Optimize Your Nervous System Part 2
Balancing Your Parasympathetic & Sympathetic Nervous Systems
You learnt about your autonomic nervous system (ANS) and it's two components, the Parasympathetic (PSNS) and the Sympathetic (SNS). One handles all your body's maintenance functions, the other helps it react in times of stress. Stress comes in many forms and can be very stealthily causing too much activation of the SNS, if you're activating SNS you can't activate PSNS, it's one or the other, causing too much inflammation and consequentially adding to either risk of chronic illness or worsening of symptoms.
You also learnt how some exercise can activate the SNS so further contributes to tipping this delicate balance in the wrong direction, I go over this in more detail below. Don't miss the section below on redefining our rules around exercise, liberate yourself from the shackles of our modern exercise mindset.
Exercise For Health
Currently a lack of physical activity is a major problem to society. So many of the studies we see include statistics on how much exercise can benefit our health to reduce levels of obesity, improve cardiovascular health and so on. You have no argument from me on that, I am 100% in support. There are so many voices pushing exercise, with most of those voices pushing passionately based on levels of success they have achieved. Great, we need to see success stories because people need hope. BUT, the methods used in the more fantastic success stories are not everyone's path to success with exercise, for some those methods simply push too far and result in injury, fatigue, failure and depression. They actually destroy hope and create a huge amount of stress, so actually having a negative impact on health outcomes.
Exercise Intensity
Studies as to the negative effects of excessive exercise on oxidative stress, inflammation and SNS activity are limited. But what have been done have correlated the negative effects with the level of effort given by the exerciser. It seems that the best way to determine what is right for you comes down to ensuring you are operating at a moderate level of intensity. I have heard this previously, but as I've said, the strongest most passionate voices are not generally pushing "moderate", it seems that at the core, most of us think, more effort = better results and that is not what the evidence supports. I have exercised consciously with great effort my whole adult life and now find myself suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome, pushing through the pain for years didn't get me anywhere good. I wrote this article before I received my diagnosis The Dark Side of Exercise - The truth from a dedicated exerciser
Exercise For Your Nervous System
It's time to pull that all together now and come back to the fact that many types of exercise trigger our SNS so tipping the scale further in the direction of poor health, all the while we think we're doing the right thing to improve it. What types of exercise trigger SNS depend on the individual. You have to think about, how hard you are pushing, what causes you pain, what gets your heart racing, what makes you feel under pressure, what makes you feel like you are pushing past pain boundaries rather than carefully encouraging them to expand, what makes you feel like you are creating more stress in your body or mind? Let me be very clear, if exercise feels like a punishment then you need to adjust your approach. Exercising harder does not make up for other not so great lifestyle choices. I've redefined the rules around exercise, read on to find out more about this liberating mindset.
Redefining Our Rules For Exercise
1. We don't all need to be superstar athletes
Those that make it to the top of their fitness field or have amazingly fit looking bodies do so with very intense commitment and/or they're genetically built for it. High level athletes tend to retire young, because it is hard on their body. It's ok to not be those people, there will be something else we are good at in life and we need to make sure that we are in the best functioning body to achieve that. It’s taken me a lifetime of trying all the different health & wellness trends to finally having the choice taken out of my hands, my health condition restricts what I can do, it is not a life-threatening condition but if I don’t manage it correctly it has the power to completely remove my quality of life, I most definitely choose quality, what do you choose?
On the flipside of that, if you do have an activity that you love and you want to pursue and by nature it activates the SNS, then you need to find balance outside of that activity with things that actively promote the PSNS.
2. Pain is not our friend
Triggering pain receptors in the body causes an inflammatory response. If we already suffer from a chronic health condition we are already suffering from an inflammatory response, so we don't want more inflammation. We need to respond to our body's signals, if it feels like your body is telling you that you shouldn't be doing it, then LISTEN. Even yoga, which most consider to be a sedate form of exercise can be pushed to excess, causing injury and disappointment for some.
3. The importance of strength training
You will find that most who are actively encouraging exercise will promote specific strength based training as well. Our muscles are there to support our skeletal structure and how it moves. So no matter what you choose to do with exercise the strength of our muscles cannot be disregarded. There are many ways to go about this though. Personally I had to give up lifting weights, I found it too hard to establish where the line was between pushing too hard and not enough. I found my own path here, keep your eye out for more on this, it is the reason I'm writing to you now.
4. Fast results are a myth drummed up by marketing gurus
For most of us fast results aren't a reality. By trying to achieve fast results we push our body too far too fast, this stresses the body, causing too much inflammation and pain, and so can stress the mind to, who enjoys pain, really?
5. We can still push our boundaries
Just because of the 4 points above, does not mean we can't push our boundaries, we just need to "ease" our boundaries further, we stop short of pain and we be patient and dedicated. We start however we choose to and go from there. For some that's a walk to the end of the street, for some that's a walk around the block, within a few months it will be further. We just have to have faith, pain is not the definition of progress.
6. What we put into our body is important
I've mostly ignored diet for this topic, but it is important to remember what we put into our bodies can add to inflammation also, not to mention we need good nutrition to provide energy for our daily activities. It's pretty simple though, eat nutritious wholefoods most of the time. Fun times with food & drink are ok, just don't be excessive, it's all about balance. Fill up on wholefoods and focus on supporting your nervous system and you'll find that achieving balance is much easier.
If you feel like you want to develop this topic further you'll find that there is an amazing amount of knowledge out there now connecting the functioning of our gut to our nervous system and also our emotions and brain function. Here's a great short article The gut-brain connection - Harvard Health. Any good Naturopath will be able to offer a wealth of advice in this area.
7 Steps to an Effective Exercise Strategy
Now you understand what exercise is healthy and what is not, where to from here? These 7 steps will start you on the path to achieving overall health, choosing the types of exercise that suit you, while optimizing your nervous system. Start living life the way you want to.