We all know how it feels to be tired.
But did you know there are two different types of tired?
Understanding how you’re tired is key to knowing what to do about it.
Here’s the lowdown.
Central fatigue
You know that kind of tired that swamps your entire body? That general exhaustion and lethargy that makes everything effortful and some things impossible.
Well, that’s central fatigue. This type of fatigue relates to our central nervous system. Put simply, we have a tired brain and spinal cord.
It’s the result of physical or mental exertion, and/or insufficient rest and recovery (i.e., overload), which causes changes in our brain’s chemical balance.
As you can imagine, when our body’s master controller is tired, it affects everything else. The messages our brain sends out to the rest of our body are weaker. So unsurprisingly, the responses from the rest of our body are also weaker.
We can set out to do some exercise as usual, but our body just won’t perform at its normal level. It can’t. Our brain is telling it to operate in a lower gear for now.
Peripheral fatigue
What about that kind of fatigue that’s isolated to a specific set of muscles? You know, the useless jelly legs after an intense bout of cycling or the heavy, achy arms after an exhausting weights session.
This type of fatigue is located in the other portion of our nervous system – the peripheral part that connects our brain and spinal cord to the rest of our body, including our skeletal muscles.
It’s caused by a heavy training session that depletes energy in those muscles while leaving a bunch of waste products and damage.
And when this happens, those muscles are closed for business as usual. The brain can command them to act but those muscles simply can’t perform to their normal level.
Mix it up
Each of us are destined to get a taste of both types of fatigue. Especially those of us who undertake deliberate and regular exercise.
Ideally, our training program comprises variety in the types of exercise as well as workloads. A long, slow walk one day followed by a shorter but more intense circuit class another day, kind of thing. Variety is how we can enjoy the most comprehensive set of benefits from our training.
It’s also how we can minimise the effects of fatigue. A varied training plan enables our body to recover and avoid or reduce fatigue.
And while we’re at it, we also need to mix up all of this activity with enough sleep, rest, nutrition and psychological/emotional stress management.
Also check out Rest and invest in your health and performance and To exercise or not when you’re tired?
