CAN STRESS BE GOOD FOR YOU?!?
Your brain is in the business of energy conservation (aka working the minimum it needs to).
That's why most people prefer to make simple, one-dimensional decisions.
And so...
- X diet is THE BEST
- This ONE exercise is THE BEST
- This ONE supplement is the best
-Carbs are BAD, fats Good
-Milk is BAD, Meat is Bad or Good...
You'll find this binary thinking in all areas of life: religion, politics, diets, business, everywhere...
And the same is true with inflammation and stress.
There is a HUGE difference between Chronic and Acute stress.
Same with systemic and acute inflammation.
Chronic stress and systemic inflammation are terrible for you, lead to weight gain, heart attacks and all host of health problems, known and unknown.
Acute stress from proper sources and acute inflammation are awesome, helpful and AN INCENTIVE for your body to adapt and get better.
It's literally the requirement for growth/progress.
An example that brings home both points:
You go and lift weights (properly).
You're breaking down muscle fibers, literally destroying them, causing micro-ruptures in the muscle.
Also if applying progressive overload, you are now making them work really hard to overcome that resistance.
Your body is now in a "broken" state and both inflammation/swelling of the muscle as well as acute stress are really high.
So your body says: "if he/she keeps doing this to me, how can I adapt so I make it easier next time?"
Assuming your nutrition, recovery and hydration are on point - your body will adapt by building more muscle/becoming stronger.
It has now adapted and turned the initially "negative" stress and acute inflammation into a positive outcome of you being leaner, stronger/having more muscle.
领英推荐
Acute inflammation (in the muscle!) is required for adaptation to happen. As is acute stress of breaking down muscle fibers.
TOTALLY different from chronic version of both that comes from being overweight/eating junk food and sitting on your ass all day.
Actually, pro athletes and high-performers have the ability to induce HIGH levels of both stress and inflammation acutely, and then recover quickly.
The goal is to have a HUGE difference between the two extremes.
Overweight/sedentary people can only induce little stress acutely and cannot recover quickly.
There is little difference between the extremes for them.
You can apply this same principle to many other fields.
Example: endurance athletes have extremely low minimal resting heart rate (40 or less beats per minute) yet very high max (220+ bpm or more in my case).
Notice the huge gap?
An obese person often has a resting heart rate over a 100, and max heart rate at 150 or less.
See the very small gap?
So next time someone tells you "stress is horrible for you" or "inflammation kills" - just remember there is more to every story than meats the eye.
Yes, they are prob referring to chronic versions of those, yet are unaware that there is the other side of the coin with VASTLY different, very positive effects.
P.S. - Fun tip: NSAIDs are often taken after exercise to reduce the soreness.
But what they really do is reduce the POSITIVE adaptation, since that acute inflammation is THE incentive for your body to build new, lean muscle.
Hence, pain killers reduce the anabolic signal, and you build LESS muscle.
What if there was ONE process that every busy professional can go through to successfully lose 20-50 pounds, get strong, healthy and have all day energy…Without starvation, cardio or giving up carbs?
In this fast-paced, 30-minute audit, we will...(this can be contextualized for your specific situation, preferences, lifestyle and goals):
1.Take a look at what are the skills, behaviors and mindsets that you need to develop to lose weight and get in top shape
2. Uncover the #1 bottleneck that could get in the way of consistently implementing the new rituals
3.Develop a 3-step action plan to lose 20-50 pounds and get in the best shape you’ve ever been, in the next 90 days