Can You Exercise While On A Cleanse?

Yuri Elkaim, BPHE, CK, RHN & Amy Coates, RHN, BSc.

Exercising while on a cleanse is a little different from exercising when one is not detoxing. While cleansing, although your body will be getting what it needs to live and heal, it will also be involved in several processes of healing and renewal and will be in a somewhat fragile state. It is a good idea to keep this fragile state in mind and to know that some exercises will be extremely good and helpful to your body at this time, while others can be very trying and should be avoided. The intensity of your exercise also matters a great deal when cleansing.

Anaerobic resistance and weight training, while cleansing or fasting, should be avoided. During times of normal diet, anaerobic training is extremely beneficial and highly recommended; however, it is intense and breaks down muscle and tissue very quickly for a strong rebuild. Your body will have a difficult time repairing this additional strain during a detox, and the added stress is not what you need while you are working on eliminating toxins and renewing organ tissues. This is why anaerobic exercise, or interval training, should be avoided in times of detox or fasting.

Aerobic exercise unlike anaerobic exercise, floods the body with air, working toxins out of the lungs and stomach and forcing oxygen to organs that badly need it. While aerobic exercise during a cleanse should never be as intense as it is during normal times, jogging, swimming, walking, cycling and jumping (rebounding) are all very good for the body while it is detoxing. These exercises, as mentioned before, provide oxygen, but they also flush the pores and the lymphatic system, pump fresh blood through the body, and improve mental alertness.

Of the aerobic exercises available, rebounding, or jumping, as on a trampoline, is especially good. Rebounding is a low-impact, healthy way to exercise. It is extremely hard to overdo it on a trampoline, but you should still be careful. If you choose this as an exercise, you will burn more calories than you could while jogging, stimulate your lymphatic system, strengthen your glandular system, and enhance digestion, sleep patterns, nerve impulses, muscle fiber, and relaxation.

Whichever type of aerobic exercise you choose it is important to keep it light to moderate. Monitor your breath. Your breathing should be somewhat fast and steady, not short and gasping. Your heart, also, should be in a reasonable target, fat-burning range of beats per minute, and should not exceed that range.

Exercise is great for you whether you are detoxing, or not. The important thing is to respect your body’s natural healing process by giving it the opportunity to experience increased breath and blood flow, without further straining it with intense exercise. Staying moderate and respectful, you can aid your detox with safe, gentle activities.

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