Stress and Fitness:
Let’s take a moment to talk about training for optimum health and longevity, especially when it comes to managing stress. We find stress in just about every aspect of our lives; our jobs, relationships, finances, bad diet, even sunlight and exercise. It is important not to demonize the word stress, in fact, stress is the precursor to strength as long as rest is adequate. Stress without rest is called distress, which causes systemic collapse if left unchecked. Stress and fitness do correlate to each other and when you are preparing for your daily practice with various bells, calisthenics, yoga, or even body building, it’s important to keep in mind your overall stress levels.
Ask yourself, “Should I leave this workout more or less energized than when I started?”
When your body is low on sleep, or high on various stressors, engaging in chi-building exercise might provide you with more overall benefit than “killing it” in the gym. Even lifting heavy weights for low reps can help you feel more energized than when you started as long as you start slow and stop before fatigue sets in. I recommend finding somewhere beautiful that you can train barefoot exposed to the various noises and smells of nature. Working out in a gym when the weather is beautiful outside seems very counterintuitive to me.
In order to maximize your practice, here a few ways to reduce stress in your life:
- Make sure you get plenty of high quality sleep. I encourage you to minimize any light in your room, and turn off anything that makes a lot of noise.
- Avoid night shift jobs.
- Eat only organic foods and avoid foods known to cause inflammation such as gluten, sugar and anything genetically modified.
- Observe your body and avoid any foods that cause you indigestion, or diminish your sleep quality.
- When you are travelling, or dining out with friends and have made some dietary blunders remember, the best solution for pollution is dillution.
- Don’t drink tap water, the fluoride and chlorine alone are a form of distress you don’t need. Most tap water has a much longer list of questionable ingredients depending on where you live. Find water from an artesian well if possible.
- Engage in a calming spiritual practice that promotes unconditional love and compassion for all beings including yourself.
Thank you for reading,
Peter Hirsh
