The right exercise at the right time

Over the past few weeks I’ve published a series of articles outlining how we can all live more in sync with our natural body clock, or Circadian Rhythm, and exploring the impact of diet and sleeping habits. This final article in the series will take a look at the body’s third mechanism for telling time, which is #exercise.  

We know exercise is good for us, yet at some point we all try to avoid it. Sedentary modern lives demand little spontaneous movement throughout the day, so conscious exercise is increasingly important. At the current time when many of us are working from home, not doing the usual commute, sitting at desks all day, and then spending the evening in front of the television, exercise is more vital than ever.

The significance of exercise

Exercise is essential because it causes deep breathing and triggers the chemical and hormonal changes our bodies need to stay healthy. It gives us energy, mental clarity, passion and a general enthusiasm for life. It improves mood and provides an emotional reset. Movement restores balance, tiring the body’s muscles and helping us achieve restful sleep. Through exercise we cleanse the body and improve communication between its various systems so they can operate in harmony.

It’s quite clear exercise is good for the circulatory system, getting the heart pumping and the lungs working, yet this is far from the only system that benefits from physical activity. Each system in the body is a channel. The digestive system is a pipe through which nutrients enter the body and waste is eliminated, while the respiratory system is another channel for oxygen and carbon dioxide. The lymphatic system, the nervous system and the circulatory system are all channels through which the body passes nutrients, fluids, signals and waste. Our bodies are designed to use these channels effectively but they need a little help.

Over the course of the day, these channels get sticky, slimy or blocked. Blockages are a natural by-product of life, and it’s important to clear them daily just as we brush our teeth regularly to avoid tartar build up. This unblocking is achieved through exercise and is most obvious with the digestive system which can’t function effectively without physical activity to help it along. Exercise warms the body and stokes the digestive fire. Movement causes us to breathe deeply and unblock all the body’s channels, which is known as Prana or “the breath.”

It's all about the Prana

In #Ayurveda, the two most important organs in the body are the heart and the brain. Only Prana connects them both. When we breathe deeply, we instantly connect the heart and brain. Slow, deep breaths are a cornerstone of meditation and yoga, but they are easily available to anyone through even the most moderate exercise. Exercise enables Prana, puts our daily problems on the back burner and enlivens the heart and mind. By contrast, a sedentary existence promotes shallow breathing which strains the heart and starves the brain.

Prana is the energy that sustains life. Without daily movement, we fail to breathe deeply and we drain our energy. Because we are so disconnected from our bodies we don’t even notice it. We may feel fatigued or bored after a day of sitting, but it is more than that. Our brains are starved of oxygen and so are the tissues of the body. This low energy makes us reach for foods and drinks such as coffee that deliver a shot of energy.

The Circadian connection

In previous articles I’ve discussed how sleep and dietary habits impact the body’s Circadian Rhythm. Exercise is the third mechanism by which the body knows what time of day it is. When we’re physically active the body logically assumes it is daytime, and the best time for an intense bout of movement is in the morning after we have slept for seven or eight hours. Eating and exercising after we wake up gives the body a strong signal the day has started.

Exercising in the morning also helps us get to sleep at night as it causes higher production of melatonin, the brains natural sleeping pill, at just the right time, aiding sleep when we’re ready to hit the pillow. Those who exercise in the afternoon or evening do not get the same shift in melatonin production. In fact exercising close to bedtime actually delays melatonin production, making it harder to sleep when the lights go out. Exercise at the wrong end of the day confuses the central regulator of the circadian clock, which in turn confuses the body’s cells and systems.

The above information will be unwelcome news for many. We’re accustomed to organising our #fitness around the working day, making the evening the most convenient time to exercise for most people. Visit any gym between 18.00 and 20.00 and it will be packed, but for a large part of the year this means training when it is dark, at a time when the body is trying to wind down. Intense activity at this time may make us too alert and overactive for sleep.

Is more really better?

Exercise is good for us, so surely the more exercise we do the better? Well not necessarily, no. There is a popular myth we should aim for an hour of cardio a day if we want to lose weight, but this was called into question by a study carried out with overweight but otherwise healthy men who didn’t exercise. One group worked out for 30 minutes a day, hard enough to break a sweat. The second group worked out for 60 minutes a day. In the end, both groups lost weight, yet those with shorter workouts lost more weight than those who spent a full hour on the treadmill.

Researchers couldn’t really account for these results. They expected the longer exercise to provide more benefit, but instead they found it is less effective to expend twice as much energy and time in intense exercise. The reasons behind these results are up for debate, but from an Ayurvedic perspective, newly motivated exercisers often push themselves past the point where exercise enlivens them. Instead they work out until they are exhausted and lethargic. Rather than helping their systems communicate openly, their systems are in crisis and their bodies need to conserve energy for many hours afterward. If we come out of the gym feeling physically spent, we’re not doing our bodies as much good as we think.                                          

I can vouch for this from personal experience. Following the sudden death of my brother I went into a tailspin caused by shock and any number of other emotions I am still processing nearly two years later. I found myself instinctively drawn to the gym and was visiting daily, pushing my body to its limit. Blaze, which is a 45-60 minute HIIT session where you compete against other gym goers to see who can push their heart rate furthest, became my drug and a mild addiction. I started to panic if I hadn’t achieved my daily dose of points through the My Zone fitness belt. I’m sure this is what the company wanted but here’s the thing; after a while I noticed my body started to get more niggling injuries. After the initial dopamine hit wore off I was becoming increasingly agitated and I didn’t have energy for anything else in the day. I was burning out. This can’t be blamed entirely on the exercise of course, anyone who has experienced grief knows it impacts in innumerable ways, but this was my personal experience.

The trouble with most exercise routines is that they tend to be an all or nothing proposition. We decide to get in shape, we join a gym and we work hard until, gradually, we find conflicts with our daily schedule and we skip a few workouts. Eventually we stop going entirely. Then months later we repeat the process. This is how gyms prosper. Just think what happens every January when people sign up and crowd the gym floor until, miraculously, they all disappear again in February and March.

The bottom line is we probably don’t need as much exercise as we think. A short, 30 minute burst of intensive exercise every morning is probably enough as long as we augment it with additional movement all day long.

The right exercise

In Ayurveda, exercise is any time we move our body. We might be cleaning the house, gardening, taking an evening stroll or, if we’re lucky, having time with our partner. All these activities move the body and open its channels, and we can do them at any time of the day with minimal effort. In total we need an hour of this movement every day.

Additional, conscious exercise needs are different for everyone but generally we should aim for 25-30 minutes of medium intensity exercise every day, preferably first thing in the morning. What works for some won’t work for others, it all depends on our individual meta psychological needs. Yoga, jogging, swimming, walks and body resistance workouts with press ups all work for me. The key here is consistency. The body needs cycles of activity and rest, and a single intense bout of morning exercise starts the cycle. After this morning exercise our bodies will prompt us to get up and move throughout the rest of the day, so we must heed these signals.

Making time for morning exercise

Many will feel they simply don’t have time to exercise first thing in the morning, but for most people these barriers are psychological. The obvious answer is to get up a little earlier and exercise, but we all come up with multiple reasons why we can’t do this. The drive to do it must come from within. From my own experience I find going to bed at 22.00 helps me wake and get up when I need to exercise. The positive effects of this routine leave me with little option but to incorporate it into my daily schedule, though not necessarily on a Sunday.

It’s tempting to treat exercise as something to cross off our to-do list, and to think the more of it we do the better, at any time of the day. The truth is we need to do the right exercise at the right time, combining a short burst of exercise first thing in the morning with regular movement throughout the day. We need to integrate exercise into our daily schedule to work in synch with our Circadian Rhythm and have the best possible impact on our health and wellbeing.

I’d love to hear your feedback on the Circadian Rhythms article series, and find out whether you’ve made positive changes to your own lifestyle, diet, sleeping habits or exercise regime to bring you more in synch with your own Circadian Rhythm.