What feeling tired is really all about!

We all get tired from time to time. Life gets busy, bills mount up, the to-do list is forever growing and life is moving at an ever-increasing pace. We push and push just to keep up.

This all eventually takes its toll on several fronts.

Unless you know what type of fatigue you have you may be using the wrong methods to recover. This could create further fatigue. This leads many people to a state of exhaustion, hopelessness, lack of motivation and even a depressed state.

 

There are 4 types of tiredness or fatigue…

  • Mentally Tired or Psychological Fatigue
  • Physically Tired or Muscular Fatigue
  • Neural Fatigue
  • Digestive Fatigue

Identifying which type of tiredness/fatigue you have accumulated should be your number 1 priority. And yes, I say accumulated as fatigue is something that happens over time and builds up. The rule of here is the longer it has taken to accrue the fatigue, the longer it takes to get rid of it.

 

 Mental or Psychological Fatigue

This type of fatigue refers to an overload of the thought processes of the mind. The continues bombardment of information these days leaves the mind exhausted and in a constant mess. This causes an inability to think clearly, make everyday decisions or even worse make important decisions.

To understand this issue better you should look at your mind as having two compartments. There is the conscious mind and the subconscious mind.

To paint the picture for you, think of your computer. You have a screen where you see all your files, the tabs you have open, what you are currently working on etc. This is your conscious mind.

Then you have the storage facility of your computer where all the programming lies.  After the work/task is complete, you will store the information on your hard drive. This is what is always running in the background and will determine how your computer performs.

This is your subconscious mind.

Work left unfinished on your screen gets saved into your neural programming and memory causing a slowing down of your processes when you shut down for the day i.e. sleep.

You will get tired and fatigued.

 

The types of information that can create this fatigue are:

  • Unfinished work
  • Open-ended work (no fixed start and finished dates)
  • Social media (Facebook, Instagram etc)
  • Overload of other peoples posts which create Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) 
  • Unstructured work methods
  • Unstructured rest methods
  • Work/home life cross over.

Physical or Muscular Fatigue

This type of fatigue is the obvious one. Everyone has experienced muscular fatigue from either a hard day of physical work or a long hard gym session. Generally speaking, this accumulates quickly and dissipates quickly too. This is the kind of fatigue your body adapts to and alters its physical structure in order to handle the fatigue or stress better next time.

The alteration in physical structure can include muscle growth, increased mitochondria for greater aerobic fitness, increase in red blood cells for greater oxygen delivery. When delivered at the right frequency this can be good fatigue.

When delivered excessively there isn’t enough time to recover and make structural changes and fatigue builds up or accumulates, this is bad fatigue.

Neural Fatigue

Neural fatigue is at its sounds. It is an overload of the nervous system resulting in a lowered output of neural transmission or messaging. This can occur from excessively heavy workouts carried out too frequently such as lifting weights in the 1-3 rep max zone, chemical abuse ( too much coffee), continuous psychological stress and even inadequate nutrition.

The nervous system has two modalities or drives which correlate to the conscious and subconscious mind activities. The Sympathetic drive and the Para-Sympathetic drive

The Sympathetic drive of the neural system is responsible for all things go. It is active when you are consciously thinking and preparing to take action on something,  when you are exercising, under stress, highly caffeinated or generally not relaxed. When you are functioning in your conscious mind state you can pretty much guarantee that you are also in a sympathetic drive state.

The Para-Sympathetic drive of the neural system is responsible for all things slow… I didn’t say stop here because if you stop you are dead and we try to avoid that at all costs. It is active when you are in a subconscious state. A subconscious state is when you are sleeping, in between sleep and being awake, meditating, not actively thinking, switched off and generally relaxing. This is the recovery state of your being.

Digestion occurs best in this state. The brain assimilates information correctly. This creates extreme mental clarity and focus.

Too much time in the sympathetic drive will cause neural fatigue. It will weaken the signalling between brain and body, cause systemic exhaustion and even bring on bouts of depression.

Digestive Fatigue

This concept may be new to some but it is something the top tier of fitness professionals have known about for some time. As the research on the connection between gut health and mental health is increasing it is important to not overlook the importance of gut health on the physical body.

The digestive system of the human body is a complete environment and must be balanced, nourished and cared for.

It was once described to me as a universe that our bodies were wrapped around that we could extract nourishment from. That universe is made up of enzymes, billions of bacteria, acids and other digestive wonders.

The gut as an environment has a direct effect on a human being mental and physical state. If there is a poor digestive balance there will be brain fog, mental and physical fatigue. Causes of a poor digestive balance can include excessive stress, eating too much of the same foods day in day out, illness or viruses, antibiotics, excessive sugars and/or alcohols.

When gut health is poor food cannot be properly digested and assimilated into the body. This may result in the gut working harder to do the same job, a loss of vitamins and minerals, and an increase in appetite to compensate for those losses thus resulting in weight gain.

With the right strategies, you can identify what fatigue you’re dealing with and how to overcome each one to gain more energy and a faster recovery.

Remember, fatigue makes cowards of us all…