December 2003

Pump up the hormones! Stress, exercise and junkies

An article by James Williams, fellow Nutrition and Lifestyle Coach in London, England.

A health club is a funny place to work. You see all kinds of characters come in through the doors, each and every one of them a different shape and size. To me that’s the beauty of being human; we’re each genetically and biochemically unique. It is this individuality, coupled with our stress levels that dictates how we’ll respond to any form of exercise.

When I worked in a gym I met hundreds of people who adhered to their exercise programs, yet 90 per cent of them were not ready to understand that getting results IS NOT JUST ABOUT EXERCISING.

As one of my mentors, Paul Chek says, “If all you had to do to be slim was go to the gym, all men would have six packs and all women would have flat tummies.” I think his comment makes the point quite clear. Exercise is only one factor that helps us realise our aesthetic visions.

There is a very important fact that everyone needs to be aware of about exercise. Exercise can be a stress that affects every cell of the body and can also trigger inflammation. The higher the intensity of the exercise, the more stress the body feels and the less likely a person is to get results, unless they really are in tip top condition on the inside. I saw many people come into the gym and use the same pieces of equipment month after month and their body shape never changed or they would gain weight. They would leave the gym red-faced each time, sweating like crazy and they never got the aesthetic results they wanted.

This was because their body was under so much stress before they started exercising that their high intensity gym program just tipped them over the edge. They were producing so much stress hormone (cortisol) that they were actually breaking down their muscle tissue to feed amino acids to their nerves during their workout.

Three times a week their stressful exercise programme robbed them of muscle tissue. This slowed their metabolic rate and caused them to expend fewer calories each day during daily activity. Hence their body shapes didn’t change and some of them got plumper because they ate inappropriately and were not ready to change their diets and lifestyle.

While I would agree that some aerobic exercise is necessary to keep our cardiovascular, lymphatic, muscular skeletal and dozens of other bodily system in fine fettle, it need not be high intensity. High intensity aerobic exercise can in fact be MORE stressful than resistance / weight training. This is because aerobic work is done continuously for longer periods without giving the body a break and causes the continual release of cortisol.

The truth is that the optimal intensity of exercise that is right for each person is determined by their energy, their stress levels and their physiology. If you are stressed and are not getting results from exercise, you may need lower intensity activities so that you don’t keep lowering your metabolic rate. Ignore this at your peril because it may shorten your lifespan, speed- up the ageing process and disease and hammer your immune system into retreat.

I meet some people who say to me: “But I feel better after a hard work out!” These are usually men (sorry guys) who are very stressed puppies. The reason they feel ‘better’ is this. Stressed people usually have a very active sympathetic nervous system. This is the ‘fight or flight’ mechanism and such people are usually looking for their next ‘high’ or stress hormone rush (kind of like a legal drug addict!) They are people with argumentative, impatient, quite aggressive characters and have many Type A (sometimes money obsessive) lower-self personality traits.

Every time these individuals act in any of the above lower-self ways they get a stress hormone rush (which they like!) So, like an addict, they want the rush more often. During the journey between their stressful, rush-inducing work environment and the gym, something happens to them. They turn from Mr Hyde into Dr Jekyl and their nervous system crashes into parasympathetic mode. This is the rest, digest and relaxation side of their being and it feels totally alien to these sympathetic junkies.

They know that exercise produces the rush they love and so they go for a hard workout at the gym to pump up the stress hormones. Often they go home after the gym feeling drained of energy and then eat a large meal with too many calories. Usually they end-up wearing their feast around their waist or thighs the very next morning. Excess calories equals excess body fat especially in the evening when the body needs less energy from food. These people end up having the libido of a soggy cabbage and often drink alcohol or smoke to dull the sensation of having crashed into parasympathetic mode again. Many want to disconnect from their higher-selves and forget their unhappy lives by drinking or smoking. This is usually a last ditch attempt to stimulate their sympathetic nervous system before bedtime which can become habitual. The sugar in alcohol and cigarettes is a strong sympathetic stimulant, setting up a battle with the parasympathetic nervous system which is trying to prepare the body for sleep.

Sympathetic junkies therefore get broken sleep or insomnia, poor physical repair of their muscles, nerves, joints, tendons and organs. They miss-out on Rapid Eye Movement sleep and emotional repair, and get inflammation and gut leakage from their alcohol and food choices. Constipation is very common in such people and they wake-up feeling like a sore-headed bear who’s had no sleep and HAS to have a HUGE cup of strong caffeinated, sugared coffee or tea to jack up their sympathetic nervous system in time for work. And there starts another day in Wonderland!

Individuals who live this kind of lifestyle are on the fast track to exhausted organs, chronic fatigue, cancer, brain diseases, heart disease, stokes, depression and other forms of mental illness. They pack so much into their day that they eventually find it hard to cope with what they perceive to be ‘the pressures of life’. Being always ‘on the go’ and doing instead of being, coupled with unhappiness about their life drains their body of life force energy. Ultimately this leaves little energy left for physical repair each night between 10pm and 2am. I have seen this process going on in people aged 20 to 60 and it is increasingly common nowadays.

Let us learn from their ways and consider the factors that may affect your ability to get better results from exercise:

Emotional stress (High stress = low intensity exercise needed)

Mental and spiritual stress levels (High stress = low intensity exercise needed)

Any physical injuries, pain or structural and postural irregularities (Needs individual assessment)

Length of exercise program (High stress = 15 mins, low stress = 45 mins)

Food intolerances and allergies (Causes digestive organ and whole body inflammation, immune suppression, increased inflammation and pain, lumbar spine instability and back pain.)

Organ distress (Digestive organ distress can destabilise the lumbar spine and leads to greater injury risk & pain.)

Shift work (Frequently changing shifts such as in the emergency services should be minimised.)

Time of the day that you exercise (Afternoon and early evening is better, but may depend if you have adrenal hormone irregularities.)

Stimulant addiction (Cigarettes may restrict breathing and, like alcohol, raise blood pressure, lower energy levels, create immune suppression and lead to adrenal exhaustion).

Time in the menstrual cycle for women. (Many factors that vary from woman to woman.)

The type of exercise (Do you enjoy it? Does it appeal to your higher self? Is it improving your health?)

The frequency of exercise (Can vary according to the individual. Alternate days for resistance and cardiovascular training and allow at least one day without exercise.)

Exercise posture and technique (Are you exercising with good posture or with a round back like Quasimodo? Are you targeting the right muscle groups with proper technique? )

Intensity of exercise (See stress levels above)

How much rest we get (If you exercise regularly, get to bed for 10-10.30pm to take advantage of the growth hormone secretion that helps repair cells.)

How much television you watch (TV stimulates the sympathetic nervous system and can negatively affect your sleep. Watching the News at 9 or 10pm does the same. Get the TV off on or before 9pm, use your video to record programs if you need to, and make time for yourself or time with your partner. Make love!)

How much we love ourselves (Affects ALL of the above)

As you have now read, exercise is MORE than just going to the gym. Exercise is holistic since it affects every cell in your body and impacts on every part of your life. You need to train in a way that will benefit YOUR body. You may also profit from noticing and addressing how you perceive events in your life (stresses), getting your diet right for YOUR body and starting and continuing YOUR spiritual journey.

I have hardly touched on stress here and there is much, much more I could tell you, but hopefully you realise that exercise is not the be-all and end all solution to getting a slim body and being ‘healthy’. Your unique body requires unique solutions if you want to keep enjoying the ride of this lifetime!

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