Happy Friday!

Welcome to another edition of the “Train For Life” newsletter.

Today’s edition we will be discussing STRESS, what it does to the body and how to adapt training during stressful times to keep you consistent and on the path to success.

Firstly we need to be aware that we can put stress on the body in many different ways which includes:

• Work related stress:- Long hours, BIG deadlines to meet, bad bosses, toxic environments and so on.

• Family related stress:- Family feuds, relationship problems or simply having a growing young family to look after (not saying this is bad BTW…).

• Poor nutrition:- What you put into your body matters and unhealthy food can certainly increase the stress on your system. Alcohol comes under this category too..

• Caffeine:- Coffee and caffeinated drinks stimulate the release of cortisol (the stress hormone) much the same way a stressful situation does. Be mindful how much you drink during stressful times.

• Poor sleep:- We recover when we sleep, especially from the stressors of the day. Poor sleep quality and/or duration is associated with higher cortisol levels.

• Training and exercise:- Too much of a good thing can become negative if you’re overdoing it. Dose matters during stressful times (more on this below).

Just for the record, cortisol is a hormone produced by our adrenal glands to help regulate stress, metabolism and an immune response.

It’s actually a good thing in small doses as necessary to help us in situations where we REALLY need it…

For example, when we are sick, injured or need to get away from a dangerous situation it can help us.

However, constant stress places a burden on the adrenal glands as they become fatigued from producing too much cortisol…

What happens under prolonged stress?

Prolonged periods of stress can effect us in a few ways such as:

• Frequent colds or infections

• LOW morning energy (requiring more caffeine - vicious cycle)

• Gut health problems

• Injuries and pain problems

Basically stress increases INFLAMMATION in the body which is necessary in small doses, BUT causes issues after prolonged periods (see list directly above).

How does this affect our training and exercise programs?

By now it should be clear that training and exercise is actually another stress on our bodies, IF we abuse it or don’t train appropriately during more stressful periods.

One HUGE factor that comes into play here is output of our muscles as it’s likely that the nervous system is going to be a little “fried”.

This will mean that our usual ability to lift a certain amount of weight, run a certain speed or perform a certain amount of reps may be reduced.

It’s important to understand this as pushing through it or forcing your body to progress and adapt, could potentially make you sick or injured.

So how can we adjust our training?

There’s a few simple adjustments we can make to our training programs in order to maintain a healthy exercise routine..

Below are some you may want to AVOID (for now anyway..):

• Heavy strength training with low reps:- This is taxing on the nervous system which is already potentially fatigued.

• Training to failure:- Again this is taxing and eats more into your precious recovery.

• HIIT training (High intensity interval training):- While effective for conditioning this can be highly stressful on your system and harder to recover from.

• High volume training:- Performing high amounts of work sets or doing high amounts of reps (15-20) might be overcooking it too much AT THIS TIME.

Below are some the things you may want to ADAPT or INCLUDE:

• Keep total volume per session to a minimum:- This would mean 8-10 total work sets MAX, and only 1-2 challenging work sets.

• Leave 1-2 reps in reserve on all work sets:- Avoid failure and leave a little in the tank on your work sets and facilitate recovery.

• Keep your rep ranges moderate:- Minimise heavy low reps and super high rep sets, and stick to rep ranges of 6-8 or up to 10 MAX.

• Keep session durations to 30-45 mins tops:- Again leave energy in the tank to help you recover.

• Keep training frequency to a minimum:- If you’re used to training 5 days a week you may need to reduce this to 2-3 days a week, preferably on non consecutive days.

• Switch your cardio to brisk walking (preferably outdoors in nature) OR try low intensity nasal breathing cardio:- Walking can be a real stress reliever and is low impact (more on nasal breathing cardio below).

   

Nasal breathing cardio is performed at low level intensity where you would focus on breathing in and out through the nose ONLY.

The key is to maintain a light enough pace that you can comfortably nose breathe which is a good way to keep stress levels lower.

Start with 10 mins, build up slowly, and best to start with equipment such as the bike, cross trainer or even brisk walking to begin with.

And on a final note, remember there’s lifestyle factors that will reduce stress and ensure you recover and maximise your training program which includes:

• Prioritising sleep

• Minimising caffeine and alcohol

• Eating good quality foods

• Implementing daily meditation and breath work

• Journalling

• Spending time in nature

For now thanks for reading today, and stay tuned for the next edition of Train For Life next Friday!

Daryl

PS email me on [email protected] if you have any feedback at all or simply have anything specific you would like to see in future newsletters!