How Adrenal Fatigue Sufferers Can Exercise Properly with Guest Vanessa Bartlett

Have you ever felt drained after exercising? If so, that might be a warning sign to you that your adrenals are starting to burnout. Dr. Carrie Lam, MD interviews Vanessa Bartlett, an experienced lifestyle and pilates coach who has gone through adrenal fatigue herself due to overexercising, and her journey in recovering from that burnout. Listen and watch this episode for different exercises you could do depending on your level of fatigue, what to look out for, goal heart rate levels, and specific pelvic floor strengthening exercises you could do that are simple and easy to follow.

1:30 - Vanessa Bartlett's Journey with Adrenal Fatigue
6:15 - What are proper exercises for each stage of Adrenal Fatigue
9:50 - How to gauge where your body and what symptoms show up
14:30 - Exercises for Adrenal Exhaustion
20:13 - Modified Pelvic Floor Exercises

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Vanessa Bartlett's Information:
» Website: https://vanessabhealth.com/
» Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vanessabhealth
» Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vanessabhealth/
» YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/VanessaBHealthTV

Transcript

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 0:06

Hi, and welcome to the Dr. Lam Show. I'm Dr. Carrie Lam, and we have a very special guest today, Vanessa Bartlett. I had the opportunity to do a summit with her on preventing burnout and how to get out of that. Today, she is going to talk about how to exercise properly, especially if you have adrenal fatigue. Vanessa is a lifestyle coach, presenter, Pilates coach, a writer and a mother of two boys. She has over 20 years of experience in the fitness industry, until she kind of hit burnout and went through adrenal fatigue herself two years ago. And that shifted her passion into helping people find that balance and exercise smarter, not harder. So we're very excited to today on the Dr. Lam show to be able to talk to her about if you have adrenal fatigue, what are the best ways to balance your life through exercise? So welcome, Vanessa. Thanks, Dr. Carrie. It's so funny being on the opposite side of this time. It's really exciting that we met because of adrenal fatigue. Right? Tell us a little more about your story, about getting adrenal fatigue, and how exercise has helped throughout that whole journey.

Vanessa Bartlett,: 1:39

I was running a business as a personal trainer, about 10 years ago. For two years I felt extremely exhausted, numbingly tired like you would know as well as anyone who's gone through it. I didn't know why it's happening until I found a doctor who told me that my adrenals were burnt out. At that point, I had a successful personal training business in Sydney. I'm from Sydney, Australia, and used to run, train and spent long hours in the gym. Like most personal trainers, it would be like 6am to 10am, followed by a break which would be an active break, still working at reception or gym, maybe doing admin, and then train clients and do classes again later in the evening. So they were very long days. It was high intensity, at that point I was doing things like exercise modalities, weight pump classes, boxing, and high impact circuits. By 8 am I would have taught 45 minutes on the bike, spin class, and then do a pump class till 9am, a couple of days a week. This was the norm. I thought I could do it for a few years, during my early to mid 20s, and I could push through that and do it. But I got to this point when I started waking up very tired and felt tired all day, and especially fatigued after these workouts. While my clients would walk away from the classes buzzing and full of energy, I would be fatigued and could not even comprehend how I'm would teach the next class. I'd be so fatigued or tired, and couldn't function. But I would get up and push weights for another hour. So it got really bad. Even though visibly, I still looked fit and healthy, there was this invisible thing going on internally, in my mind and brain. But I still not fit in tone. When I said I feel really tired, and requested them to give me a break, or take me off the second class, they dint want to because my numbers were higher. They would ask why, what's wrong? And couldn't just say I'm tired, because I don't look sick or I'm not overweight. It was all internal. Finally I listened to my body. I met a holistic doctor in Sydney, and he said I need to stop the high impact exercise, change lifestyle, and stop overloading the adrenals. And from that point, I did a lot of self research and discovery on what the adrenal glands were and about adrenal fatigue. Back then, there wasn't heaps on the internet, especially in Australia so it's just this kind of self discovery journey and my passion for learning. I'm a bit of a nerd at heart so I had no problem researching ways to energize the body about eating better, or what food is making me feel tired. If I've got no energy, maybe having vegetables instead of processed food might make a difference. This trial and error with exercise, eating, lifestyle, looking at stress, because I knew stress was an element of this as well and overdoing it. So massive part for me was exercise and lifestyle discovery.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 5:37

We hear this a lot, classically, there are a type of people that are go getters very successful like athletes who just burn their bodies out. You're young, look fit and at the prime of your life, but somehow your adrenals just burnt out and your body gives out due to the over exercise. So that's a very common picture. But I'm glad you're able to find your way, whether it's through diet, exercise, and find your way back. Also now being able to help others, through your coaching on lifestyle. So we can look into what proper exercises you did at each stage or in the beginning, when you started. Was that an important thing to do? Is there a point like where you just need to stop or exercise or what is the proper amount of exercise, you know, at what point in time, maybe you can go in into that?

Vanessa Bartlett,: 6:43

Sure. If you feel more than normal, and something's not quite right, then it's time to start pulling back. Often this is where many people find me now, that they've read my articles, they feel tired after exercise and is unable to continue and it's not giving me what it once did. That's a big red flag to say something's happening to my body. This is where the fine line is because people have so much good intention in doing exercise. Exercise is supposed to be amazing for our life. Of course, it helps with our bones, respiratory system, fitness, weight management, however, it can become a hindrance, if you have burnout and fatigue. So the first thing to do is to pull back from what you're currently doing, of course, looking at all other lifestyle factors like which what you help people to. So if you're a gym girl, for example, going through five days a week doing, you know, a fairly intensive session or CrossFit gym weights, you are in the category of intensive exercise. In case of moderate exercise, your heart rate elevates, but it's quite sustainable and it's not exhausting, so you're not huffing and puffing so much. So I've kind of identified this moderate or intensive exercise. If you're in the category of doing intensive exercise, I would also classify like running, boxing, CrossFit, weights, pump. Most traditional gym classes do right on that line of intensive, because your heart rate goes quite high. And when your heart rate goes high, you're looking at activating your sympathetic nervous system, and then the stress response. If that's activating constantly, five days a week in your gym routine, and you're extremely fatigued or not feeling yourself, start to pull back, decrease the frequency. So from five days, do three, two or three. If that doesn't work, then look at the intensity of the session. So for example, the 60 minutes, you're going okay, I'm doing two or three days a week, whereas I used to have the stamina for six. Again, if you're really tired doing three days, and not feel right then it means the type of exercise and intensity you're getting to in that session needs to be modified. So reduce time from 60 minutes to 45 or 30. If that doesn't work the look at the technique and modality and try pilates, mat workouts, bodyweight without weights, holding your body in specific ways where the load is reduced. So we're lessening the load on our actual physical system.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 9:51

So you have to really gauge how you're feeling if you're tired, your body's telling you that you're tired. Some people feel very ramped up from workout, they get that high and buzzed feeling. And then they feel like they want to keep going. However, after a few hours, they feel like they are crashing, that's also not a good sign. Some people, recognize that they feel so drained, and it is a big warning sign. It's either too intense, or you're doing for long and you need to cut back. And I think that principle of cutting back is just so important. For many people feel that exercise is good for you, and help me feel better. But there is definitely an overload. I love how you say about that sympathetic response almost like when you're running away from a bear, the epinephrine and cortisol are released. This can happen with intensive exercise. Until your body shuts down, even for long distance runners, it's very stressful to the body. In women, their hormones get thrown off and they may stop having periods, because the body's trying to conserve and kind of survival.

Vanessa Bartlett,: 11:43

I've trained many high level professional athletes in Australia, even footballers. And, you know, I turn up to these pilates and recovery sessions, and I they were just so fatigued, and tight muscles. I thought, gosh, the amount of intensity that people like footballers or any high level athletes has to expend. I discussed with their coach to understand what I can and cannot do, and ended up spending 30 to 40 minutes teaching restorative poses and meditation to let their parasympathetic nervous system and help their recovery, as I thought they need nurturing stuff to balance. However, it's not just athletes, if you are already in a position in your life, where there's a lot going on, or you've hit a life change, like having children, moving house, career change, there is an emotional, physical and mental, burden. If you're a bit stressed, say in one of these phases, then you go and add stressful exercise then you will burn out due to the combination of these things happening together. I urge people to identify these signposts and don't worry about the belly fat, the weight loss goals till you find balance and homeostasis in your body again.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 13:49

Yes, most a lot of people are very concerned about their weight and do not see their hormone imbalance. Their fatigue that has to definitely come first. Like you said that the muscles seem so tight, and you need to relax it with the parasympathetic poses for high functioning athletes. For others who are just stressed in their daily lives, constantly fatigued are in the later stages of the adrenal fatigue. They have no energy, they walk a block and get tired. What do you recommend for these type of people?

Vanessa Bartlett,: 14:45

If you're at that extreme stage, my suggestion would be very slow movement. And I do relate. I could only walk around the block for five minutes at one point very slowly. That was coming from someone who did 15 classes a week at the gym, teaching and talking. I relate that and so the biggest thing is being patient not be hard on yourself and knowing that this is temporary, because it can be frustrating. Your mind will go, well I did this 10 years ago, I did this 20 years ago, I did this six months ago, what is going on used to be. I had a client the other day who used to be the top of a CrossFit game. And now you know, 20 minutes of very gentle exercise is difficult. But I'm like, you've got to be kind to yourself in the next three 6-12 months. The recovery will happen, but you got to be patient. So that's a tip to so for people.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 15:39

Yes,

Vanessa Bartlett,: 15:40

It's so important because that mindset can then play games with you. And you don't want to negatively affect your thinking about yourself and your progress. I would recommend only certain restorative poses restorative yoga, there's different styles of yoga, some of it's quite dynamic. Not Bikram yoga, because that's in a heated room, which will elevate stress and heart rate. Anything that is nurturing and softer in the approach, like pilates, yoga. So a nice way to modify your general fitness as well. If walking is difficult, though, you shouldn't do weights or anything with weights, you've got to eliminate the stuff that's more than walking. So in that case, do some gentle stretching routines. If you want to still move and feel like you're exercising, there's combinations of yoga, pilates and strength that you can do in a slow controlled manner that would be suitable for extreme fatigue sufferers. But do in short burst of 10 minutes. There's nice nurturing routines that I've come up with, with a playlist on my YouTube channel, the adrenal fatigue playlist, which has a restorative style that is beneficial. It is ecause you still want to make eel that you're doing something ight but don't push. . One elltale sign is to keep your eart rate down. If you feel hat you're breathing and your eart rates going high again, hen you know, you've overdone o moderate or intensive xercise. So right now, allowing ourself to be okay with a ittle bit of movement without eeling guilty because you're till moving and strengthening. here's ways to do that.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 17:46

So stretching and restorative exercises?

Vanessa Bartlett,: 17:51

Yeah, restorative type pilates, yoga and bodyweight exercises.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 17:58

And definitely just looking at how you feel after the exercise. If even restorative exercises like walking around the block tires you out, then you have to step back. Imagine your adrenals is like a gas tank for your car and if your reserves are down then there's nothing there to give. You cannot keep pressing on the gas, which even walking around the block might push your heart rate up. Can you touch on the heart rate a bit more - what's a good heart rate? What is a moderate intensive type of heart rate?

Vanessa Bartlett,: 18:47

It depends on your age, background, fitness level and health. I also gauge how you're feeling and so if your heart's beating faster, you'll feel okay, two hours later. So I think maybe 120 would be maximum for fatigue sufferers that's heading towards elevated from resting right. Do some light exercise where you feel you've done something. if you're extremely fatigued, and walking is difficult, then laying on your bed or a mat on the floor, lifting the leg up, stretching and elevating the legs is very restorative too. You can do some leg circles with minimal movement, yet something to activate your thighs, tummy and your core. This is very low key and will elevate your heart rate a little bit.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 19:51

That's very interesting. We'll definitely have to check and do some of those exercises. So listening to yourself, modifying your exercise, you're stretching, and you're balancing. They're all very important. Can you also talk a little about the pelvic floor? We have women listeners who had children. Is there anything specific that you like to work on, regarding the pelvic floor?

Vanessa Bartlett,: 20:30

Yeah, great question. I was never really in tune with it till it had a prolapse with my first child, horrendously, and I had to do it. Retraining the pelvic floor is important. There's exercises that you can do along with mindfulness and breath work to Dr. Carrie. Standing or sitting tall where you are, and feeling your pelvic floor lifting, that's the first step. Being able to feel and connect to it and activate it, from a seated or lying position is good, because you can actually pop your fingers inside the hip bone, and feel if it's gently tightening those deeper transverse abdominals, pelvic floor area, that's good little feedback mechanism to do on your side. But doing this a few times a day is very important along with the core work. Avoiding things that push and bear down on the pelvic floor like sit ups and crunches actually bear down quite hard on the pelvic floor. If you're laying on your back, and your legs are 90 degree angle, a very effective traditional position, in pilates and yoga, in fact, kills the pelvic floor. So there's many do's and don'ts around core work. The best thing to do is lay down flat, and then have your feet on the ground resting and dropping one knee to the side, a very simple knee drop, and feeling your pelvic floor drawing up. And then lifting your knee back up is a very simple, basic, gentle way to do it without bearing down with those traditional crunches, as well as giving yourself time to do that every week. It's really important for women and for men as well.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 22:23

Yeah, preventively too even if you don't have problems now you're definitely might get in later. So it's good to start early.

Vanessa Bartlett,: 22:34

And not bearing so much load on your upper body, like a big weight bar across there, if you've had babies, or had weakness in the pelvic floor. You don't even have to have kids to have pelvic floor weakness. Doing loaded things from the upper body, bears down and then having legs wide with wide squats or wide lunges where the pelvis is compromised in that stability.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 22:57

That's an important factor to stay away from if you want to strengthen the pelvic floor. Any other simple exercises that you would recommend for someone with fatigue. I love the one where you said that the legs go up and you're lying on the ground, and you're doing little circles. Any other simple visuals that we can have?

Vanessa Bartlett,: 23:29

We can modify something like a normal fitness squat. Sitting down using a chair behind you, while doing squats, for your thighs, back muscles and core, is useful. If someone had fatigue, have a chair behind, you can stand up from the chair, gently push your hips back and sit down on the chair. So it's supporting you. So there's ways to modify the traditional moves so that you've got support, rather than just relying on your body. If you're fatigued, you're a bit dizzy or similar and doing a squat in the correct alignment needs support. Chair workouts are fantastic, you cn sit on a chair, do five squats, breathe in, breathe out, get up and down. Also do your arms a little bit, like side stretches on a chair up and over and 10 arm pushes. You're rotating through spine and working your arms in the most gentle fashion. Anyone can do that seated even when extremely fatigued. Okay, so arms and leg chair workouts are really good for that.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 24:45

That's a great tip to have that backup. You don't want to put yourself in any danger. You have helped so many people through this. So I'm so grateful that you have set the time with us talking about the correct way to exercise especially if you are going through adrenal fatigue, making sure you listen to your body. So Vanessa, how do people find you if they wanted to, your YouTube channel - what's the best way?

Vanessa Bartlett,: 25:22

The website is https://vanessabhealth.com/. My socials are Instagram, VanessaBhealth Facebook page, VanessaBhealth, and the YouTube channel, VanessaBHealthTV, where there's videos in relation to adrenal fatigue, holistic, low impact workouts. Even though I'm not fatigued anymore, I've never gone back to weights, boxing or running. It's just not my thing anymore. I've still managed to lose 14 kilos of baby fat from my pregnancies doing this. So, you know, the whole thing of having to push harder to burn fat is not true. Helping people is my mission and do connect or ask any questions there, and I'm happy to help you.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 26:19

I love that you said that you never have gone back, because when someone deals with adrenal fatigue, it is a mindset change which is lifelong. This is not a quick fix it's more of a marathon. But it's lifelong like diabetes, even if you change your lifestyle, diet, you're going to have diabetes. In adrenal fatigue, if you get stressed, you always have that predisposition to be more tired. So it's finding a good type of exercise for you that you can continue that you don't burn out your adrenals.

Vanessa Bartlett,: 27:10

It's being sustainable, too, at different points, I've tried to go back and go on. How would I do a three sets of 10 weights program that I used to do many, many times. But I know that I could probably do it now. But the recovery and the way that I feel that three hours after that next day, I just don't feel it's right for my body anymore, and I don't need it. I'm not training. So again, it's sports, you have a goal to do a certain thing at a certain level, you've got to train a certain way. We're talking about fatigue, and people generally just getting through and overriding burnout. So if you accept and feel okay with where you're at, and let go of certain things, it will help you. That's a big thing to just being okay with that. And if you've got your goals, there are other ways to do it. So for me, resistance bands has been absolutely huge in changing body shapes, maintaining huge amounts of strength. In fact, it's the most popular videos I have on my channel is resistance bands, because it's not weight bearing but still gives you amazing results. And there's other ways you know, just be open.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 28:25

Great, than you so much Venessa. It's bee such a pleasure talking to yo on the show. And please g check out Venessa's page an also subscribe and like ou podcasts and our show o YouTube. You can stay tuned fo our next episode next week We're here to empower you t take control of your health. ave a g