I have Type 1 and also Type A personality- which means i tend to “over-do it”. This has become a detriment to me in the gym!
I over-worked myself and a couple months ago my body crashed and i am dealing with thryoid and adrenal issues also. I went from cardio/weights/core exercises/plyometrics to only being able to walk a couple miles a day.
I am very excited about amping up my workouts again but need to do it “smarter” this time.
Does anyone know any guidelines/basics for amping up workouts without overstressing adrenals (and thryoid)?
I faced the same thing last year. go slow, make sure you take your day off each week. if you track your heart rate each morning before you get out of bed, when you start to slip into overtraining it will start to go up. if it starts, you’re either getting sick or are about to go into overtraining. take a few easy/rest days and then back off just a bit when you go back to working out. you also dont want to increase your duration and intensity in the same week. so go longer one week and then go harder the next but don’t go harder and longer on the same week. just know that when you go back you will still have a lot of your old fitness still there. you havent lost it all during your rest. you’ll probably get back to your old shape quicker than when you started out the first time.
hey erin thanks for your insight! sounds like you a lot about this! do you know any resources that would help me with this??
also can i bother you with more questions?
i dont have any resources, just stuff i have read over the years. and please ask any questions you have. who knows, i may actually know something bout it, 
This is actually the kind of information I’m looking for too! Before I was dx’d I don’t think “pacing myself” was a term I used. Now I have no idea how to not go from 0- overkill. Help!
You know those books you can buy that have training plans for people just starting out in a sport- like cycling or running? Do any of you use those to help guide you? Should they be ratched down a bit or adjusted?
I, like Heather, have thyroid issues too (useless, like my pancreas) but I never heard of them affecting how much I can exercise. Have you found differences in your abilities or stamina when your tsh is too high/ low?
Thanks for any tips! I love the heartrate one- hadn’t heard that before! What makes your heart rate rise to signal overtraining?
hi sweet fur i just found a book called “maffetone method” by (dr.??) maffetone. he wrote a couple others too- talks about HR and how not to stress out your body while exercising. i just ordered it and cant vouch for it but it’s a start.
also there is the “diabetic athlete’s handbook” by ?sheri colberg? i’m only through chapter 1 so i cant vouch for it either but many people have recommended it on this sight. also recommended to me by professional diabetic athletes
ive never payed attention to how my TSH levels affect my energy. i was on synthroid for 18 years which is T4 only and now switched to Armour which is T3 and T4. the T3 is what goes to your cells for energy so when i switched to armour it immediately gave me energy.
i dont know how to pace myself either and am totally out of my element! i feel ya!
keep up the good work!
Hello Heather:
As yourself and others have said everyone needs to be smarter about gym activities. As diabetics we cannot afford to be blaise about our “launch codes” so to speak? If we go ~green light~ (ie exercise) at 100 to start a severely intense exercise session guarantees us far more than just an intense workout, The results will NOT be pretty.
I am not intimately familiar with Thyroid meds, nor adrenal conditions per se. However c. 97 I did some preliminary research re: adrenaline and there were several published papers/studies speaking about a new hypothesis at the time re: the adrenal system being impaired in some portion of the diabetic community. They were exploring causes of the the a-symptomatic hypo idea at the time, as I recall.
There are exercises which directly trigger retroactively the adrenal response… in the Indian disciplines of Hatha-Yoga & martial arts of various cultures as well? Normally melodramtic breathing exercises with a side-order of muscular contraction and relleasing the muscles thereof. I can point you in the direction of various youtube videos if that would be any help?
Are you having a specific issue with your adrenaling system in particular?
Stuart
Hi,
This is my very first post on tudiabetes, but I had to jump in. I had adrenal Cushing’s where an adrenal adenoma was secreting tons of cortisol. I’ve had an adrenalectomy, but still feel that my HPA axis is off regulating my cortisol after exercise. I started exercising intensely a year post-op to combat the myopathy that resulted from the hypercortisol. That’s when my issues with bg surfaced, in connection with exercise. I fit the LADA profile with a history of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and a Celiac gene, so the Endo tested my GAD antibodies and here I am. I’m fascinated by this early am pulse. That is the time that cortisol rises. I’ve been telling the Endo that my cortisol switch doesn’t shut down normally after exercise. It may be because of my prior problems, but checking my pulse would be a good start to bring in something tangible. I had to suspend exercising because I didn’t know what was going on, at first. I’m limiting my exercise to one hour or 30 min for weights to see if my cortisol doesn’t go out of control. It seems like my bg is higher after exercise. If anyone else can shed more light on my issues, I’d welcome it. This whole thing is so new. I’m on diet alone right now, but it’s not going to last forever.
Hi stuart!
thanks for your post! sorry it took so long to get back- i moved to a different state last minute!
I am very interested in the exercises you referred to and also the science behind them.
Also i would be interested in reading the papers/studies you spoke of. I dont have a good understanding of how to deal with my adrenals, thyroid, and diabetes- i want to get the most out of my workouts but i dont want to hurt my body as i did before.
There isnt much info in the diabetic world about this- at least i havent found any! i would love to learn more about how everything works together and how to keep a hormonal balance.
as for my adrenals- i did a TON of research on adrenals and thyroid and figured out what type of thyroid meds my doctors should have put me on- they had me on T4 meds only when i should have been on T3 also. between being on the wrong thyroid meds and amping things up in the gym i gave myself adrenal fatigue. it was a subclinical level of fatigue.
long story short i am now on T4 and T3 thyroid meds plus nutritions and that has helped my energy levels enough to go back to work. a couple weeks ago i started working out in the gym also! i have kept my workouts VERY moderate (and boring 
and am trying to take it easy so i dont get sick again. i have also started pump therapy which has helped a lot also
if you have any info that would help me please share! thank you for your help!
One thing that may help you is to learn more about “overtraining” and the role of rest and recovery in exercise. Overtraining is when the volume and intensity of exercise overwhelms your body’s ability to recover. Mild overtraining symptoms include muscle soreness, fatigue, elevated resting heart rate, weakness, susceptibility to infections, depression, irritability. One of the key drivers in overtraining is cortisol. For most people mild overtraining can be alleviated by taking a couple days off and resting. Should you have severe overtraining, the symptoms can be quite debilitating and it can take literally months of rest to recover.
I am not suggesting that this has been what happened, but it may have had a role and you need to be very aware of overtraining and manage it carefully. Some things to keep in mind. Don’t exercise every day. Plan to take at least one or even two days off between exercise sessions. Get sleep, if you are having trouble getting the right amount of sleep, back off the exercise. A key indicator of overtraining is a rise in you pulse rate first thing in the morning. In order to closely monitor your state, you may find it useful to record your pulse rate before you get out of bed in the morning. And finally, learn the causes, symptoms and treatments for overtraining. Google can be very helpful.
I specifically use overtraining in my exercise as one of the things I manipulate. I will “choose” not to exercise on certain days as a way of making sure that I am getting the right amount of recovery. I lift weights, and an important adage is “you don’t get strong from lifting weights, you gets strong recovering from lifting weights.”