Unseen and often underestimated, stress can be a silent saboteur when it comes to achieving your fitness goals. Discover how it impacts muscle building and weight loss, and learn strategies to combat its detrimental effects.
If your stress is constant, you’re in trouble
Chronic stress is bad news for fitness goals, whether you’re trying to shed a few pounds or get shredded.
- Work long hours, face tight deadlines, drink a lot of coffee and alcohol, and hit the weights room hard
- All of these things will send cortisol into overdrive, and when combined, consistently, it’s a recipe for ill-health.
Stress affects your recovery time and makes you more susceptible to injury
High levels of cortisol leads to “prolonged muscle tension, reduced blood flow and a build-up of lactic acid,” making your muscles “less elastic, and limited in their movement and growth.”
- The solution: Good nutrition, supplements, and quality rest and sleep will rebalance the excess cortisol and give your body a boost
Stress can make building muscle harder
The solution: Training increases cortisol levels, so make sure you fill up post-workout.
- Understand that some stress is normal and try and use it to your advantage: see it as a motivation boost and do some physical activity to make use of the extra glucose
Stress messes with your metabolism
Cortisol sits within a class of hormones called ‘glucocorticoids’, which increase blood glucose levels.
- It promotes the metabolism of carbohydrates, protein and fats and taps into your existing stores to free up energy during severe periods of stress.
- The solution: Get moving – gently.
Stress makes you crave junk food
Cortisol is a steroid hormone, and all steroids directly stimulate appetite
- Fat and sugar trigger the release of dopamine in the brain, which causes pleasure
- Stress also takes the driving seat when it comes to food choices and portion control
- Over time, chronic stress damages your cells, making them resistant to insulin
- Swerve caffeine, alcohol and sugar, and don’t wait until you’re ravenous to eat
