A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE AND THE EFFECTS ON STRESS

Hi all,

Well I meant to post this brief blog yesterday, but events overtook me and hence I am writing it a day late. I was pretty busy at work yesterday, 10 hours, then went and did a training session, which involved a stack of Press ups and core work, filming it all for content on my website. By the time that was done and I had something to eat and to be honest I was knackered, so for the first time in about a month I crashed and burned. However the batteries are recharged now, I have had a great day, got out on the range for 3 hours this afternoon with my colleagues, came back in and trained in my room and now I am starting this.

So what is stress?

Here’s the book answer

It is a substantial imbalance between physical and mental demands placed on an individual and his or her response capability under conditions in which failure to meet demands has important consequences.

In laymen’s terms, I suppose it’s your perception of something that get’s you wound up and flustered. For a soldier it is most likely combat, lack of sleep, not knowing what is going to happen next, being away from home, being extremely hot or extremely cold, working long and unreasonable hours and on the top of all that the worries of not knowing how the family are and there is even more, they have the everyday stressors to cope with too. Pretty tough!!

 For a Mum it maybe being stuck at home with young children, looking after their every need, not getting out when she wants to, no one to talk to until her partner get’s home cooking, cleaning, ironing, you get the picture. 

For the man or person who brings home the cash in these uncertain economic climates, worrying about their job and redundancies, mortgage payments, bills and his boss may be a bit of a tit.

Here are 3 main ways that stress can affect you in the long term (there are more immediate symptoms if the stress is caused by a situation that is happening right now, such as an attack on you, or you have to deal with a crisis.)

1. A decrease in performance; so your work may be affected. Your Sex life may be affected.
2. Mental distress: Become forgetful, irritable and lethargic, can’t be bothered to do anything.
3. Physical distress: High blood pressure, digestive problems, illness, heart problems,

Some people show more resistance to stress than others.

Now to fit all this in with the previous Blogs about a Healthy Lifestyle. Guess what? I have to go back to our Hunter Gatherers yet again, because we are genetically programmed by them, as I keep harping on about.

In times long ago, when all we did was:

• Sleep
• Eat
• Hunt
• Reproduce
• (The kids played)

We had developed a peripheral nervous system that divides into 2 divisions.

1. The Sensory Division (not going to deal with this one)
2. The Motor Division

The Motor Division splits down to a further two parts.

• The Somatic nervous system
• This is the system that is used to create movement (not bothered about this one here either)

• The Autonomic nervous system: nearly there, bare with me please. Split into another two divisions.

1. The Sympathetic nervous system
2. Parasympathetic nervous system

Now we are at the crux of the matter. These two systems are responsible for.

The Sympathetic nervous system

Responsible for, what is known as the “FIGHT OR FLIGHT” effect, this system, when we are under threat or highly stressed:

• Increases the Heart rate
• Blood pressure goes up
• Digestion slows down

Parasympathetic Nervous system

This system is responsible for  the “REST AND DIGEST” effect. After periods of high stress it will:

• Lower blood pressure
• Lower Heart rate
• Increase Digestion speed

When our ancient ancestors lived their pretty simple life, they had short periods of high amounts of stress, like when they were hunting or if attacked by wild animals or other settlements. This would trigger the FIGHT OR FLIGHT response. However after these short stressful situations were over, they had long periods of rest, hence the REST AND DIGEST response.

So the two systems went from one extreme to the other. High excitement to rest, and this is how WE ARE PROGRAMMED TO WORK.

However in modern day, although we still have these two programmed systems, modern day lifestyle doesn’t allow this to take place. Because of all the stressors that I mentioned when describing stress, we generally end up continuously hovering around in the middle ground STRESS ZONE all the time. We hardly ever go into the REST AND DIGEST this is really bad for us

EFFECTS OF EXERCISE ON STRESS

Exercise actually causes stress and acts on the Sympathetic Nervous System “FIGHT OR FLIGHT”. So when you exercise, your stress levels go up toward the HIGH STRESS zone. You are probably thinking that if you are already suffering from stress, why would you invoke more?

Well this is the good bit, once you have finished exercising, guess what? Your Parasympathetic Nervous system “REST AND DIGEST” comes to the fore and your stress levels return to the LOW STRESS zone.  How we were programmed by our genetics to work.

By taking regular bouts of exercise, we can help ourselves to get back into the correct zones at the right times and get out of the middle STRESS ZONE. By doing these regular bouts of exercise:

1. You will sleep better
2. Hopefully eat better
3. Drop body fat
4. Feel better
5. Have more energy
6. Look better
7. Improve your self confidence as you see and feel yourself changing
8. Your Heart rate at rest will lower
9. Your blood pressure will reduce

YOU WILL BE LESS STRESSED OUT

Now if you have been reading this series of Blogs, and are experiencing any of the following problems, (and it is not due to a medical condition).

• Low energy
• High body fat
• Stress
• Poor Nutrition habits
• Bad sleep patterns
• Irritableness

Why not put all of this series together and turn it all around. There is no need to settle for your current situation, all you have to do is get off your backside and act now.

I hope that this series has been informative over the last week.

If you have questions, please contact me on Here

Will return next week, with some other Subject, until then have a great weekend and remember

“WINNERS DO, WHAT LOSERS DON’T”