TIPS FOR CURING FATIGUE

Running businesses, writing, traveling, keeping my nutrition and training clean and consistent, and having a family household and all of the domestic goodies it entails can be pretty full and hectic. If you feel you’d rather dive back into bed instead of training, exercising, housework, or playing with the kids, here are some simple and quick methods to cure your fatigue:

1. Exhale Deeply and Fast 30X
Though we all breathe without even thinking about it, because of stress and fatigue, we don’t always breathe properly. Quick, deep exhales help process and deliver oxygen to your body’s cells, along with nutrients in your bloodstream. As well, it helps in the process of carrying away toxins via your lymphatic system. If you do not detoxify properly, which proper exhalation does, you become susceptible to weight gain, muscle loss, inflammation, and fatigue. Try it out, take a couple of deep and fast exhales, you will automatically feel better, and more awake instantly. Don’t consciously inhale, just exhale hard and allow the air to pull back in like releasing a squeezed sponge.

2. Drink a full glass of water down
If you aren’t drinking plenty of water by now, it may be the reason why you are feeling tired. Juice, soft drinks, and the likes aren’t what you should be consuming if you are tired. Dehydration reduces blood volume which creates fatigue. Manufactured drinks are full of sugar which INCREASES dehydration. Water is king, so make a habit to drink a glass of water whenever you feel tired. While I work, train, write or speak, I always have a full glass next to me. This is the best way, because if you have to get up and get water, you often forget it, especially while you are working intensively. You will be surprised how quickly just drinking water can get rid of your fatigue.

3. Oil the Tin Man
Most often our fatigue is caused by inertia. Especially when you have to work at a computer or sitting at a desk all day. Movement of any type of intensity is a natural espresso machine. 79% of your natural energy remains locked in cold storage at your joints and around your bones. Moving your body increases blood and synovial flow defeating fatigue and lubricating your little aches and pains caused by immobility. As well, it makes you exhale deeper (see #1.) So, all that you need to do is just get up, stretch a little bit, and walk around if you can. The best would be to do this once every hour so that you break the pattern of inertia. Get up and move, you will feel more awake right away.

4. Rhythm is Gonna Get Ya
Whenever it’s too quiet, we tend to get bored very easily. Being bored leads to fatigue. So turn up the radio, or pull out your iPod and start listening to your favorite tunes. In an instant, you can turn your boredom and fatigue into a fun, entertaining moment. As you sing along to your favorites songs in your head, your thoughts of being tired will slowly fade away. If you can actually get up and start dancing, then you will have mastered points #3 and #4 in one shot. And keep your #2 water nearby.

5. Laugh a little
Laughter has a lot of benefits, such as releasing higher levels of endorphins which make you feel better. This also sweeps away any feelings of being tired. Recent studies have shown that even the anticipation of laughter increases endorphin levels. So you don’t have to laugh out loud, simply finding something amusing is beneficial. Playing with my dog for 5 minutes is instant levity, or asking my kids to tell me a joke: it may not be funny to you, but watching them cackle at their own humor is awesome. Once you start laughing, you won’t be tired anymore.

6. Speak your mind
It is very easy to find ourselves being tired when we are quiet. Think of a classroom for example. It’s very easy to get bored and feel fatigued during a monotonous routine. However, participate to motivate. Speaking offers the same benefits as movement (after all, you are moving muscles when you talk), and being a part of something such as a conversation or a discussion offers an extra boost in focus and energy to counter the feeling of fatigue. So say something to a co-worker, or pick up the phone and call up a loved one for a few minutes.

If you feel tired, decide to stop being tired, by actively recovering instead.

Source: Scott Sonnon (http://www.scottsonnon.com)
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