I putting in so much effort but seeing no results?”

“Why am I training harder than ever but I still can’t shift the weight”

“I am training hard and eating clean, I should feel great but I feel exhausted.”

If this sounds like you then here’s what we recommend you do...

The best thing you can do is adjust your workout programme to include more variety and exercise that activates your body’s rest and digest nervous system.

Things like yoga, mobility, walking or pilates are great options to add in.

We know adding more restorative movement can be HARD for some!

We were both these people once upon a time where in our minds it wasn’t worth it unless we were sweating up a storm and feeling totally exhausted at the end……

But then we learnt some stuff ;)

Restorative exercise is included every week for ourselves and our clients and the results are incredible.

We get it that shifting to gentler forms of exercise might seem counterintuitive but it could lead to much greater results physically AND mentally.

Take home message?

No matter your stress levels or hormonal health variety in your exercise programme is essential to get results.

We are not saying don’t do HIIT just add in some yoga, walking or low-impact weight lifting and sprinkle these forms of training around your HIIT training.

And on the days, you are feeling super stressed or anxious go for yoga or a walk. Your body and your mind will thank you for taking that option and you’ll feel better for it!

Have a great day and do some yoga ;)

Ren xx