As you recover from holiday hecticness (perhaps including some well-deserved overindulgence), you may be jumping right into a fitness routine. The New Year can provide renewed motivation, adding a little extra spring to your step as you set off on a walk or head to the gym. But what happens when tiredness makes your daily workout feel like scaling Mount Everest?

While we all need an extra rest day every now and again, if fatigue frequently bars your workout routine, it’s time to reevaluate. We chatted with two experts, a performance physiologist and a clinical psychologist, to better understand how fatigue can impact exercise and what you can do to preserve your energy levels. 

The Experts

• Mark Kovacs, PhD, FACSM, CSCS, performance physiologist and human performance and longevity expert
• Clary Tepper, PhD, clinical psychologist and physician coach

Why Do I Feel Too Tired to Work Out?

Struggling to muster enough motivation for a workout is common, especially with a packed schedule. But if you consistently feel too fatigued to hit the gym, you could be dealing with a combination of factors.

“Feeling too fatigued to exercise is extremely common, and in most cases the cause is multifactorial,” says Dr. Kovacs. “Fatigue is both physical and psychological, and the cause usually isn’t one thing. It is the sum of daily habits.”

Dr. Kovacs highlights these common fatigue contributors: 

• Insufficient sleep: “Even one night of reduced sleep can impair motivation, increase perceived exertion, and reduce exercise capacity.”
  
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• High stress load: “Psychological and emotional stress activates the sympathetic nervous system, making the body feel ‘wired and tired’.”
• Poor fueling patterns: “Irregular fueling, low protein intake, or inadequate timing can leave the body under-energized.”
  
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• Accumulated training fatigue: “For active individuals, chronic micro-fatigue can build up silently over days or weeks.”
• Sedentary workdays: “Long periods of sitting reduce blood flow and make the body feel sluggish before exercise.”
• Dehydration: “Even 2% dehydration reduces energy, cognitive sharpness, and willingness to exercise.”
  
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Are You Just Tired or Burned Out?

Dr. Tepper discussed another prevalent cause of fatigue: burnout. Defined as persistent physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion caused by ongoing stress, “burnout creates a type of severe, unrelenting exhaustion that is fundamentally different from normal tiredness,” says Dr. Tepper. “Unlike ordinary fatigue, burnout does not improve with rest and actively depletes the mental and physical resources needed to initiate and sustain exercise.”

“Burnout is not simply ‘feeling tired’. It’s a physiological fatigue caused by a fundamental imbalance between activities that drain energy and those that restore it. In burnout, the scales are tipped so heavily toward energy depletion that normal rest is insufficient to restore balance,” says Dr. Tepper. She adds that by continuously activating your body’s stress response systems, burnout throws off your body’s ability to regulate stress hormones and effectively manage energy levels.

Fatigue is both a symptom and a cause of burnout, especially for people with irregular schedules (like those who work the night shift, for example). Other common signs of burnout that can help you differentiate it from “normal” fatigue include:

• A loss of interest or motivation
• Sleep disturbances
• Irritability
• Lack of concentration
• Depressive symptoms

While burnout can cause fatigue that makes working out difficult, exercise can also serve as a burnout remedy: “Individuals experiencing burnout often cite ‘being too stressed or too burnt out’ as their primary barrier to exercise, alongside lack of time, excessive workload, and fatigue itself. Ironically, those who would benefit most from exercise’s stress-reducing effects are least able to access it due to the symptoms they are trying to relieve,” says Dr. Tepper. She adds that burnout can negatively impact the part of the brain responsible for motivation, planning, and follow-through, “making it difficult to reason about long-term benefits, prioritize exercise, or recognize personal needs.”

If you’re struggling with burnout symptoms, we hope this information validates your experience and highlights the benefits you could gain by breaking through the sluggishness and powering through some exercise—even if it’s just a few minutes of movement. 

Should I Push Through Fatigue or Take a Rest Day? 

While burnout can benefit from exercise, other forms of fatigue are a message from your body to slow down and rest. Dr. Kovacs says that it may be helpful to exercise when fatigue is:

• Mental or motivational
• Related to a long workday
• Caused by low-level stress
• The result of inactivity

“In these cases, light-to-moderate exercise improves energy, increases blood flow to the brain, boosts mood, and lowers stress hormones. Many people feel better after they start moving,” says Dr. Kovacs. Dr. Tepper adds that “cardiovascular exercise, in particular, has been shown to decrease both stress and emotional exhaustion, while resistance training has been shown to increase feelings of wellbeing and personal accomplishment (which is another core component of burnout).” In other words, while cough-potato-ing may seem like a cure for fatigue, exercise can help you out of a burnout-related rut. 

On the flip side, Dr. Kovacs doesn’t recommend exercise when fatigue is:

• Severe and persistent
• Accompanied by muscle soreness, heavy legs, or reduced power
• Related to illness, fever, or infection
• Following several days of intense training

“In these scenarios, pushing through can increase injury risk, impair recovery, and elevate systemic stress,” says Dr. Kovacs. He also recommends a rest day if you experience unusual heaviness or a lack of explosiveness in your muscles, declining performance (despite normal effort), or persistent soreness. 

How to Work Out After Work: Tips to Boost Your Energy Levels

Many of us start the workday with the promise of hitting the gym on the way home. But when the clock strikes five, with the sun setting and our energy levels depleted, that workout might seem like a pipe dream. But it’s not impossible—here are some science-backed tips from Dr. Kovacs:

• “Schedule movement earlier in the day when possible: Morning or lunchtime exercise is often more consistent and ensures that it gets done.
• Use ‘micro-workouts’: 5 to 15 minutes of movement (walk, mobility, bodyweight circuits) reduces fatigue and can be more sustainable.
• Prepare fueling and hydration: A small snack 60 to 90 minutes before exercise prevents that post-work energy crash.
• Change the mental framing: Instead of ‘a full workout’, focus on ‘10 minutes of movement’. Momentum often builds naturally.
• Avoid going home first: Bring workout clothes to work; starting immediately prevents loss of motivation.
• Reduce decision fatigue: Pre-plan the workout the day before so the brain isn’t making more decisions when already drained.
• For many people, consistency improves once exercise is treated as a scheduled appointment, not an optional activity.”

Fending Off Fatigue to Prevent Skipped Workouts

We’ll leave you with a few final tips to help keep your energy tank full so that you’re not running on empty before your workout:

• “Match the workout to the day: Exercise doesn’t have to be binary. If you’re drained, shift to low-intensity: walking, mobility, stretching, or zone-2 cardio,” says Dr. Kovacs. Zone 2 cardio is moderate-intensity, targeting around 60 to 70% of your target heart rate. 
• “Set realistic goals. If 30 minutes feels like too much, start with 10,” says Dr. Tepper. 
• “Create a weekly rhythm: Aim for a blend of intensity (high and low), moderate sessions, and recovery days,” says Dr. Kovacs. 
• “Choose an exercise that you like. Given that both cardiovascular exercise and resistance training help, choose an exercise that you will actually enjoy,” says Dr. Tepper.
• “Focus on sleep consistency: The single biggest performance enhancer for most people is improving sleep,” says Dr. Kovacs. 
• “Use an app-based or an at-home program, as these are the most accessible and flexible,” says Dr. Tepper.
• “Use movement as a reset tool: Even 5 minutes of light movement can improve circulation and reduce fatigue,” says Dr. Kovacs. 
• “Know the difference between discipline and depletion: The goal is long-term consistency, not max effort every day,” says Dr. Kovacs. 

Need a little extra motivation to push through everyday fatigue? Invite your friends to a free step challenge and capitalize on your competitive energy!