You Got Your Stress Management Down?

I often hear about how stressed people are and how they are struggling for time, not sleeping, exercising etc. There is a lot going on, fitting home life, work and exercise can become a tall order. Never before has there been so much information. Unfortunately it can and often does lead to information overload and being completely overwhelmed.

I should know, it has happened to me. In my line of work I get to help a lot of cool people, each on their own journey. I love the fact that I can help facilitate change in people’s lives and help them to be the best they can be. But in that, I myself can try and do far too much and when it starts to work against me I know I have to step back and redress the balance.

It made me appreciate how important the relaxation side of life is when you’re training and working hard!

For example, people often assume that because they all have busy and most often stressful lives, those of them who do make the effort to exercise think training hard and fast would relieve the stress they are under. Whether it is weight loss or muscle building, stress can impede both, it can have to opposite effect.

At a more basic level everybody has a stress hormone called cortisol. This should start naturally high in the morning. It rises to give us the kick up the backside to get up and start our day, then as the day progresses, it should dissipate so we can head to a more relaxed state as we approach bed time. When this remains high due to stressful lives, it has many side effects including increased fat storage, anxiety, depression, even illness.

Make no mistake, stress can be a killer!

This means that if we don’t correctly manage the stress in our lives, ‘doing more exercise’ actually may NOT be good for you as it is another stressor your body needs to manage. If you are piling on more stress, ‘training harder’ isn’t going to get you anywhere which is VERY frustrating, because you expect it to work.

Don’t get me wrong, You should put everything into your training, doing things half arsed does not get you the results you want.

However, it is more about training smart than training hard. Don’t beast yourself day in day out or do 2–3 exercise classes in a row. You may think that you are doing the right thing, doing one class was helping so surely 3 in a row will be even better right?

WRONG!!

As much as we need to move and be fit and healthy, we also have to rest and recover, this means that you train hard, but then you play hard, you step back you allow your body to heal itself. You take a break or back off everything every 4 to 8 weeks. Hammering your body day in day out will burn you out and increase your chance of injury.

Add to that the daily mental stress of running your household and or working and everything starts taking its toll.

On a daily basis we can all put on a smile and try to get through the day, but over time it will catch up with you. When the balance is upset you can start having trouble sleeping, you become anxious because you aren’t able to keep up and start feeling low and depressed.

Many of you all assume that other people have got it good, but nobody really knows what is going on behind closed doors. I have caught myself doing this in the past and the truth is it doesn’t matter. Everyone manages their life in their own way, each unique and so cannot really be compared. Stop worrying about what people “might” think, concentrate on you.

Pretty soon your training starts to suffer, the niggles appear, you feel exhausted all the time, you start to miss sessions. You feel like you are gaining weight and losing fitness, but you just cannot physically and mentally perform at your best.

This has to change!

I mentioned before about training smart. This is when you complement short duration training with more relaxing activities such as:

• going for walks in the fresh air is a great way to clear your mind, away from your daily stresses.
• Try yoga or meditation to calm your mind. So many people dismiss such practices, but believe me it is a necessity in this modern life. I practice meditation on a daily basis and it is an incredible way to relieve stress and gain more clarity in your life.
• Diaphragmatic (belly) breathing is a great way to reduce stress levels and done before bed makes a massive difference to your sleep.
• Reading a fictional book, immerse yourself and switch off your mind from daily pressures.
• Dust off your bike for a leisurely bike ride away from the daily pressures is another great way.

By trying some or all of these methods will almost certainly help you reduce your stress levels and to feel better about yourself.

I know a lot of people are going through stressful situations right now and sometimes just can’t bring themselves to train. However, you deserve to exercise, you deserve to be the best person you can be so you can be the best wife/husband/father/mother. By managed your life better, you can manage your stress better.

listen to your body, understand what it is saying to you everyday and take control of your mental stresses before they take control of you!

To you strength and Health

Dean Coulson

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