Do You Have Suggestions on Exercise for Those With Chronic Fatigue and/or Immunosuppression?
15 Dec 2025 · 10 min
Dr. Emily Kaibard recommends starting slowly with functional strength training for people with chronic fatigue or immunosuppression. Focus on her essential seven movements using kettlebells (12 kg or 16 kg), and skip excessive cardio. The goal is building strength for daily activities, not performance.
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Do you have suggestions on exercise for those with chronic fatigue or immunosuppression? This is JJ Virgin, four time New York Times Best selling author, celebrity nutrition expert and Fitness Fitness hall of Famer. I've been on a lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the Health Expert. Leah Mack from Facebook asks, do you have suggestions on where to begin, then how to ramp up exercise for those with chronic fatigue and or immunosuppression? Hey, it's JJ and I have thyroid exercise expert Dr. Emily Kaibard here to answer this question. She's a New York City chiropractor, strength enthusiast and mama to Elvis and Baby Brooklyn. She helps women struggling with Hashimoto's learn how to work out without burning out while using her own program. Thyroid strong and making lifestyle changes, she has put her Hashimoto's into remission and Fun Fact. Emily used to work for Bear Management in Yellowstone national park and I'm afraid to even think of what that is. She'll be right back with me to answer the question.
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That is the most common question I get and I think there is a great Arthur Ashe quote around this which goes start where you are, use what you have, do what you can. And so for those of us with an autoimmune condition who have not been working out, have been sitting on the couch or have been so fatigued that doing any sort of exercise feels really tough on the body, start slow and focus on stimulating and supporting the muscle. Focusing on the muscle will give you a boost in energy that will really help with the chronic fatigue. So for, you know, there's, there's two kinds of women that I see. One is more inactive and so doing anything is going to feel like a lot. So it might be just starting to walk, walk 20 minutes a day or working up to 20 minutes a day. And then there's the opposite end of the spectrum, which is a woman who's been hitting it hard going to Zumba class or doing HIIT classes six days a week and they actually will need to dial it down. And I think a really common mistake is doing too much cardio or only doing cardio as the only form of exercise. You know, it's so much easier to just put on your shoes, go for a run, jump on the elliptical, get on the StairMaster. It doesn't take a lot of dialed in intricate conscious form. You know, especially running is just put one foot in front of the other. But you know, six days a week of cardio or only running can leave you feeling burnt out, can feel. You know, I've heard women say they feel like they were hit by a bus afterwards or they had more brain fog or their joint pain was worse. And as women we're told lose weight, do cardio. And so if we're first starting out Start slowly, make a plan. And that plan should be strength training. And if you don't know what strength training is, it's lifting a weight with good form, building tension in the body, putting it down and doing it again. Invest in some kettlebells. I like two 12 kilo, that's two 25 pound bells, two to 16 kilo bells. And invest in learning good form. If that means hiring a coach, especially in this day and age, it might be hiring a coach remotely, it might be doing an online program like Thyroid Strong. We can learn to strength train from the comfort of your home. And when I talk about strength training, I'm not talking about bicep curls with pink weights that are three or five pounds. I'm talking about functional strength movements. I call them the Essential seven. But the essential seven would include a hinge like a deadlift or a kettlebell swing to wake up the back of the legs and the glutes, a squat, a push like an elevated push up off your countertop, a pull move, some sort of carry like you're carrying groceries, some sort of lunge, could be a split squat or walking lunges and then some sort of anti rotation movement. And so it's so important, you know, if you think about what we are doing, what are we using our exercise for? What's the goal? The goal is to feel better every single hour in our day through the rest of life when we're not exercising. So like carrying our groceries, picking up our kids, throwing them up in the air. So we want our strength to make us better at the rest of life. So you know, we don't need more tricep dips. There's no carryover. We need functional strength movements. I like the essential seven. And just make a plan and invest in something heavy. A heavyweight.
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