Crazytown, Population: ME. Effects of Stress on the Body

In honor of exams, pop quiz time.  What is the one thing that everybody has, nobody wants, and with time we all get more.  It is dynamic, always changing, and unique to the individual.  It is a five letter word sometimes preceded by a four letter word, haha yep you guessed it, STRESS!

Stress is the major enemy in all of our lives.  Good stress, bad stress, too much stress, not enough stress, stress, stress, stress.  As a bodybuilder and athlete, stress has detrimental effects on my body’s ability to build and maintain muscle mass.  Working out extremely hard is a double edge sword.  Bodybuilders must be cautious of training hard and keeping the workouts to an optimal time and intensity to ensure enough rest post workout and also to avoid complete depletion intra workout.  This is an example of physical stressors on the body, but we all know that mental stressors can be just as difficult, if not worse at times.  Cortisol is the hormone that is often associated with physical and even mental stressors that you experience. 

So, before we can go into detail about how Cortisol can affect your workout and training progression lets learn a little about cortisol and the physiology behind it.  Cortisol is a hormone that is secreted by the adrenal glands via influence of other endocrine glands secretions.  This secretion of influencing hormones is stimulated by intense physical exercise.   It is important to note however, that intense physical exercise such as heavy resistance training is necessary to produce muscle hypertrophy and physically visible changes in muscle mass.  But the proper and optimal level of intensity need be determined to prevent over training, which could be result of continuously elevated cortisol levels in the absence of proper and adequate nutrition.  Normal when the body experiences physical exertion, it uses fuel sources in the following order, carbohydrate, fat, protein.  However, with intense physical exercise such as heavy weight lifting this order is thrown out the window and is actually reversed.  The more intense the exercise the higher the protein degradation is, thus creating a catabolic effect.  The catabolic effects of cortisol can negated the anabolic effect of resistance training if the athlete is not aware of the intensity of the workouts, proper rest and nutrition.  Being a bodybuilding we basically have this phobia of all things catabolic or anything that will result in less muscle mass than we already have.  That being said, it is important for us to reduce the amount of mental stress we experience so that our training can get dibs, for a lack of better words, on our energy and thus resulting in an overall lower stress and cortisol production within the body. 

Cortisol levels are also the method behind the madness of the infamous post workout shake! Because cortisol is released when the blood glucose level is low and aims to produce an energy source by breaking down muscle into amino acids, you can negate this by eating as soon as possible after you finish your workout.   By eating you are introducing an alternative energy source for your body to derive fuel from instead of catabolism of your muscle tissue! 

I know this is a very, very simple over view of the mechanism of action of cortisol but I try to put into simpler terms so that you can understand and get enough out of the science information before you give up on reading what its about.  But if you have any further questions regarding the topic I would be glad to try to answer your questions.  So, don’t be afraid to ask more questions, but in the mean time just try to stress less!