Make the Most of Your Eustress
Stress isn't always recognized as a bad thing. Learn how to use positive stress to propel your training to the next level.
We all experience varied amounts of stress at some point in our life, whether it's a minor "speed bump" or ongoing, chronic stress.
The word "stress" has a poor reputation - we think of it as uniformly negative and something to avoid—but there is such a thing as positive stress, sometimes known as "eustress," and it is necessary for proper exercise.
Exploring both sides of the equation can help you exercise more effectively and achieve your goals.
What Is Eustress and How Does It Affect You?
Stress is frequently associated with negativity, but your body does not only experience stress when you're sad, hurt, or in danger; enthusiasm is also a sort of "stress" on your body from a biochemical standpoint.
You'll be experiencing eustress if you're facing a challenge that's enjoyable or one that you're looking forward to. Even if you aren't aware of it, eustress is critical to your daily operations. It's the emotion that fuels short-term happiness and spurts of motivation, allowing you to finish minor tasks that lead to the achievement of larger, long-term objectives.
To achieve your fitness and bodybuilding goals, you must learn to manage negative stress, or distress, in favor of good eustress.
Why Is Eustress Beneficial to Your Health?
There are a plethora of techniques to training and achieving new levels of strength and fitness, but they all share one essential truth: if you stay in your comfort zone, you're probably not progressing.
You may go forward with that sensation of productive discomfort by living and working outside your comfort zone.
Be aware that overtraining and entering the zone of distress can cause you to go too far, become overwhelmed, and possibly damage yourself.
Pay heed to your body's signals and try to maintain a good eustress state.
How Does Eustress Help You Grow?
Eustress can provide you with the strength you need to advance in three key areas:
• Emotional growth: Eustress can provide emotions of motivation, inspiration, and general contentment on an emotional level.
• Psychological growth: In terms of general psychology, eustress is always strengthening our resilience, autonomy, and self-efficacy.
• Muscle growth: Workouts that are hard and enticing, but not to the point of exhaustion, allow you to make steady progress toward your fitness goals.
When it comes to weightlifting, choosing the proper weight that pushes you to your limit without pushing you beyond your limits allows you to train more regularly while also encouraging muscular growth, stamina, and strength.
If you're a runner, you've undoubtedly been exposed to the positive aspects of stress without even realizing it. How many times have you begun running while listening to your favorite music, zoned out, and had a great workout? You probably didn't realize how tired you were until afterward. Because you were in a condition of eustress rather than distress, you didn't experience any pain, unpleasant thoughts, or discomfort.
Fortunately, you may harness that power by attempting to coordinate your mind and body in such a way that this beneficial kind of stress can function properly.
Redirect Your Stress
You've probably heard "remain calm" more times than you can remember. It's easier said than done, but staying cool is essential if you want stress to work for you rather than against you when you workout.
One of the first things you learn when working out is how to breathe properly, and you should pay special attention to your breathing when beginning a eustress-based workout. Importantly, you should aim to breathe exclusively via your nose, and do so slowly and deliberately. This will help you cease frantic, shallow breathing and bring your mind back to the present moment.
Don't try to avoid feeling uncomfortable during a workout; it's unavoidable, and you should accept and enjoy it. Trying to dodge it will just make things worse.
Fill your mind with positive self-talk all of the time. Keep telling yourself that you've "got this" at all times. This will be more beneficial than cursing or calling yourself names if the activity is more tough than imagined.
Eustress workouts are about cultivating a happy mindset and emotional state for your own fitness program, not about learning new movements. Remember, if something is making you unhappy, it isn't working.
- Login to post comments