Mind Your Body
Signs You Are Overwhelming Your Nervous System During Your Workout
A trauma informed personal trainer answers your questions about trauma and exercise
After my book Lifting Heavy Things: Healing Trauma One Rep at a Time came out at the end of May, I was delighted to discover that many people are curious about using exercise as a transformative self-care practice and as a support while working through trauma in therapy.
Over the spring and summer I participated in a number of events with Q&As and gave interviews for articles, podcasts, and radio. There are a couple of questions I got multiple times, and Medium struck me as a great place to answer them for you. I have decided to start a series in which I, a trauma-informed personal trainer, answer your questions about trauma and exercise.
Let’s start with a question that I am often asked: How can someone living with trauma or chronic stress identify that they are becoming overwhelmed in the gym?
This is a great question. A big part of my work is teaching people how to find a balance between working hard and respecting their nervous system’s capacity for stress or arousal. You can refer to this as working within your window of tolerance.
