Sometimes when you’re tired from running it’s not because your muscles are over trained. Often it’s because you are low in Iron, which plays a key role in red blood cell creation and oxygen transfer.

Transcript

What I wanted to talk about today was what happens when you're feeling tired. Sometimes, when your body's feeling rundown, and you're feeling tired, it could be because you're lacking iron.

The reason why iron is so important is your body needs iron to make red blood cells. Red blood cells capture oxygen and bring it to the muscles of your body. Red blood cells help keep your blood flowing well, which will help your muscles recover. When you're feeling fatigued, a lot of it is just because you are a little bit deficient in the iron in your diet. When I get that feeling, one of the first things that I do is I go to an iron source.

I don't mind eating red meat when I need to. In situations like this, I eat a steak with a good side of vegetables. And nine out of 10 times, I I feel so much better afterwards. If you are vegan, and you don't eat meat or you're vegetarian and don't eat meat, there are ways to get iron, it's a little bit harder than if you're just eating red meat. Great sources are beans and nuts and dark leafy vegetables such as kale and spinach. You're probably going to have to eat a higher volume of those than you're used to. If you're feeling a little bit rundown because you need to catch up on iron. This is when supplementation can really come in and help. You can take an iron supplement that can especially help you to get a nice big dose of iron. Also cereals can help. A lot of cereals that you have in the US are fortified with vitamin B's and iron because iron is that important.

So when you're feeling rundown, you're feeling tired, know that there is something there. It doesn't mean that you're out of shape. It doesn't mean things aren't going well. A lot of times it just means you need a little bit of iron in your diet. Because a little bit of iron is going to help you create the red blood cells that you need to carry the oxygen in the blood you need to the parts of the body to help them feel recovered. So being tired, it isn't always because you're tired, sometimes is because your iron is low.