Stress is something that is not discussed nearly as often as it is mentioned. Think of all the times you hear about stress. When is it ever the main topic of discussion? Looking at checklists from medical or health articles, “manage and reduce stress” sits only at the bottom along with “eat healthy” and “exercise,” of course only after whatever other novel or intriguing easy fixes they’re probably selling. The truth is, stress is likely playing a larger part in the symphony contributing to chronic illness.
Briefly and simply, stress can be referred to as our physiological and/or emotional responses to life circumstances. And intricately, stress is an infinitely complex dance between nervous systems, sensory organs, hormones, even all the way down to cell metabolism. Truly though, the systems working together when we refer to stress, work seamlessly and efficiently to keep us out of harm’s way. The threats modern people face day to day though are hardly life threatening and our chronic levels of stress prove deleterious to our health. We’ve been lead to believe that our chronic illnesses stem from unavoidable defects in our body’s function. “I have x because y doesn’t work right, please fix it doc!” Actually this is rarely the case and nearly always, the opposite is true. Your body is actually responding perfectly as it should, but your physical life is too easy.
Take obesity for example: we don’t get fat because something is wrong, we gain weight because our body is preparing for a famine that will never happen. The same is true for stress. We don’t suffer from the effects of stress because something isn’t working right, we get anxiety, depression, burnout and the like, because we’re chronically amped up about things without any real or immediate life threatening consequences.
The medical response can be summed up in a couple main strategies. Firstly and most prominently, medicating for the harsh outcomes of stress. From there, prevention or mitigation fall into “relax and distract”. This includes an exhaustive list of breath work, meditation or prayer, gratitude practices, reflection, and the list goes on. Most recently, disconnecting from news and social media are offered as remedies. Relax and distract makes perfect logical sense, “If you feel stressed, do these things to try and down regulate.” All of these things are great (especially disconnecting from social media). I would never discourage any of these healthy “relax and distract” practices, but for true stress management, they prove to be insufficient alone as well as horribly inefficient and short lasting.
The immediate effects of chronic stress even at low levels stem from habitually facing problems without the functional or physical response that stress is meant to cause. In the most non-academic terms: You’re amped up about a challenge, so your body is primed to tackle that challenge. This is the point where we go wrong. Whenever we rise to the occasion; run from the lion, fight off the attacker, find the food, build the shelter etc. we quickly return to a relaxed or non-stressed state right after that physical exertion. In our modern and cushy lives though, we rarely even need to rise to the occasion and just stay amped and ready… all the time.
The absolute best way for modern humans to satisfy our stress mechanisms is through vigorous exercise. It is categorically unmatched in efficacy and efficiency by any amount of mindfulness practice or “woosah” we can muster. Of course, vigorous is relative. In CrossFit we use the term intensity, and it’s measured by power and work. Short and intense, constantly varied, workouts consisting of functional movements along with a diet that supports that intensity, is the potent remedy we need to down regulate back to a relaxed state.
When prompted with the notion of exercise for stress, many will answer something along the lines of, “Gardening is my exercise.” You can replace “gardening” with golf, hiking, walking, swimming, and you get the picture. Sure, golf and gardening are technically exercise and leisurely activities are great, but are wholly separate from intentional and vigorous exercise. They’re likely most effective for relaxing and distracting possibly battling depression/anxiety, but don’t offer an outlet for the challenges or threats we’re primed for when we’re stressed. Nor does leisurely activity build as significant a buffer against the long term chronic illness outcomes of stress, sedentary lifestyle, and poor nutrition: hypertension, type 2 diabetes, heart disease etc.
To see relief from the immediate effects of stress that hinder productivity and mental health, sure pickleball might scratch the surface, but to stave off chronic illness or decrepitude, a mainly whole foods diet supporting vigorous exercise (CrossFit) is key.
