43: BITESIZE | Do You Really Need to Worry About Cortisol?

Cortisol has become the latest wellness villain. Apparently it’s responsible for your belly fat, poor sleep, brain fog, cravings… and heaven forbid you do a hard workout and send it “skyrocketing”. But cortisol isn’t something we need to fear, flatten or detox. It’s a vital hormone that helps us wake up, mobilise energy, respond to challenge and, crucially, adapt to exercise. In this Bitesize episode, I’m cutting through the cortisol noise and looking at what’s actually going on when we train. I explain why exercise *should* create a short-term stress response, why that stress is part of how we become fitter and stronger, and why the real issue is when we pile training stress on top of poor sleep, under-fuelling and an already overflowing life-stress bucket. I’m also sharing the mistake I made during my own half-marathon training, and why the lesson wasn’t “running wrecked my cortisol”, but something much more useful. **Links from this episode:** - Come and train with me - super-effective, 30 minute workouts designed to work with Intelligent Intensity: Train with Carly - When you want more than just workouts: The Reboot is for you. Check it out here: The Reboot - Come and tell me what you thought of this week’s episode over on Instagram - I’m @carlycorrigall