Exercise is such an important part of a healthy lifestyle, especially for your metabolism and thyroid.

Exercise can be stimulating for your thyroid but you need to know what to do to avoid harming your thyroid health. In addition to that, symptoms of a slow thyroid in women can be exacerbated when exercise isn't done correctly or you are doing the wrong form of exercise.

Because of this, it’s important to know what exercises can help you on your thyroid healing journey.

So, let’s jump right in (pun intended!).

First, let’s talk about the length of your exercises. If you have hypothyroidism, any workout that’s longer than 60 minutes is not good. Super long workouts like this can be taxing on both the thyroid and the adrenals. A light warm-up, cool down or stretching before or after wouldn’t count within this time limit. I’m talking about physical, hard work exercise and keeping that under an hour every time you work out. 

So then, what type of workouts should you do?

I’m not a fan of long-duration cardio, such as a run or a bike ride on a cardio machine, where your heart rate is going to be at the same high state for a long time. This can put your body in a state of stress, and this has a really negative impact on your thyroid. 

Now, a long walk or a hike… that’s perfectly fine, because it’s not jacking up your heart rate!

Instead, interval training is the way to go! If you love running or spinning, you can plan your workout so instead of running or biking at the same speed for an hour, you’re alternating between short bursts of energy - maybe running faster, running on an incline, or increasing the resistance on the bike - and then slow durations of active rest (walking on the treadmill, biking slowly). Think 30 seconds of a sprint, 30 seconds of a slow speed, back and forth, back and forth, for however long you can (or want).

And I’m using running and spinning examples, as I know lots of women love these machines! But you can make any cardio exercise an interval! Jumping jacks, stairs, skipping, swimming… whatever you love doing. The key is just doing the exercise in that on-off-on-off pattern. That’s interval training!

Weight training is also a great type of exercise for women with hypothyroidism. Weight training of course helps us build muscle mass (and no, you’re not going to get buff by accident… trust me, that’s really hard to do) and muscles support our metabolism. Don’t feel like you have to do powerlifting like some of those guys at the gym (though if that’s your jam… amazing!). Instead, invest in a small set of dumbbells - 5, 10, or 15 pounds is a great place to start - and use those. 

Pilates is an excellent type of exercise, because you get a little bit of weight training along with bodyweight exercises, without raising your heart rate for too long.

It’s also a great idea to incorporate some more low-key types of exercises that you can use as more of a way to relax versus just a fitness tool. Yoga, light walks, and stretching are all fantastic exercises to bring into your routine.

I hope you learned what exercises are good for your thyroid and why it is important to be mindful of symptoms of a slow thyroid.