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Something you haven't thought about. Stress is something you have to pay attention to. Read on to find out why
Stress. Stress is something that is over-exaggerated in many respects but it can also be underestimated when it comes to wanting to lose fat, build muscle or just live a healthier lifestyle. My aim here is to explain what stress actually is and how it affects our bodies. It is a lot more scientific and has many chemical reactions in the body, however, I have broken it down so anyone can understand it and deal with it a little better.
The first thing I’ll get into, considering it’s the one that occurs most in us with modern day living is that of adrenaline. The fight or flight response is the name given when our stress levels are elevated. When this happens, adrenaline is released into the bloodstream. Typically, you would experience an increase in heart-rate, increased blood flow and your breathing patterns may change – this is your body basically getting ready for action. Think of a time when you had a sudden fright. Your heart started to beat fast and you sweat a little. This is known as the fight or flight response in the body.
We can now swiftly discuss our nervous system as this ties in with stress. Our nervous system is divided mainly into two – the Central Nervous System and the Peripheral Nervous system. For our purposes, we will discuss the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS). There is a part of our PNS that handles situations where we are faced with a stimulus we aren’t used to facing frequently. This is known as the Sympathetic nervous system. On the other hand, the Parasympathetic nervous system does the opposite. This part of the system is otherwise known as the Rest & Digest system and it stabilises and relaxes the body returning it to a state of calm, the heart rate slows down and basic functions can carry on without interruption. War & peace is the best way to remember this, War being the sympathetic nervous system and peace being the parasympathetic system. This is at a very basic level and it gives you an idea as to why we feel the way we do when faced with certain stimuli and how it is controlled. So when we looked at adrenaline and the fight or flight response, it is the sympathetic nervous system that dominates. Both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are part of the Autonomic nervous system – which we can physically have control over.
The adrenal glands are where hormones are secreted relating to adrenaline. Adrenaline gives you that alertness and focus you experience when caffeine is ingested. Coffee is one of the biggest causes of this as the coffee is one of the most widely consumed drugs in the worlds – coffee beans being the drug. When we rely on a caffeine hit, our body will begin to break itself down and forget how to produce adrenaline as effectively – this is why reach for another cup and the effectiveness of it starts to wear down gradually over time. This, of course, is something we want to avoid. One of the best ways to cleanse yourself internally and give your adrenal glands a break is by avoiding caffeine altogether for around a week or 2. Yes I know, a lot easier said than done. But this is something that may require some willpower. Enjoy your coffee every morning if you like, but when you feel sleep is interrupted or you just feel like cr**, then take a coffee break for a week and allow the nervous system to take a break.
Another good tactic, drink coffee on your workout days only. Avoid it on the days you are not working out. This is something I personally do myself as I prefer to have green tea or regular tea with some sweeteners on my rest days. In doing so, your caffeine tolerance won’t dramatically increase and each time you drink it – you will benefit from the full effects of the caffeine itself.
Ah, this is where it gets interesting. I’m sure you may have heard a thing or two about cortisol and its implications in the body. Cortisol is released into the body by the adrenal glands in order to manage stress – either mental or physical. This is primarily catabolic, which means that our body is in a state of break-down. Now I don’t mean our body is killing itself. It simply means carbohydrates, fats and even protein are broken down and released into the body to cope with elevated stress levels. So all in all, not a bad thing. During workouts, this is exactly what happens, so elevated cortisol is a good thing, sort of. A lot of people seem to think that lifting weights is an anabolic process, but it is the complete opposite. Another example of cortisol being a little frequent is when we are dieting down and are looking to lose body fat. In order to do so, we must be consuming fewer calories than our body uses. However, in doing so, we can fluctuate in and out of a state of catabolism due to the calorie deficit and will have a difficult time to repair and recover. It doesn’t mean we can’t recover; it just means it will be a little harder. Unlike when we are in a calorie surplus and we take in more energy, our body will recover a lot quicker. Stress levels will elevate during periods of fat loss, this is inevitable and something we can embrace and work with. so this is nothing to worry about. It’s a part of the process, and unless you are an assisted individual (drugs), you should accept it.
The difficulty here, however, and it is one which is all too present, is that modern life will usually result in us having bouts of cortisol and other stress hormones kicking in unnecessarily. This affects everyone, including you and me. Poor dietary choices mean that our ability to recover will be impaired and our nervous system can become irritated. We all know that one person in the office who is high on life and eats all the nutritionally dense food you can think off – they are keeping the nervous system in check. Another contributor is emotional stress. Money, family and relationships are just a few examples. We are always worrying about this or that, about matters which appear to be significant but, on careful reflection, are quite trivial and small. If we are constantly in a state of worry and distress, our cortisol levels will be raging and through the roof, so this is something to consider. Now I know what you are thinking, this is something that we can’t always control and I completely understand that. However, let’s try to be more mindful. Let’s take time to ourselves and put away the mobile phones when we don’t need them at home. Perhaps some yoga or even a walk, best done in the morning, or just some good old meditating.
If we are chasing a goal, be it fat loss or muscle gain, we are breaking down our bodies in the gym. Which isn’t a bad thing, becomes it builds back stronger next time. Now couple that with other unnecessary stressors I have just mentioned above and we are surely going to run ourselves down and impair recovery. All of this is on a very basic level and there is a lot more to it which I won’t get into. Like everything we do or have, moderation is key. So elevated stress levels are good as it helps us, but chronic elevation all the time is certainly a big no-no and one we must try to control. In doing so, we will be recovering a lot faster and our progress will not constantly fluctuate.
