Recovery is key when it comes to fitness for hormone health. Take a look at the Stress Adaptation Cycle—and you’ll see that recovery is where the magic happens.
When we are coming from a depleted place of high cortisol, sluggish metabolism, under-functioning thyroid, and imbalanced hormones, we don’t have a ton of energy to spend on fitness. Strength training is going to give us the biggest bang for our buck, so to speak, because of that muscle-building aspect.
Take the postpartum period, for example. Even though you’re likely running on empty, you still have to be able to carry a baby or lift a carseat. For those sorts of functional movements, we need to build muscle in order to make your day-to-day easier while avoiding injury.
Building muscle improves our metabolic rate, for one, but here are some other benefits of building muscle through strength training that you may not be aware of:
+ Muscle is an endocrine (hormone) organ, which means it helps regulate our hormones.
+ Contracting our muscles can help reduce inflammation.
+ Muscle has thyroid receptors, and improves thyroid function in the body.
+ Muscle helps make us more sensitive to insulin by taking up more glucose from the blood and using it for energy.
The best part is, you can grow muscle with short workouts that don’t increase your threat (or stress) bucket. This is the biggest difference between something like HIIT or intense cardio. If you find that you can’t seem to give up your intense workouts, you may be addicted to cortisol and adrenaline.
With true strength training, the stress response is lowered and the body’s resilience to stress is increased. If you want to learn more about how to strength train for happy hormones check out this podcast episode from the are you menstrual? podcast.
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