Managing fatigue with exercise

When you decide to begin exercising, most people jump straight into a full regime of exercise with multiple sessions across the week. When you suffer from fatigue, that jump from inactivity to significant exercise is the thing that could cause your fatigue to worsen.

So the key is a gradual introduction to exercise to gradually introduce activity into your life without causing the ups and downs of fatigue. If your aim is to go into a gym for an hour 5 days a week, try stepping it back a bit. This might mean performing less sets or repetitions of the exercises, lowering the intensity of the workout, or simple spending less time in the gym performing less exercises. If your interest is running or high intensity training. Try simply breaking up the exercise. Maybe have longer rests between sets, or perform a shorter run (run for half a kilometre, walk for half etc), or again, shorten the length of the exercise. You are looking to create a baseline exercise that you can either reduce further if causing fatigue or progress if you feel well.

Once you have established your exercise baseline, don't think of this as the best you can achieve. This is a platform to continue your improvements. Once you are comfortable in your routine, then see if you can begin to very gradually increase the activity bit by bit. This might mean performing a few more repetitions, or an extra set on your exercises, add an extra few minutes onto  your exercise or slightly increase the intensity a bit.

Your strength and fitness can improve, but you just need to progress things a bit more gradually.

As mental health conditions are closely associated with FND, you could try using some mental health work onto the start or end of your exercise routine. Try adding 5 minutes of mindfulness or meditation to give your mental health a boost.

As you are introducing exercise into your life, try to incorporate rest into your day. Taking some time to allow the mind and muscles to recover can then help you to continue your day without the impact of fatigue.

If you can follow each of these tips, you will increase your chances of being able to improve your strength and fitness, while minimising the impact of fatigue.