Could gentle cardiovascular exercise help you feel more energised?
When you're living with a long-term health condition, fatigue can make even everyday activities feel exhausting. Finding the energy to exercise might seem like a challenge, but the right amount of cardiovascular exercise can help improve fitness, support wellbeing and make daily activities feel more manageable.
In this article, we'll explore how cardiovascular exercise may help manage fatigue and how to get started at a pace that works for you.
What is cardiovascular exercise?
Cardiovascular exercise, often called cardio, is any activity that makes your heart and lungs work harder to supply oxygen to your muscles.
You don't have to run or spend hours in the gym to benefit. Cardio can be as simple as walking around your garden, cycling on a stationary bike or completing a gentle seated exercise routine.
Examples include:
Walking, including short walks around your home.
Cycling, either outdoors or on a stationary bike.
Swimming or gentle aqua exercise.
Dancing or moving to your favourite music.
Seated cardio, such as seated marching or repeated arm movements.
The intensity will depend on your current fitness, symptoms and the activity you choose.
How can cardiovascular exercise help improve energy levels?
1. Improving cardiovascular fitness
As your cardiovascular fitness improves, your heart and circulatory system can become more efficient at delivering oxygen to your working muscles.
This may mean that activities such as walking, climbing stairs or moving around your home require less effort than they did previously.
2. Helping your muscles use oxygen more efficiently
Your muscles need oxygen to produce energy during aerobic activity.
With regular cardiovascular exercise, your muscles can adapt by improving their ability to use oxygen. These adaptations include changes in mitochondrial function, as mitochondria are the parts of your cells involved in energy production.
Over time, this may help everyday activities feel less physically demanding.
3. Supporting mental wellbeing
Fatigue can affect your mood, motivation and concentration as well as your physical energy.
Regular physical activity can support mental wellbeing and may help reduce feelings of stress and anxiety. Finding an activity you enjoy can also provide a positive opportunity to focus on yourself.
4. Supporting better sleep
Regular physical activity can support sleep quality, which plays an important role in energy and recovery.
However, the timing and intensity of exercise matter. Exercising too hard may not suit everyone, particularly when fatigue is already affecting recovery.
5. Making everyday activities feel easier
Improving cardiovascular fitness may help you build the stamina needed for everyday activities, such as walking to the shops or completing household tasks.
The aim isn't necessarily to exercise for longer or harder, but to build the fitness and confidence to participate in the activities that matter to you.
How to get started with cardiovascular exercise when managing fatigue
Getting started can feel overwhelming when you're experiencing fatigue. Here are some practical ways to make exercise more manageable.
Start slowly and build gradually
Begin with a small amount of movement that feels achievable. This might be five minutes of gentle walking, seated cardio or cycling.
As your fitness and confidence improve, you can gradually increase the duration or intensity.
There is no need to rush. Finding a manageable starting point is more important than doing too much too soon.
Choose low-intensity exercise
You don't need to get out of breath or push yourself to exhaustion to benefit from movement.
Start at a comfortable pace, reduce resistance if needed and allow yourself plenty of rest.
Break workouts into smaller sessions
If completing 20 or 30 minutes of exercise feels too demanding, try breaking it into shorter sessions throughout the day.
For example, you could try five minutes of movement in the morning, five minutes later in the day and another five minutes in the evening.
Shorter sessions can make exercise feel less overwhelming and help you build movement into your daily routine.
Adapt exercises to suit your symptoms
The best type of exercise will depend on your fitness, mobility, symptoms and energy levels.
If standing is difficult, try seated alternatives. If balance is a concern, choose supported activities such as seated marching or a stationary bike.
If heat worsens your symptoms, particularly if you have multiple sclerosis, try exercising in a cool environment.
Listen to your body and allow time for recovery
Your energy levels may change from day to day, so it's important to be flexible.
Pay attention to how you feel during exercise, afterwards and the following day.
If you consistently feel significantly more fatigued after exercising, reduce the duration or intensity, allow more recovery time or seek advice from your healthcare professional.
How Bounce Back Exercise can support you
At Bounce Back Exercise, we understand that living with a long-term health condition can make staying active challenging.
We provide supportive online exercise classes and resources for people living with cancer, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and other long-term health conditions.
Our classes include strength, balance, mobility and cardiovascular exercises, with options to adapt movements to suit different abilities and energy levels.
Whether you're looking to improve your fitness, build strength or simply find a way to move more, we're here to help you take that first step.
Explore our online exercise programme here
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