How everyday stress can have a negative impact on your training recovery.

Exercise has a positive impact on our mental well being and helps manage stress levels. However, stress can also have a huge impact on your training results. If you feel like you've hit a plateau or not getting the results you expect, you need to read this.

“ Are you using high intensity exercise to combat stress but feel like you've hit a plateau with your training? Do you have a stressful project that has you working super late most nights? Are you going through a rough patch in your relationship?”

All of these things are normal parts of life. Life is stressful - we can't always control these things, but we can modify how we train during stressful times.

When you are dealing with a lot of stress in your everyday life, your body shifts energy away from training recovery to dealing with the supposed ‘threat’ (that is, the other life stressors). Instead of repairing muscle tissue, your brain may be prioritising managing the stress instead of improving your strength and conditioning. (Can you blame it?)

So how can we combat this? Firstly, well done in recognising that stress is impacting you. Secondly, you might have to re-think the way that you train. If you are going all-out in the gym all of the time, you are effectively putting more stress on your body - physical stressors do not cancel out mental stressors - however, if you can be smart about your training you can learn to control your heart rate and training intensity. Thats exactly why coaches will program deload perioods in your training when you're are going through a particularly rough patch. Yes, you need to turn up and train, but you don’t need to hit your max heart rate or a PB lift. Simply put, your body is not in a position to prioritise muscle building right now. You will most likely end up feeling discouraged and worse than you did when you started.

So, what can you do in the gym?

1. Learning how to control your breathing and regulate your heart rate while lifting heavy at the gym will help to manage your mental stress more effectively. If you have a personal trainer or coach, this is one of the reasons they are always reminding you of your breathing cues. There are many great resources on the importance of breath work.
   

2. Reduce the intensity of the weight or heart rate at which you work out when under mental stress. Take the focus away from max effort and tune into the process of lifting and how your body feels throughout the workout.
   

3. Find some time to include 5-10 minutes of conscious breathing or gentle relaxation into your routine. This could be listening to a guided meditation or focusing in on some yogic breathing.

Find what works for you, and know that being able to modify training intensity when life is stressful is one of the best things that you can do to train in a sustainable way.