This question comes up frequently in my work with people who are recovering from Autistic Burnout.  

I’ve worked with hundreds of people in Autistic Burnout and honestly there is no clear consensus on whether exercise helps or hinders recovery.

Some people find gentle exercise such as yoga or walking in nature helpful, others find they need to do intense cardiovascular exercise to feel energised and some find that any increase in physical activity sets back their recovery and makes them feel worse. 

There are no published research studies on this subject and the hundreds of Autistic people I’ve had conversations with have incredibly diverse experiences of exercise and it’s impact on their burnout.

 This doesn’t mean it isn’t worth considering.

… Even if the result of that consideration is that it’s not right for you.  That’s okay.  In fact better than okay.  It means you’ve figured out something important about your needs.

I’ve put together this article to help you think about whether or not, how much and what type of exercise might be helpful for you. 

This article is not designed to replace the advice of any healthcare professional  involved in your care.  

While there is not an evidence base for exercise in relation to Autistic burnout there are some (both for and against) for commonly co-occuring conditions,  I have summarised these at the end of the article in case this is useful for you. 

Should I exercise more? 

This depends on your current level of burnout, your current tolerance of any physical activity and how physical your symptoms of burnout are.  If you are deep in burnout you might find that just the idea of adding something extra to your day is too much, even if you don’t feel physically fatigued. 

Here are some signs that increasing exercise might not be helpful:

• If adding anything extra into your day is likely to cause more stress and put you over your energy ‘budget’ for the day.
• High levels of physical fatigue that are worse after any kind of exertion (e.g. climbing stairs or walking around the house).
• Existing or suspected health conditions where exercise or types of exercise is contraindicated.
• Exercise programmes that automatically increase the length of workout or intensity of the workout before you feel ready.
• Feeling like any exercise would mean ‘pushing through’ pain or fatigue.
• If you find even the idea of exercise aversive.

If you are at  stage in your recovery where you are feeling able to try new things and feel like you have some physical energy to spare each day then it might be worth trying some exercise to see whether it makes you feel better or worse.

Here are some signs increasing exercise might be helpful

• Feeling restless, tense or agitated.
• Finding yourself engaging in proprioceptive seeking behaviour such as chewing, fidgeting or pacing.  Or vestibular stimulation seeking behaviour such as rocking, swaying or swinging.
• Depression or low mood.
• Feeling that you have a surplus of physical energy (even if your other types of energy are at an all time low).
• Difficulty sleeping
• If you think you might enjoy it.

Choosing what type of exercise to do

If you have decided it is worth trying some exercise (or an increase in exercise) the next question really is what type of exercise?  

This is very much down to personal preference, energy levels, availability, physical ability, any health conditons that you might have.  

It is worth considering if you want/if it might be helpful to do something that:

• Increases your heart rate?
• Doesn’t increase your heart rate but gives you some gentle movement?
• Helps you to feel stronger?
• Helps release or reduce tension?

You might also find you need to avoid potential barriers associated with some exercises.  For example, if you think having to talk to people might be a barrier you might prefer to do something with no or low social requirements. 

If leaving the house is likely to make it difficult to engage in an activity then finding something you can do at home might be more achievable conversely, you might find that being outside helps you to feel regulated and makes exercising easier. 

Consider the following:

• Leaving your home vs staying inside.
• Interacting with others vs doing something alone.
• Planning your own session vs doing something where it is pre-planned by someone else.
• Needing to change clothing vs doing something you can do in your usual clothes.
• Needing to wash afterwards vs doing something where you won’t sweat or get dirty.

A good starting point would be something that you have enjoyed in the past, even if it needs to be adapted or done at a lower intensity or for a shorter duration than previously.

For example:

• Yoga- there are multiple types of this that vary significantly in intensity.
• Walking- ranging from very short gentle walks to much more energetic hikes.
• Martial arts- again there are multiple options here varying in intensity Tai chi, Karate, Kung-fu.
• Swimming.
• Weight lifting.
• Pilates.
• Calisthenics/ bodyweight exercises.
• Cycling outdoors or on a stationary bike.
• Horseriding.
• Canoing, Kayaking or Paddleboarding.

Adapting exercises

If something you have enjoyed previously feels like too much or is a big leap from your current activity levels- for example paddleboarding, but you would like to do it you could consider something that would help you to eventually get back to it, e.g. pilates to work on core strength or adapting the paddlebording to a seated position.  

Examples of adaptations:

• Shorter length sessions (e.g.. 5 minutes).
• Less intense sessions (e.g. lower weights, easier moves or poses, shorter distances).
• Seated or kneeling exercises instead of standing ones.

Choosing how much exercise to do

Exactly how much exercise you decide to do, or try doing depends on your current baseline level of activity and energy, If you really aren’t sure if exercise is going to make you feel better or worse then start with very short, low intensity sessions and see how you feel as a result. For example 5 minutes of yoga, pilates, weight training with lighter weights or walking around the block. 

How to assess whether or not an exercise session has helped or not

• How you feel while doing it
• How you feel immediately after
• How you feel over the next 48 hours 

How you feel might be defined in simple terms such as ‘better’ ‘worse’ or ‘no different’ you might also like to consider this for the way you feel across each of these domains:

• Physical – do you have more or less energy/pain?
• Cognitive – do you feel more or less able to think clearly?
• Emotional- do you feel calmer, more hopeful, more satisfied or more anxious, low or dissatisfied? 
• Sensory- do you feel more regulated, less overwhelmed or more easily irritated by sensory stimuli?
• Social- do you feel more or less able to engage with others?

 If you want to really deep dive into investigating this, and are clear (ish) on how you feel then you could rate your energy levels for each domain on a scale of 0-10 before and after the exercise session.  

If you are not clear on how you feel,  then it might be worth waiting 48 hours and repeating the experiment, or slightly increasing the duration and/or intensity a little until you do notice some change in how you feel.  Again, wait 48 hours before deciding whether or not you have noticed any improvement or decline in symptoms. 

Key points 

There is no simple answer to whether or not exercising will help or hinder your recovery from autistic burnout,  it could do either, or make no difference at all. 

Please be gentle with yourself, only exercise within your energy and ability levels.

Pay attention to your own internal wisdom before deciding to exercise, during exercise sessions and when assessing whether or not it has been helpful. 

The evidence base from commonly co-occurring conditions

As mentioned above there is no research specifically on the effect of exercise on Autistic Burnout, however there is a some evidence for and against exercise for commonly co-occuring conditions.  If you have, or suspect you have, one or more of these co-occuring conditions then please also consider the following:

Depression

There is very strong evidence (Noetel et al., 2024)  that exercise is effective in reducing symptoms of depression in the general population, with walking or jogging, yoga, and strength training considered more effective than other exercises, particularly when intense. Research suggests that Yoga and strength training are generally better tolerated when compared with other treatments.  however research on this specifically for depressed autistic adults is lacking.

ME/CFS

Research (Twisk & Maes, 2009) has shown that  graded exercise therapy (slowly increasing exercise levels) is ineffective in treating the symptoms of ME/CFS and exacerbates symptoms in many people with ME/CFS.  It is no longer recommended as a treatment by the UK NICE guidelines (https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng206/chapter/Recommendations#managing-mecfs) who instead suggest that any exercise undertaken should be done so within the person’s energy budget and not automatically increased unless the person feels their energy levels have increased and they would like to do more.  The Nice guidelines make a point that for people with ME/CFS exercising within their energy budget is useful for some people and not for others.

Anxiety

A systematic review (Riis, Samulski, Neely & Laverdure 2025) of exercise for anxiety in autistic people identified 8 studies that had examined the effect of exercise programmes on Autistic people.  The researchers concluded that there was moderate-strong evidence that physical activity could reduce anxiety for Autistic children and adults.  However the types of exercises used in these studies varied wildly between yoga, walking, horseback riding and group sports making it difficult for the authors to identify exactly what type of physical activity was most helpful. 

Sleep

There is good evidence from a large number of studies of the general population (Alnawwar et al.,2023)that moderate intensity regular exercise can improve sleep quality and duration but that high intensity exercise, in some individuals can have a negative impact on sleep, particularly if performed close to bedtime. This has not been explicitly explored in studies with Autistic adults, however studies on Autistic children (Rivera, Robertson & McCleery., 2025) have found a reduction in sleep related difficulties following an increase in exercise.

Joint Hypermobility

For people with hypermobile joints there is some suggestion that improving muscle strength can help to compensate for laxity in joints and reduce fatigue, and increasing strength and stability are often recommended within an approach that takes accounts of the persons specific ability, needs and energy levels, again staying within their energy budget rather than pushing the limit (e.g. https://www.hypermobility.org/exercise).  however the evidence base is not well developed and the little evidence there is suggests exercise may be helpful but not which type of exercise nor how much (Palmer et al., 2014) 

Stress

Exercise is widely recommended to help reduce stress and to protect against it, however results vary from individual to individual, and while in large scale studies the average effect might be positive (i.e. exercise reduces stress) there is significant variation between individuals (Burg et al., 2017). Burg et al (2017) looking at the impact of exercise on stress levels noted that whilst overall exercise had a positive effect on stress, this was only true at the individual level for 15 out the the 66 participants, with it having a negative impact for 2 and making no difficerence for the rest of the participants. 

References

Alnawwar MA, Alraddadi MI, Algethmi RA, Salem GA, Salem MA, Alharbi AA. The Effect of Physical Activity on Sleep Quality and Sleep Disorder: A Systematic Review. Cureus. 2023 Aug 16;15(8):e43595. doi: 10.7759/cureus.43595. PMID: 37719583; PMCID: PMC10503965. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10503965/

Matthew M. Burg, Joseph E. Schwartz, Ian M. Kronish, Keith M. Diaz, Carmela Alcantara, Joan Duer-Hefele, Karina W. Davidson, Does Stress Result in You Exercising Less? Or Does Exercising Result in You Being Less Stressed? Or Is It Both? Testing the Bi-directional Stress-Exercise Association at the Group and Person (N of 1) Level, Annals of Behavioral Medicine, Volume 51, Issue 6, December 2017, Pages 799–809, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-017-9902-4

Noetel M, Sanders T, Gallardo-Gómez D, Taylor P, Del Pozo Cruz B, van den Hoek D, Smith JJ, Mahoney J, Spathis J, Moresi M, Pagano R, Pagano L, Vasconcellos R, Arnott H, Varley B, Parker P, Biddle S, Lonsdale C. Effect of exercise for depression: systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. BMJ. 2024 Feb 14;384:e075847. doi: 10.1136/bmj-2023-075847. Erratum in: BMJ. 2024 May 28;385:q1024. doi: 10.1136/bmj.q1024. PMID: 38355154; PMCID: PMC10870815. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38355154/

Riis K, Samulski B, Neely KA, Laverdure P. Physical Activity for Anxiety for Autistic People: A Systematic Review. J Autism Dev Disord. 2025 Aug;55(8):2663-2679. doi: 10.1007/s10803-024-06356-9. Epub 2024 May 16. PMID: 38755488; PMCID: PMC12296984. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38755488/

Rivera, R.A., Robertson, M.C. & McCleery, J.P. Exercise Interventions for Autistic People: An Integrative Review of Evidence from Clinical Trials. Curr Psychiatry Rep 27, 286–306 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-025-01597-6

Twisk FN, Maes M. A review on cognitive behavorial therapy (CBT) and graded exercise therapy (GET) in myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) / chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS): CBT/GET is not only ineffective and not evidence-based, but also potentially harmful for many patients with ME/CFS. Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 2009;30(3):284-99. PMID: 19855350. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19855350/

Shea Palmer, Samuel Bailey, Louise Barker, Lauren Barney, Ami Elliott, The effectiveness of therapeutic exercise for joint hypermobility syndrome: a systematic review, Physiotherapy, Volume 100, Issue 3, 2014, Pages 220-227, ISSN 0031-9406, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physio.2013.09.002 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031940613000849)

I am an Autistic Clinical Psychologist specialising in  Autistic Burnout  if you would like to know more about my work please check out my: 

• Mailing list community for people who want to receive helpful information and resources about Autistic Burnout.
• Free short course on How to Break the Cycle of Autistic Burnout (link goes straight to registration page) 
• Authenticity Basecamp:   A 90 day support programme for people in the early stages of recovering from Autistic Burnout who want to get calmer, clearer and more supported.
• Authenticity: The Course and Community: For late-realised, high-masking Autistic adults who want to build more sustainable, authentic lives and break free of the cycle of Autistic Burnout for good.