Stress and performance Part II
Read time 5 min
Have you thought about how stress affects your training? Do you neglect it in your own training? What strategies do you use to manage it?
In part I (check it!) we discussed the basics of stress. In this part, we’ll cover how to increase your ability to bend with stress without breaking. We also talk about how it affects recovery from training, different training adaptations, and how to put all this into practice.
Resilience & Coping
Coping is our thoughts and behaviors to handle and manage hard situations. Resilience is the adaptive capacity we have to recover from stressful situations (1). One might say it’s our ability to bend and not break.
We want to increase our resilience to have a bigger buffer against the negative effects of stress.
How to increase resilience?
There are ways you can increase your resilience to adversity. A meta-analysis found that cognitive-behavioral therapy and mindfulness practice increase resilience. Have to mention that the studies included in the meta-analysis were highly heterogeneous and the quality of studies varied. (2)
Interventions used to reverse changes caused by stress are physical activity, programs that promote social support, and finding meaning & purpose in life (3). Based on these findings, I recommend focusing on these as preventative measures as well.
Stress and performance
Now that we covered the basics of stress, we’ll get to the part that’s very close to my heart: How stress influences your performance, recovery, and adaptation.
If you want to progress, you should take stress into consideration since it might be holding you back.
Recovery & adaptation
Since chronic stress has been shown to significantly slow wound healing it makes sense to take a look at what it does to the short and long-term recovery from training (4). It also seems to play a part in how big adaptations you can get from training.
training recovery
A study by Stults-Kolehmainen et al analyzed the muscular recovery of 31 university students during a 96-hour period. They found that chronic mental stress has an impact on functional recovery from strenuous resistance training.
The exercise was done using a leg press, first finding 1 repetition maximum. After this, participants continued with 6 sets to volitional failure. The researchers assessed aerobic capacity, maximal isometric force, vertical jump with a squat jump, and maximal cycling power. All of the parameters recovered slower in the high-stress group. The authors also controlled other factors like recent exams, fitness level, fat-free mass, training experience, workload, and reduction in force and this did not change the results. (5)
The same group analyzed short-term recovery (during 4 hours) after the first exercise bout and found similar results that the low-stress group recovered faster (6).
training adaptation
A Finnish research group had 44 healthy sedentary subjects do a 2-week aerobic training period for 5 days/week. They measured the participants’ self-rated mental stress and found high stress, in the beginning, to be correlated with reduced gains in cardiorespiratory fitness and maximal power. (7)
Something similar was found in this study looking at strength gains over 12 week period in university students. The low-stress group increased their strength more in the bench press, squat, arm, and leg size compared to the high-stress group. (8)
Even though the studies mentioned have somewhat heterogeneous groups and not very trained populations, I’d still confidently say that there is a trend to be acknowledged.
Practical takeaway
So how should I account for this? Now that we understand the stress a little bit better and what it does to our body, we should translate this into practice.
Don’t push it
My first takeaway is that we have to change our training based on stressors. If you just started a new job, had a baby 3 months ago, and signed up for a triathlon, please start slow with your training. Based on the evidence, your recovery is limited and you don’t adapt as fast as you would in a low-stress situation.
Increase your resilience
The second key point would be to focus on the things that increase your resilience to stress. If you are taking part in a triathlon, focus on finding purpose in training, finding a training partner to have social support, and paying attention to a healthy lifestyle.
Previously mentioned mindfulness exercises can also enhance resilience. Targeted interventions can also be done to different populations. For example, young female athletes face different challenges than adult men. (9)
Personalized coaching
This stuff is easy to understand but harder to account for in practice. It’s easy to be blinded by your earlier training plans or stuff that worked 10 years ago. I highly recommend getting outside help from someone who understands this stuff and monitors it during the coaching process.
Did you learn something?
This stuff about stress is my current favorite topic. I hope you enjoy it as well. Did you learn something new? Is there still something you’re curious about? I’d love to hear your thoughts so leave me a comment below!
This ends my two-part series on stress. Thank you for reading. If any of this resonates with you, send me a message on Instagram or Linkedin or leave a comment below.
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REFERENCES:
1. Wu Y, Yu W, Wu X, Wan H, Wang Y, Lu G. Psychological resilience and positive coping styles among Chinese undergraduate students: a cross-sectional study. BMC Psychology. 2020 Aug 6;8(1):79.
2. Joyce S, Shand F, Tighe J, Laurent SJ, Bryant RA, Harvey SB. Road to resilience: a systematic review and meta-analysis of resilience training programmes and interventions. BMJ Open. 2018 Jun 14;8(6):e017858.
3. McEwen BS, Gray JD, Nasca C. Recognizing resilience: Learning from the effects of stress on the brain. Neurobiology of Stress. 2015 Jan;1:1–11.
4. Christian LM, Graham JE, Padgett DA, Glaser R, Kiecolt-Glaser JK. Stress and wound healing. Neuroimmunomodulation. 2006;13(5–6):337–46.
5. Stults-Kolehmainen MA, Bartholomew JB, Sinha R. Chronic Psychological Stress Impairs Recovery of Muscular Function and Somatic Sensations Over a 96-Hour Period. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2014 Jul;28(7):2007–17.
6. Stults-Kolehmainen MA, Bartholomew JB. Psychological Stress Impairs Short-Term Muscular Recovery from Resistance Exercise. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2012 Nov;44(11):2220–7.
7. Ruuska PS, Hautala AJ, Kiviniemi AM, Mäkikallio TimoH, Tulppo MP. Self-Rated Mental Stress and Exercise Training Response in Healthy Subjects. Front Physio [Internet]. 2012 [cited 2021 Oct 8];3. Available from: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fphys.2012.00051/abstract
8. Bartholomew JB, Stults-Kolehmainen MA, Elrod CC, Todd JS. Strength Gains after Resistance Training: The Effect of Stressful, Negative Life Events. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2008 Jul;22(4):1215–21.
9. McManama O’Brien KH, Rowan M, Willoughby K, Griffith K, Christino MA. Psychological Resilience in Young Female Athletes. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Aug 17;18(16):8668.