With the holidays coming around everyone is under a lot more stress whether it is from shopping, to driving, and getting that holiday meal just right. Stress is all around us, and now worrying about the stress… well creates more! More importantly, is it impacting your health and what are the consequences of doing so? As a personal trainer in CT, clients come with numerous amounts of stress that impacts them throughout the day. In this week’s post, we are going to dive into the mystery that is stress, and why exercise is beneficial to curb this pesky problem.
First, let us start off with what stress is.
Stress is your body’s way of responding to a demand or threat. Stress can be helpful within one’s comfort level, and helps keep us on our toes by releasing the hormones Cortisol, and Adrenaline. Cortisol increases sugars in the bloodstream, enhances your brain’s use of glucose, and increases the availability of substances that create tissues. Adrenaline is also secreted from the adrenal glands, located on the tops of our kidneys, which increase heart rate, elevates blood pressure and boosts energy supplies.
While a person is within their stress comfort zone, these hormones can be beneficial, and when the “stressor” is gone hormone levels go back to normal. Now for an individual who is constantly under stress, aka chronic stress, these hormones stay at an elevated level that can have some serious consequences. Examples include; depression, weight problems, sleep problems, memory problems, and many more. These are some of the more serious issues, and no one should ignore these symptoms. Knowing when you have a stress-overload is crucial to your health, and we have one solution that can help! Let us take a guess…
Exercise!
Exercise has a host of benefits, but the main reason we want to focus is on stress! Let us start off by noticing that exercise bumps up the endorphins in our brains, those “feel-good” neurotransmitters! This is only the beginning of a huge snowball effect! While we are at it, exercise will also improve your mood and self-confidence which will help you de-stress during the day, and also help with sleep problems (if any). Don’t forget that mild depression and anxiety will also take a back seat due to self-confidence boosts and mood enhancement. Who wouldn’t want to feel great about themselves? As we go on, we notice all these problems that chronically stressed individuals have may disappear as they stick with exercise! Now the key is to stick with it!
Final thoughts, we all have stress in our lives, but we need a way to control the stress before it becomes out of hand. If individuals who are considered “chronically stressed” incorperated exercise into their daily lives, will notice their stress levels plummet along with have better sleep, better mood, better self-confidence. If need be, you should hire a personal trainer to help you begin your exercise journey. Our personal trainers in CT can take all the stress out of the complex world of fitness, and can help motivate you towards your goals. Take charge, and control, over your stress today!
