Chronically Fit

We rebranded. It’s still us!

“We know the science. We just don’t believe everyone needs to follow conventional fitness rules.”

“There is a smarter way to get fit when your body doesn’t follow conventional rules.”

Have you heard we have to hit 150 minutes for exercise to be worthwhile.

For years, the guideline has been to aim for 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity per week (or 75 minutes of vigorous activity). But updated guidance recognises something important: any movement is better than none.

If you’re living with fatigue, a long-term health condition, pain, or you’re just starting out, reaching 150 minutes might feel unrealistic. That doesn’t mean exercise isn’t helping.

A few minutes of walking, gentle mobility, strength exercises, stretching, or daily activities all count. Small amounts of movement can still support:
✅ heart health
✅ muscle strength
✅ balance and mobility
✅ mood and mental wellbeing
✅ confidence and independence

The goal isn’t perfection, it’s finding the right amount of movement for your body right now and building from there when you can.

For people with chronic conditions, pacing and consistency often matter more than pushing hard.

Some movement is always better than none. Start where you are and build from there.

Last week was a reminder that even when you feel like you’re winning, recovery still comes first.
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Training had been going really well. I was getting stronger, functioning better at work, and feeling more like myself. So I made the mistake many of us make: I felt good and decided to push a bit harder.
After my strength session, I added four 30 second “sprints” on the air bike. I felt fine afterwards.
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The next day? Still okay.
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Then, a few days later, it caught up with me.
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The headache arrived. The fatigue returned. I felt puffy, nauseous, and run down. My legs turned to lead.
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Looking back, it wasn’t just the sprints. Poor food choices, worse sleep, and hot weather all added to the load. It’s rarely one thing, the total stress on the body that tips the scales.
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This is why pacing matters. For people living with Long COVID, autoimmune conditions, and other fatigue-related illnesses, symptoms can show up well after exertion, which makes it easy to think you’ve “got away with it.”
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Feeling better doesn’t always mean your body has more capacity. Sometimes it just means you’ve found the right balance.
Don’t rush to move the goalposts. Stay there for a while. Build consistency before intensity.
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Recovery isn’t about pushing through exhaustion. It’s about respecting your limits often enough that, over time, those limits can slowly expand.
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It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

💧 Hydration isn’t just about drinking more water…

When people think about improving their health, hydration is often an afterthought. But even being slightly dehydrated can increase fatigue, headaches, dizziness, brain fog and make exercise feel much harder than it should.

One thing that’s often forgotten is that hydration isn’t just water. Your body also needs electrolytes like sodium and potassium to help absorb and use the fluid you drink.

If you live with a chronic illness, paying attention to hydration can be a simple way to support your energy and recovery.

Here are a few easy tips:

💦 Drink little and often rather than lots all at once.

🥤 Have a glass of water 30–60 minutes before exercising.

🍓 Eat foods with a high water content, such as fruit and vegetables.

⚡ If you’ve been sweating a lot or exercising for longer, consider replacing electrolytes as well as fluids.

Take a moment to notice how you feel on the days you’re well hydrated compared with the days you aren’t. Small habits like this won’t cure chronic illness, but they can help your body function a little better and support your recovery over time.

What’s one habit that helps you remember to drink enough during the day? 👇

🏃‍♀️ How to exercise with a health condition that causes fatigue

The safe, practical advice comes down to:

• Use heart rate as your guide, not feel, stay well under your anaerobic threshold (roughly 60% of your age-predicted max) 220-age x 0.6.
• Keep activity in tiny bursts, move for 30 sec to a few minutes, then rest fully until heart rate drops back to baseline before doing more.
• Favor low impact, seated/lying options (recumbent bike, gentle stretching, leg lifts) over anything continuous like jogging or rowing.
• Watch for delayed crashes/symptoms (extra fatigue, brain fog, muscle pain) showing up 1-48 hours later mean you overdid it; cut back ~50% next time.
• Cap total session length (around 50 min including rests) and don’t push through fatigue; stopping early beats crashing.
• Progress is measured in months, not weeks; consistency without setbacks matters more than intensity

What are your top tips on exercising with fatigue?

ONE of the biggest misconceptions about exercise is that if a workout feels easy while you’re doing it, it’s safe to do more.
For people living with chronic illness, that’s often not true.
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Your body doesn’t always tell you immediately when you’ve done too much. The real question isn’t “How did I feel during the workout?” It’s “How did I recover afterwards?”
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Here’s a simple way to think about it:
✅ If you recover within hours, with no significant increase in symptoms, your body has probably tolerated that amount of activity well.
⚠️ If your symptoms are worse the next day, you need extra rest, or recovery takes several days, you’ve probably exceeded your current capacity even if the session itself felt manageable.
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This is why pacing isn’t about doing as little as possible. It’s about finding the amount your body can recover from consistently.
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A tip many people overlook is to treat recovery time as your training guide.
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Ask yourself after every session:
● How long did it take me to recover?
● Which symptoms increased?
● Were they mild or severe?
● Could I repeat that session again in a couple of days?
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Only increase your exercise when your recovery stays stable. That might mean adding just one extra repetition, walking for two more minutes, or slightly increasing resistance. Small improvements repeated consistently are far more effective than big sessions followed by setbacks.
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Remember: Your fitness improves during recovery, not during the workout.
The goal isn’t to finish every session feeling exhausted. The goal is to finish knowing your body can recover well enough to do it again. Progress isn’t measured by how hard you trained today, it’s measured by how well you recover so you can keep moving tomorrow.
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Stay consistent, be patient with yourself, and let your recovery guide your progress.