Have you ever wondered How Stress Impacts Your Training? We all experience stress to some degree. For many of us, it may be nothing more than the physical stress of lifting. But what if it’s more? The trouble starts when it gets out of hand. In this article, we’ll look at stress and give you tips on how to deal with it, including supplement suggestions. Let’s get started!
What Is Stress?
So what is stress? Simply put, it is how you react to a stimulus. Not all stress is bad. As noted, it‘s when the stress you feel is excessive that you find your life is disrupted. That includes the fact that if it is excessive it can bring your workouts to a standstill.
The Impact Of Stress On Your Training
We now know what stress is. So the next question is: what are some of its effects?
1. It Increases Cortisol Levels
If you experience too much stress, it can disrupt your body’s ability to balance its cortisol levels. What is cortisol? It is the body’s stress hormone and it is a catabolic (destructive) hormone.
One of the things that happen when your levels of cortisol are too high is that insulin levels spike. This, as you may know, can result in sugar cravings. This can sabotage the ability of your body to lose excessive fat. In addition, it interferes with your sleep cycles, mental alertness, promotes fatigue, and disrupts your metabolism.
It should be clear at this point that cortisol is the enemy of your workout progress! For the best muscle-building results, your body has to be in a non-destructive anabolic state as much of the time as possible.
2. It Causes Fatigue
Excessive stress can have a negative impact on cognitive function. That makes it hard to focus on and stay motivated to the task at hand. If you’re distracted by stress, even the smallest of tasks become hard. This can wear you down quickly and make it harder to get in a good workout. That’s not what any lifter needs!
3. It Slows Recovery
Excessive stress can slow the ability of your body to recover properly between workouts. A couple of the ways that this shows up are: if you lack motivation, if your sleep quality is suffering, and if you’re more sore than usual. In the next section, I will reveal the steps you can take to solve these problems.
How To Fight Excessive Stress
1. The Testosterone To Cortisol Ratio
If your levels of cortisol increase, your testosterone levels decrease. That’s a problem! A good solution is the testosterone-to-cortisol ratio, which is a test that measures the ratio between testosterone and cortisol in your body. It’s determined by a blood test, and it is extremely useful for lifters because it’s a biomarker of physiological stress and recovery. Once you’ve taken this test and get the results, you can adjust your supplementation and nutrition as necessary. (1, 2)
2. Quality Sleep And Nutrition
These two factors offset excessive cortisol release and have a big role in proper recovery. Not only should you strive to get a good night’s sleep every night, you should also make sure your nutrition is dialed in. Of course, that means plenty of clean, high quality protein and slower burning carbs, plus a moderate amount of healthy fats.
3. Have A Positive Mindset
Your goal should be to have a positive attitude. Look at guys like Arnold. He didn’t/doesn’t let anything hold him back. He knew he had what it took to be enormously successful. That’s the attitude you need to cultivate to keep stress at bay and let you accomplish whatever you set your mind to.
Supplement Suggestions
My first suggestion is to use a natural sleep aid if you suffer from mild insomnia. I suggest 5% Nutrition Knocked The F*ck Out. This is an all-natural sleep aid in powder form, designed to help you get a great night’s sleep without feeling groggy in the morning. Plus, it tastes great!
Next up, I suggest a good protein powder. My go-to is always Hi-Tech Precision Protein. Use this to help you reach your daily protein goals. From there, I suggest MPA Supps Cortisolve, an innovative formula designed to help you keep cortisol levels in check. Finally, I advise a good multi that’s high in the B-complex vitamins, known for helping the body combat stress. A good choice is Universal Nutrition Animal Pak, the most complete multi on the market.
Summary
In this article, I have strived to show you how disruptive excessive stress can be. Also, you have seen how the combination of sleep, quality nutrition, and supplements can help solve this problem. Follow the tips I presented here, and stop by illpumpyouup.com and stock up on your supplements!
References:
- Ficarra, G., Caccamo, D., Rottura, M., Bitto, A., Trimarchi, F., & Di Mauro, D. (2023). Testosterone:cortisol ratio as a predictor of podium in adolescent rowing athletes. Heliyon, 9(11), e22315. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e22315
- Brownlee, K. K., Moore, A. W., & Hackney, A. C. (2005). Relationship between circulating cortisol and testosterone: influence of physical exercise. Journal of sports science & medicine, 4(1), 76–83.