 |
What you should know about stress and the
effects it has on training:
Stress: (strEHs') n. 1. An epidemic of plague-like proportions
striking all races, genders and ages. 2. A chameleon health condition,
also known as adrenal fatigue syndrome, that can result in obesity,
insomnia, heart disease, depression, headache, ulcer, chronic
fatigue and a myriad of other illnesses. verb trans. 1. To be
anxious, nervous, worried, tired or strained for prolonged periods
of time without relief. 2. To experience severe mental, emotional
and/or physical discomfort.
The difficulty of preventing stress lies
in the fact that stress truly is a "chameleon" health
problem. Thousands of factors can cause stress, and stress
can appear in your body in almost as many ways. With every
individual, stress is brought on by a unique factor. For some,
it's the partying college kids next door, or worrying about
finances, while for others, stress may be caused by the loss
of a loved one, and for others still, too much of a good thing
– like exercise.
Stress can be mental, creating frustration, inability to focus,
reduced concentration and energy, and weak memory skills. Stress
can be emotional, overcoming you with anger, resentment, worry,
anxiety or panic. And stress can be physical, whether from improperly
nourished muscles and organs or real physical injury. Often,
stress is a combination of two or more of these types.
What's more, stress can have a compounding effect: a mentally
stressful situation can develop into physical health troubles,
and these health troubles can in turn create more mental stress
in your life. What does this mean? Stress is potentially the
most pervasive, damaging condition we face. Nearly every major
cause of death, including heart disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes
and arthritis, is linked to some type of stress.
Exercise is a form of stress. Unfortunately,
the part of the brain that is responsible for stimulating the
release of cortisol doesn't know the difference between "good" stress and "bad" stress,
so it secretes more of this destructive hormone whenever we do
a workout that's longer or more intense than we're used to. The
irony is that when we secrete high levels of cortisol we actually
impede the growth and repair processes that are necessary for
improvement in strength and speed - the very things we are trying
to accomplish in training. Cortisol tears muscle tissue down
and severely suppresses the immune system, making us most susceptible
to injury and nagging illnesses. Chronic high levels of cortisol
may also possibly result in increased risk for stress fractures,
since calcium uptake by the bones is so reduced. The good news
is that if we can reduce the high levels of cortisol we secrete
through exercise, we can also reduce much of the damage and setbacks
so that we can recover faster and stronger. And the ingredients
in Recovox have been shown to do just that.
|
