Beat Fatigue with a Low Stress Workout

Tara Parker-Pope, writing in her Well column in the New York Times, tells us that moderate exercise may be the perfect cure for exhaustion. Pope cites research conducted at the University of Georgia that put three groups of exhausted volunteers through three different paces of exercise for six weeks. One group of fatigued volunteers was prescribed 20 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise three times a week. The second group engaged in low-intensity aerobic exercise, while a third control group did not exercise.The researchers found that both of the exercise groups had a 20 percent increase in energy levels by the end of the study, compared to the control group. They also found that more intense exercise isn’t the best way to reduce fatigue. The low-intensity group reported a 65 percent drop in feelings of fatigue, compared to a 49 percent drop in the group doing more intense exercise. Read more from Tara Parker-Pope.