Monday Master Blog: Why you MUST exercise with a stressful life!

Stress, you probably all know it. Good stress, bad stress, chronic stress, and so on. That's all well and good, but the fact remains that stress is stress, good or bad, your body doesn't know the difference. Why I indicate this is as follows.

Stress is a mechanism in our brain that creates a state of alertness. This allows us to better concentrate, react, anticipate, get ideas and much more. A long time ago, we needed stress as an extra energy pump when we were being chased by a bear. Stress was therefore often short-lived, which is fortunate, because stress increases your heart rate and sends cortisol and adrenaline through your body. It makes sense that you don't want this to happen for a long time.

But what is the fact? The bears are gone, but there is more stress. We get stressed by our work, social situations, (life) events, exciting films/series, our own thoughts and so on. Our body is under stress more and more often and for longer periods of time. This means that all these substances are continuously flowing through our body. Good or bad stress, it doesn't matter, they remain the same hormones.

That's right, an exciting moment in a movie or a bear attack can have the same hormonal result (read stress response)!

All triggering events cause the body to go into a state of alertness, i.e. stress. Sports can also be a trigger in this!
When you exercise, you actually expose your body to a stimulus that your body would rather not receive. You are, as it were, exposing your body to stress locally and in a controlled manner. Because you apply stress to the body in a controlled manner, your body can recover well from this. And as you know, everything you pay attention to grows. So the more often you subject your body to controlled stress, the better it will ultimately be able to withstand it.

Because your body becomes more resistant to stress through exercise, you can better handle stress throughout your day. Your body can recover better after a deadline, an uncomfortable conversation, an exciting movie, an unforeseen life event and after and during your work. So whether you experience good or bad stress, it doesn't matter, make sure you exercise enough and challenge your body with sporting activities. This will keep you healthy longer and perform better!

Raoul van Ooij
Enforce Franchisee & Master Trainer
raoul@enforce.nl
 

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