Welcome back to this week’s edition of 2-Minute Tuesdays where we are talking about one exercise topic for two minutes and giving you three reasons why you should follow our advice. Now this week, we’re talking to those of you who may be struggling with your sleep. You don’t sleep particularly well. You wake up and don’t feel super rested. How can you still exercise and what considerations should you be taking with your exercise if you are not sleeping well.
1) Monitor Your Symptoms While You Are Exercising
Tip number one – monitor how you are feeling while you workout. A lot of times, your body is sending you signals while you are exercising, and those signals can be telling you that you have been doing too much relative to the rest that you have had. For example, you do not want to be having any lightheadedness, dizziness, or nausea, and definitely no hot flashes. These are all signs that your body is being overworked for the amount of sleep that you have had.
Action Step: Go into your workout with the mindset of trying to improve your body, not trying to maximally challenge your body or get through your workout at any cost. If you are not feeling well during your workout, ease off of what you are doing or stop altogether.
Related: 3 Considerations When Feeling Sore
2) Monitor Your Recovery
Tip number two – monitor how well you are recovering from your workouts. If you wake up the day after a workout and you are feeling particularly achy or sore, do not go in and workout that day. Give your body the necessary time to recover, which for you may be a little bit longer than most people because you are not sleeping well.
Action Step: If you feel sore after a night of poor sleep, consider skipping the hard workouts for a less intense activity such as a light walk or light isometric exercises. This can help your body recover better than not doing anything at all and will be a more appropriate intensity for you if you are not sleeping well.
Related: Feeling stressed? Check out these exericse tips.
3) Seek Out Help With Your Sleep
Our last tip if you are not sleeping well but trying to workout and be healthy is to make sure you are spending time trying to work on and improve your sleep. Whether that is seeing a specialist, working on your bedtime routine, or starting a stress management program, it is really important for your health, as well as for the quality of your workouts, that you start getting more restful sleep.
Action Step: Consider limiting your screen time (the time you spend in front of TV’s, computers, cell phones, and tablets) during the two hours leading up to when you are planning on going to bed. Also, consider adding in a routine that you go through every night to help your body unwind, such as making yourself a cup of herbal tea and reading a book.