Did you take an extended break from working out and feel like you were broken when you went back to it – breathless, muscles tired, body sluggish? If so, you can blame a protein your body makes called Piezo1.

Piezo1 is responsible for increasing the blood supply to your muscles. The more active you are, the more Piezo1 turns on, which increases the number of capillaries that go to the muscles. The more capillaries there are, the more much-needed energy, oxygen, nutrients, and water the blood can deliver so your muscles don’t fatigue as easily. 

The reverse is also true – the less you exercise, the less Piezo1 there is. The number of muscular capillaries goes down and so the muscles get fewer nutrients. Then when you decide to workout again, your muscles are starved for energy and nutrients. They have a little gas left in the tank (which is why you can still move around on a daily basis), but not enough to supply you through a burst of exercise.

This can lead to a downward spiral where the less you exercise, the less fit you are to exercise and the less you feel like you can do it, so the less you do, and so on and so on. The feeling can be really demoralizing. You want to get healthier, but life has been crazy so it’s been awhile since you worked out. You’re finally able to schedule some time to go to the gym and when you get there, you’re exhausted two minutes in. 

So what can you do to feel better during your workout?

Go slow. Pick an exercise that pushes you a little bit, but doesn’t leave you exhausted. Accept that your body isn’t biologically capable of responding like it used to. This isn’t because you aren’t trying hard enough. It’s because your body was trying to conserve resources so it shut off Piezo1, which wasn’t needed at the time.  It will take some time for Piezo1 to turn back on and increase the number of capillaries going to your muscles. 

This means that you also need to be consistent. The more often you exercise, even at a lower intensity for a shorter period of time than you used to, the more your body will work to increase the blood supply to your muscles. 

Here’s me doing one of my favorite exercises – face pulls. What exercise do you enjoy that you can use to increase your Piezo1 and blood supply to your muscles? Let me know in the comments below.