Exercise & Cortisol: The Good, the Bad, and What You Need to Know
As a fitness trainer, I’ve noticed a concern coming up more and more in conversations with women: “I heard cardio raises cortisol.”
“HIIT is bad for women because it increases cortisol.”
“You shouldn’t work out at night because it raises cortisol and causes belly fat.”
Much of this information comes from social media, and understandably, it has left many women—particularly those entering perimenopause or menopause— wondering whether the exercise they’re doing to improve their health could actually be working against them.
But is cortisol really the culprit? Should women avoid cardio, HIIT or evening workouts because they’re afraid of raising it?
What Is Cortisol?
Cortisol is often called our “stress hormone,” but that doesn’t mean it’s bad.
Cortisol is one of your body’s helpers. When you need energy—whether you’re exercising, rushing to an appointment or dealing with stress—your body releases cortisol to help you respond.
During exercise, cortisol can temporarily rise. That’s normal. Cortisol helps make energy available so your muscles can do their job.
Exercise Can Help Us Manage Stress
Although cortisol may temporarily increase during exercise, regular exercise can help our bodies become better at handling stress over time.
Movement can improve mood, support better sleep, strengthen the heart and muscles, and provide a healthy outlet for everyday stress.
Avoiding exercise because you’re afraid of cortisol could mean missing out on many of the benefits that help your body become healthier and more resilient.
Strength Training Is Especially Important
Strength training becomes increasingly important as we age. It can help maintain and build muscle, strengthen bones, improve balance and stability, support metabolism and make everyday activities easier.
Yes, cortisol can temporarily rise during a challenging strength workout. That doesn’t mean the workout is harming you. It means your body is responding to exercise.
The same applies to cardio and higher- intensity exercise. Walking, cycling and swimming are excellent for heart and overall health, while higher-intensity workouts can also provide benefits.
Pay Attention to Your Total Stress Load
Your body experiences stress from more than exercise. Work, relationships, poor sleep, inadequate nutrition, illness and having too much on your plate can all add to your total stress load.
If you’re sleeping well, eating enough, feeling energetic and recovering between workouts, your body is likely handling your training well.
However, if you’re constantly exhausted, sleeping poorly, unusually sore, losing motivation or noticing your performance decline, your body may be telling you that you need more recovery.
That doesn’t necessarily mean stopping exercise. It may simply mean adjusting the type, intensity or amount of training you’re doing.
What About Exercising at Night?
Strength training—and even high-intensity exercise—can be perfectly reasonable at night. The important thing is how it affects your sleep.
If a hard evening workout leaves you feeling wired for hours or struggling to fall asleep, consider exercising earlier or reducing the intensity. But if you exercise in the evening, feel great and sleep well, there may be no reason to change your routine.
Heavy or Light Weights?
Both heavy and light resistance training can temporarily raise cortisol. The size of the response depends more on how demanding the entire workout is than simply whether the weights are heavy or light.
Heavy weights with fewer repetitions and adequate rest may create less overall metabolic stress than lighter weights performed for high repetitions with very short rest periods.
In other words, lighter weights do not automatically mean a lower cortisol response.
The Important Part for Menopausal Women
“One of the most persistent misconceptions is that an increase in abdominal fat during menopause proves that cortisol is too high or that exercise is making the problem worse. Midlife body-composition changes are influenced by many interacting factors, including declining estrogen, sleep disruption, insulin sensitivity, loss of muscle mass and overall stress load. A temporary rise in cortisol during exercise is a normal physiological response, not evidence of harm. The more useful question is not, ‘Did this workout raise my cortisol?’ but, ‘Am I recovering properly from my training and so that I can adapt positively over time?’”
— Dr. Rosanne Woods, DHSc
A temporary rise in cortisol is not something we need to prevent. It is a normal response to exercise.
For women during and after menopause, progressively challenging resistance training is particularly valuable for preserving muscle, strength and bone.
Don’t fear a temporary rise in cortisol. Focus instead on finding the right balance between challenge and recovery.
That’s where your body becomes stronger.
Jari Love is a certified trainer and creator of the successful scientifically tested Get RIPPED!® series. You can learn more about Jari Love at www.jarilove.com. You can follow her on Facebook at @JariLoveFitness and at @rippedjari on Instagram.
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