How to train if you suffer from burnout?

One of the mistakes that I made 3 and a half years ago when I quit volleyball due to health problems and burnout, was to stop working out…

Nov 19, 2021

One of the mistakes that I made 3 and a half years ago when I quit volleyball due to health problems and burnout, was to stop working out completely.

My story of burnout

I’ve been struggling with burnout for the last four years now.

I burned out when I was 21. It was during my last season as a professional volleyball player. I was putting myself and my body under too much — both physically and mentally.

Consequently, my body crashed and I burned out.

My health broke and my world fell apart. My digestion broke down and never fully recovered. I was miserable and depleted, sometimes also quite anxious and depressed. At times I thought I was dying and that I’d never regain my health again.

The biggest mistake I made after my burnout

In that period I was so exhausted that I thought I needed to give my body complete rest so it could heal, so I stopped playing volleyball and

But life and stress were happening and were further damading my health.

Because I was under too much bad, chronic stress and not enough good, hormetic stress, over time my body became weaker and weaker, my overall health declined and I had even more problems than before.

Later on when I started working out and training again, it was so difficult to get back in shape because I was so weak and it took me a huge amount of time to be able to get back into the routine of regular training and working out.

I won’t make the same mistake again!

How can you make overcome burnout by making your body stronger?

If you suffer your burnout, you should aim to get your body stronger: as our body will be getting stronger, we will be able to better handle life and conquer the burnout.

Here’s the list of my strategies of how to make the body stronger and conquer the burnout.

1. Strenght-based training

In my opinion, the best way to build strenght is with weights in the gym. There are many ways how to train, but when it comes to burnout, strenght-based training is the right way.

Strenght-based training makes the body stronger and it doesn’t include as much volume so it’s not as taxing on body’s central nervous system, which prevents from taxing the adrenal too much and so avoids burnout.

2. Improve recovery

If you suffer from burnout, you might find that your recovery is slower and compromised. That’s why you should incorporate some activities that will help your body recover faster.

Incorporate in your daily routine recovery activities such as yoga, streching, cold exposure, sauna, massage, mindfulness and meditation, floatation, etc.

3. Eat clean and healthy

What we eat has the biggest effect on our overall well-being. If you want your body to work optimally, to have enough energy to work out and recover, you have to pay attention to what you eat!

Eat clean, wholesome foods, choose healthy carbs, get enough protein from good, quality sources and include enough good, healthy fats. Avoid high-sugar, high-inflammatory foods (vegetables oils and fast food) and foods that spike blood sugar.

4. Control the stress

If you want to recover and overcome burnout, you have to control the stress. Working out itself is a form of stress — good, hormetic stress — for the body and it will make it stronger. But if you have additional stress in your life, it will be too much for the body to handle and you’re danger of burning out.

Keep life’s stress and stimuli at bay and under control with minfulness (meditation and mindfulness practices), joy, relaxation, fun, laughter and other parasympathetic activities.

Don’t give up

Sometimes it gets quite frustrating because due to different factors, we could feel stuck in that burned out state.

I often feel that I’m nowhere near to where I was a year or half a year ago.

Sometimes I’m weak AF and I don’t have the energy and motivation it takes to work out, which is very difficult to come to terms with.

We have to focus on the long run.

Burnout is like sickness: you need some time to fully recover. You need to give your adrenals time and space to recharge and recover so that they can do their job — production of hormones (cortisol, adrenaline, norepinephrine) which are vital for our overall well-being — properly once again.

Patience, consistency, trust and belief

If you suffer from burnout, you have to be patient: burnout cannot be conquered in a day or in a week.

We should be consistent, make a plan, trust the process and believe in ourself and our body!

As our body will be getting stronger, we will be able to better handle life in general and its demands.

That’s it for this article. I would love to hear your opinions, questions or suggestions for the following articles.

Conquering Burnout

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