steady

Energy · Through the day

Move for the tiredness

Too tired to train? Go anyway, and go easy, at a pace you could talk at. Three times a week for six weeks, then judge.

3x a weekEvidence: decent

Across 70 training studies, people who exercised regularly for weeks said they had more energy and less fatigue than people who didn't. Evidence: decent The effect is small to moderate, and it builds over weeks. One session won't do it. In the studies that gave the comparison group a placebo instead of nothing, exercise alone showed no clear effect, so part of it may be expectation.

You don't need to go hard. In a six-week trial, young adults who didn't exercise and had felt tired for a long time trained three times a week, some at an easy pace, some at a moderate one. Easy lifted energy as much as moderate, and eased fatigue more. Evidence: worth trying It's one trial of 36 people, so take it as permission to go easy, not proof.

This is a different thing from moving hard for your mood, where harder does more, and from ten minutes outside, a quick lift that fades. This one is about tiredness, over weeks.

Tired most days for weeks, even with enough sleep? Get it checked as well.

Source: Puetz, O'Connor and Dishman, 2006, Psychological Bulletin (70 studies); Puetz, Flowers and O'Connor, 2008, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics (doi 10.1159/000116610) (link)

Same theme: Through the day

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