We live in a very stressful culture.

Although most of us understand this, not many people know how to cope very well and a vast majority of people feel that they are doomed to a life of stress and exhaustion.

Ask any medical doctor what he or she believes is the primary cause of most illness and they will more than likely come up with one word: Stress!

The glands in your body that help you deal with stress are called the adrenal glands.

They are tiny little glands, each weighing the weight of a nickel, sitting on top of each of your kidneys.

You have a right adrenal gland and a left adrenal gland.

As a medical intuitive reading the bodies of all kinds of people, I will tell you that I have never had a single brand new client who had healthy adrenal glands.

Almost everybody is in some state of stress – until or unless they learn to recognize and deal with it.

Your adrenal glands have three stages of stress.

Stage One – Alarm.

Stage Two – Adaptation.

Stage Three – Exhaustion.

Although all exercise is good, not all exercise is good for everybody and one of the primary reasons is that many people are simply too stressed and too exhausted to do stimulating exercise.

What is stimulating exercise?

Stimulating exercise is any kind of exercise where your heart rate exceeds 90 beats per minute on a continuous basis.

Why does 90 beats a minute matter?

That is because 90 beats a minute is what is called your intrinsic heart rate – how fast your heart rate can go without your body having to secrete adrenalin, one of the two primary hormones secreted by your adrenal glands.

On average, according to Dr. Diana Schwarzbein, M.D., an endocrinologist, at least 70 percent of people over the age of 35 have a damaged metabolism, which means they have either burned out adrenal glands, are insulin resistant, which is often a byproduct of years of adrenal burnout, or both.

At what age do many people naturally turn to yoga? Mid-30s.

I was 34 when I first got introduced to yoga.

It simply felt better to my body than many of the other forms of exercise that I was doing.

Adrenal function is key not only to our metabolism but also to our entire hormonal picture.

That is because before menopause, our adrenal glands produce about 40 percent of our sex hormones.

After menopause, our adrenal glands produce about 90 percent of our sex hormones.

As we age, stress management becomes more and more important.

Stimulating exercise like jogging, running, spinning classes, Bikram hot yoga, boot camps and the like force our bodies to secrete adrenalin and the stress hormone cortisol.

Although you may feel good temporarily doing these activities, you may find yourself feeling depleted afterwards.

The best way to exercise is to find methods that improve your fitness level but don’t stress the adrenal glands.

What is healing?
Healing happens when you understand what stage of adrenal stress you are in and adjust your nutrition and exercise to heal yourself on all levels.

If you have burned out adrenal glands, natural medicine recommends that you choose non-stimulating exercise such as yoga, tai chi, qi gong and/or walking. This is one of the most basic natural healing remedies.