Stress and Exercise

Physical exercise can be viewed a little like play time for big kids. It is widely acknowledged that people feel better after they have exerted physical energy. Once incorporated into our lives, being active becomes an important element to balance stress levels and lift our mood. We are better able to deal with pressures, we are more positive, have more energy, and feel more resilient.

Consider our fight or flight programming. Primitive man felt stress for purely physical reasons - to fight an animal, or to run from danger. In response to these immediate stresses, adrenalin is released into the body to enable us to react instantly to life threatening situations. Our bodies still respond in the same way, but two things differ. Firstly, adrenalin is released at lower levels in response to less life threatening stresses, but is present for sustained periods of time, rather than in a short burst to deal with an immediate danger. Secondly, our sedentary lifestyles do not allow this survival hormone to be utilised through any physical "fight or flight".

Excess adrenaline, and its related products get stored in the brain and the heart, where they can affect function alter your responses. Physical activity causes these stored products to be metabolised and clears away the adrenaline build up which has accumulated from stress.

It leaves you feeling relaxed and restores a healthy balance to your autonomic nervous system.

Being active makes your whole body stronger, so that you are more resistant to whatever knocks you come up against.