Beat Stress with the Workday Workout

I recently moved to New York, and all I can say, is wow! Growing up in the state of California I spent the first half of my life in the Sierra mountains and the second half on the southern coast. I couldn’t ask for a more beautiful first 30 years. The question I get the most in New York is, “Why on earth did you move here?” I always give the same answer, “I was ready for an adventure!” Lets be honest, there’s no place like New York. The energy in the city is electric, and no matter how many times you see it in a movie, you can’t feel it until you’re actually in the middle of it. Like any place it takes a while to see what the pros and cons are. The pros are easy. I’ve never been to a city with such diversity. NYC people watching is second to none. The food selection in New York is limitless, entertainment options are never ending, the fashion is cutting edge, the museums are jaw dropping, the seasons are beautiful, and when the sports franchises are hot the stadiums are shaking. As overwhelming as the pros are, the cons can be just as overwhelming. Competition is fierce. Everyone fighting to get a particular job, and everyone fighting to keep it. Big rents for small spaces. Work, more work, eat, work, hopefully socialize, sleep, repeat … Sound familiar? Even though New York is one of the biggest cities in the world, it can also be the loneliest. This remarkable city can be remarkably tough. Let’s face it, as great as New York is, it can be one stressful city to live in. All of the amazing things coupled with a few of the not so amazing things can really affect a person’s stress levels, sending them up, down, and all around. So what can be done to fix the stress that comes with living in the big city?

What is stress?

In the Merriam-Webster online dictionary you will find stress described as “a constraining force or influence.” Everything in life provides us with some form of stress. Endocrinologist Hans Selye developed the term Eustress. Eustress is recognized as good stress, a stress known for providing us with feeling of fulfillment and/or other positive feelings. Distress is recognized as a suffering process an individual experiences when they are not able to adapt to stress. Each of these stresses has a taxing effect on the body. Without finding natural healthy outlets for built up stress, we force our body to continually go through a series of physical and emotional breakdowns.

What happens to the body during stress?

Distress is a physiological response our body’s go through when in a state of self torment. The famous “fight or flight” syndrome is similar to the process the body goes through when introduced to a stressful situation. As we become physically and mentally overburdened with stress, the body reacts by releasing a powerful hormone known as Cortisol. Cortisol is commonly referred to as, “the stress hormone”. The more stressful the situation, the more cortisol the body releases.

How Cortisol Helps Us

As stress affects the body, cortisol is immediately released, acting to raise blood sugar levels and blood pressure. Instinctively the body is trying to give itself the extra boost it needs to help remove itself from an unsafe situation, or fight off a dangerous threat. The primary function of cortisol is to provide a quick burst of energy, heighten memory function, generate a burst of increased immunity, lower sensitivity to pain, and help maintain homeostasis in the body. As good as that all sounds, it is extremely important for the body to regulate its cortisol levels, otherwise there are a number of negative side effects.

How Cortisol Hurts Us

It is important for a person with high cortisol levels resulting from stress to return the body back to it’s normal functioning state as soon as possible. If the body is unable to lower its cortisol levels, the chronic stress builds, leaving a person open to a variety of unhealthy conditions. Side effects of excessive cortisol include a slowed metabolism, a weakened immune system, blood sugar imbalances leading to hyperglycemia (diabetes), reduction of bone formation leading to osteoporosis, high blood pressure, sleep depravation, decreased muscle tissue, and increased abdominal fat.

How to Successfully Lower Stress

With stress causing a huge upward spike in blood sugar one of the best things a person can do is exercise. Exercise has shown to successfully reduce a person’s cortisol levels and improve mood. With the body’s natural response to stress being cortisol, there needs to be an equally natural outlet to rid itself of the cortisol left unused. Since most of the time there is no one to fight or no where to run, exercise and aerobic activity end up being the body’s best natural response to healthy regulation of cortisol levels.

The Best Way to Exercise Stress

A fine line exists between working out to reduce stress, and working out to increase it. Aerobic exercise and moderate full body circuit strength training are great ways to reduce cortisol levels. However, working out for too long with too much intensity will raise cortisol levels even higher. Because cortisol is the body’s response to anything causing us stress (good and bad), running too long or lifting weights too hard will keep your cortisol levels up and your stress level too high. Listen to your body and let it tell you when high intensity workouts will help, or when a more moderate workout program might be better.

The Workday Workout

With everything keeping us busy these days it can be near imposable to get to a gym. Guess what, that’s ok. A healthy active life comes from how one spends their time outside of the gym, not in it. Since moderate exercise is the best for stress relief, it will be easy to add some routine daily exercises that can be done anywhere.

• Start by parking the car 15 minutes from work, or getting off the subway a stop early to walk the rest of the way.
• After a nutritious lunch, take another 15 minute walk before getting back to work.
• Learn some upper and lower body exercises that can be done anywhere.
• Take three to five two minute breaks in the office spending the first minute doing a lower body exercise followed by the second minute doing an upper body exercise. Examples include chair squats, followed by desk or wall push-ups.
• Finish the day with a 15 minute walk away from the office, allowing yourself to get out of work mode. This will help relieve the days stress and get you ready to spend the evening in a more relaxed state.

By taking a 15 minute walk to work, a 15 minute walk at lunch, taking 3-5 two minute light exercise breaks, and walking another 15 minutes at the end of the day, you have actually exercised for nearly an hour. It’s literally that easy.

The Physical Benefits of the Workday Workout

Creating a daily habit of movement for your body will provide the following benefits
• A healthy metabolism
• A stronger heart and circulatory system
• Weight management
• Muscular Strength
• Balance
• A Stronger immune system
• Prevention of disease and/or disease management
• A slowing of the aging process
• Increased bone formation causing a reduced risk off osteopenia/osteoporosis
• Enhanced concentration
• Increased confidence
• Higher work production
• Improved quality of life
Help yourself get the body you need to live the life you want!

Derek Moore
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist
derekmoore17@msn.com