Stress and Recovery

Once upon a time, long, long time ago there was a man and a woman sitting by a tree. Suddenly they hear a sound; a crack of a branch,. The ground begins to shake and suddenly a thunderous roar fills the air. The man and the woman take a quick glance at each other and immediately, as if their bodies were machines, they begin to run. Their hearts began to race, their legs took them from rest to full speed in seconds; it was their body’s instinct that carried them to safety. As they reached safe harbor, they sat down on a rock and all was well; they were at peace once again. The man and the woman never saw the creature that loomed behind them; they did not need to see the danger to know how to respond because their instinct kicked in.

This is the story of how our bodies respond to stress, and it happens every day. When we face stressful situations in life, whether running from a predator, dealing with a deadline, or a bumpy time in a relationship our body releases sympathetic hormones (aka the “fight or flight response”) to allow our body to act. However, the problem is that unlike the cave man and woman previously described, we aren’t always able to run away as our body was designed. So we end up hormonally out of balance which can negatively affect our immune system, sleeping patterns, and even Cortisol levels. The consequence in the gym…. prolonged recovery time.

Once upon a time, just yesterday, there was a man and a woman sitting in an office they were stressed out and they kept it all inside. They went to the gym to continue a rigorous training routine but they were too fatigued to continue, they went back the next day and they started to notice unnecessary weakness and injury.

This is the story of how our bodies respond to stress if we are physically active (especially when we’re training hard for a competition) and we don’t allow ourselves to relieve stress. If this is happening to you, try to find a way to reduce your stress levels. Try a massage, a yoga class, tai chi, or just take a vacation and you’ll notice a big difference when you get back in the gym.