PTSD Professional Perspective: Combat Cortisol with Exercise
Friday, February 12th, 2010 • PTSD Guest Post: Professional Perspective •
OK, so we all know that when the body is under stress is produces way too much cortisol. But do you know how to get that stress hormone level to go down?? I didn’t either, so I brought in Fitness and Nutrition expert, Katie Humphrey, to give us some tips. Get your sneakers on, it’s time to exercise! And the best part? You don’t even need to leave the house.
How to Combat Cortisol with Exercise
The body is a smart machine, and it knows how to keep us alive when we are in serious trouble. The problem is that a person is not always in danger when cortisol is released. Stress and anxiety that is a result of a past trauma can encourage the production of cortisol. Men and women with PTSD who suffer from elevated cortisol levels tend to store body fat mainly around the abdomen.
The good news is that there are natural ways to counteract cortisol and burn body fat. Exercise is the easiest way to reduce stress levels, and you can reap its positive benefits in as little as 20 minutes a day.
5 Ways to Exercise without Leaving Home
Perform all five exercises in a circuit, repeating 3 times total! Pat yourself on the back for your hard work!
You can find demonstrations of the exercises (#2-5) here.
- Do some jumping jacks, march or run-in-place, or jump rope for 60 seconds.
- Do Wall Sits to strengthen your lower body. Perform each wall sit for 30 seconds.
- Chair Pushups! Strengthen the chest and shoulders by doing 10 pushups.
- Couch Dips! Strengthen the triceps by performing 10 dips.
Plank Holds will give you abs of steel! Hold position for 30 seconds.
Katie Humphrey helps women gain the knowledge, confidence and motivation to live a healthy life. Many women have enjoyed the benefits of Katie’s personal training and nutrition coaching in her home studio as well as through online training and nutrition plans. Katie is a Certified Personal Trainer and owner of Katie Humphrey Fitness in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. www.KatieHumphrey.com
Stay tuned…. Katie will be back with a follow up post on ‘Foods to Fight Cortisol’. Now, I know you’re hungry for that!
The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author. To contribute to ‘Professional Perspective’ contact Michele.
Tags: combat, cortisol, exercise, Katie Humphrey, ptsd, stress hormone
This post is PERFECT timing for me, Michelle! Such wonderful and pertinent information…I’ve been interested lately in learning more about cortisol and if there was a way to reverse the effects of living in long term stress and look at what I find here today! Great timing, great post…looking forward to more on this!
I’m not really overweight, but I carry all my fat around my mid-section. It seems excess cortisol may be the culprit. Good to know.
I always knew physical exercise was one of the greatest way to channel negative energy (stresses/anxieties produced through cortisol) into more positive releases of energy.
I know that initially the stress response is elevated cortisol but when chronic does the cortisol run low and we resort to adrenaline for energy instead, hence the terrible symptoms?
@Felicity — yes, when chronic stress cortisol usually does lower, that’s absolutely right!