BODY. Restorative Yoga or HIIT?
This Autumnal time of year, I begin to wonder if something is wrong with me. Iron deficient? Low thyroid? Adrenally fatigued? Even, do I have sleep apnea (please no!)? Why the heck am I not feeling like my energetic self?
Then I remember, it is Fall. And I allow my trail runs to sometimes turn into walks. And maybe just even sit and watch the earlier setting sun. And observe the silence, and feel it come over me, too.
After a full Summer of high-intensity activity and morning work-outs of short but sweet heart-pumping interval training, I feel my body shift coming into the soft midriff of Fall. Rest here, it gently asks.
I used to keep myself to these expectations of the same level of physical activity, intensity in work, sleep schedule, all year round. I recall a professor saying in medical school that seasonal affective disorder may not be so much about the lessening of the light, but more of the human disordered affect with the season. We don’t allow ourselves move, change and cyclically slow with them.
That simple thought and sentence changed how I approach the seasons. I no longer fight the shortening days and my body’s call for more intentional slowing. I happily fall into it and relish in the deeper rest that I need after a Spring and Summer well spent. HIIT sessions become fewer, and I lean more heavily on restorative yoga poses.
I have seen this in patients too. For those who have been in a prolonged “Summer” season of life - extroversion, energy output, long days (think Moms of tweens, the chronic 90-hour week workers, caretakers) - high-intensity interval training may actually be counterproductive. The allowance of slowing down and inclusion of more restorative practices actually helps to reach [insert health goal here- often weight loss in this demographic]. After all, if human health is about homeostasis, that usually requires some balance between extremes.
Whatever “season” your body may be in: inquire what it may be in most need of right now. HIIT (or equivalent)? Restorative yoga (or equivalent)? Or maybe a healthy mix of both? As Americans, we tend to applaud and apply the HIIT/Summer/GO! mentality. There’s a reason why both break and gas exist in a car. Which do you need to hit right now?
