By Joe Zepernick
What is Stress?
A feeling of stress is a result of your body's instinctive drive to defend itself. When faced with a threat, emotional or physical, your body automatically responds to protect and support your welfare. This stress response is often referred to as the "fight-or-flight" reaction. Any type of change can make you feel stressed, even good change. Stress, therefore, is not necessarily bad, normal challenges and life changes can produce stress.
A feeling of stress is a result of your body's instinctive drive to defend itself. When faced with a threat, emotional or physical, your body automatically responds to protect and support your welfare. This stress response is often referred to as the "fight-or-flight" reaction. Any type of change can make you feel stressed, even good change. Stress, therefore, is not necessarily bad, normal challenges and life changes can produce stress.
Any demand that causes you to adjust to a life event or change is called a stressor. You can learn to effectively control stress, everyone will deal with stress differently, the important key is in the way you handle it. If not properly dealt with, stress can cause health problems or make conditions worse if you don't learn ways to manage it well.
The Stress Response
Your brain releases stress hormones known as, adrenaline & cortisol, into your bloodstream. These hormones focus your concentration, speed your reaction time, and increase your strength and agility. Stress can affect your mind, physical wellbeing, and behavior in various ways. Its not just the change or event itself, but also how you react to it that matters. Managing stress is all about taking control of your thoughts, emotions, influencing factors in your environment, and the manner in which you deal with the adjustments required in your life.
Your brain releases stress hormones known as, adrenaline & cortisol, into your bloodstream. These hormones focus your concentration, speed your reaction time, and increase your strength and agility. Stress can affect your mind, physical wellbeing, and behavior in various ways. Its not just the change or event itself, but also how you react to it that matters. Managing stress is all about taking control of your thoughts, emotions, influencing factors in your environment, and the manner in which you deal with the adjustments required in your life.
Affects of Stress on the Body
After you've fought, fled or escaped your stressful situation, the hormone levels in your bloodstream decline. As a result, your heart rate and blood pressure return to normal, as do your digestion and metabolism. But if stressful situations pile up one after another, your body has no chance to recover. This long-term activation of the stress-response system increases your risk of obesity, insomnia, digestive complaints, heart disease, and depression.
After you've fought, fled or escaped your stressful situation, the hormone levels in your bloodstream decline. As a result, your heart rate and blood pressure return to normal, as do your digestion and metabolism. But if stressful situations pile up one after another, your body has no chance to recover. This long-term activation of the stress-response system increases your risk of obesity, insomnia, digestive complaints, heart disease, and depression.
What are the Warning Signs of Stress?
Physical warning signs:
· Back pain
· Sweaty palms
· Chronic fatigue
· Weight gain or loss
· Upset stomach
· Constipation or diarrhea
· Headaches
· High blood pressure
· Shortness of breath
· Stiff neck
· Physical symptoms that your doctor cannot attribute to another condition.
· Back pain
· Sweaty palms
· Chronic fatigue
· Weight gain or loss
· Upset stomach
· Constipation or diarrhea
· Headaches
· High blood pressure
· Shortness of breath
· Stiff neck
· Physical symptoms that your doctor cannot attribute to another condition.
Behavioral warning signs:
· Over-reacting
· Acting on impulse
· Over-eating
· Using alcohol or drugs
· Problems with relationships
· Changing jobs often
· Feeling agitated most of the time
· Over-reacting
· Acting on impulse
· Over-eating
· Using alcohol or drugs
· Problems with relationships
· Changing jobs often
· Feeling agitated most of the time
Emotional warning signs:
· Depression
· Anxiety
· Sleep disruption, like insomnia
· Inability to concentrate
· Unproductive worry
· Frequent mood swings
· Sadness
· Anger
· Depression
· Anxiety
· Sleep disruption, like insomnia
· Inability to concentrate
· Unproductive worry
· Frequent mood swings
· Sadness
· Anger
The objective is to control your environment. There is no way to completely eliminate stress from your life. Instead, your goal should be to limit the amount of stressors that influence your life and to control your response to the stress. This requires a definite personal commitment and persistent effort, but the rewards will prove to be extremely beneficial!
Learn To Handle Stress: Some Helpful Techniques
1. Eat a healthy diet. To handle stress, your body requires a healthy diet. Start your day with breakfast in order to keep you energy up. And your mind well focused. Continue eating nutritious meals and snacks throughout the day. Avoid drinking too much caffeine or high sugary snacks.
2. Get plenty of rest. Getting the proper amount of sleep refreshes your mind and body. Feeling tired will increase the stress you feel and may cause you to not think as clearly.
3. Exercise regularly. Consistent physical activity is plays a vital role in helping to reduce your stress and preventing adverse effects of stressors. Exercises will help you release pent-up tension.
4. Avoid alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. Using alcohol, cigarette, or drugs as methods to help you to cope with stress can lead to dangerous and life-threatening addictions. Don't use these substances to escape from or mask your problems, seek professional help to deal with painful life circumstances. Your doctor can be a reliable and confidential resource for you.
5. Share your feelings. Find someone you can trust to talk to openly and honestly about how you feel. Expressing how you feel will help you to release emotional feelings you have built-up inside.
6. Develop a positive outlook on the situation or problem you are facing. Exam the circumstances you are dealing with from a positive point of view. Look at the dilemma as an opportunity to make desired changes or improvements. Alter the challenge or the events to produce a favorable outcome for you, change the stressor or change your response to the stressor. Remember the end result is in how you view the situation.
7. Learn to say "No". Know you limitations and adhere to them. Don't take on more responsibility than you know you can handle. Assuming more responsibility than you are able to take on will lead to additional stress in your life. Also, leave room for the unexpected, because often there will be something you didn't plan on encountering.
8. Set Aside Time to relax. Take time for quiet reflection. This is time to a break from all responsibilities. Do not allow your obligations to intrude upon this time of relaxation.
9. Take one thing at a time. The best way to cope with the feeling of being overwhelmed is to take one task at a time. Pick one urgent task and work on it. Once you accomplish one task, choose the next one. The positive feeling of achieving small tasks is very satisfying. It will motivate you to keep going.
10. Be willing to compromise: Always find a solution where all parties are able to win and an acceptable agreement is reached.
11. Manage your time more efficiently. When you are running behind schedule or have not poorly managed your time, you will tend to be more stressful. Planning ahead help you to avoid stress-producing time crunches.
12. Keep your sense of humor. The act of laughing helps your to fight stress. Natural chemicals called endorphins are released in your body to help build immunity and fights stress.
13. Do something you enjoy everyday. Sports work for some people, reading, exercising or socializing for others. Cultivate a hobby and engage in something you cherish; schedule time to indulge your interest.
Let's face it... exercise is one of the best stress relievers out there. During that stretch where you're in the gym or outside playing with your kids at the playground, you're in the moment and for that time, everything else just melts away. Regular exercise with help reduce your cholesterol levels and improve cardiac health lessening any potential issues that might arise when stressful situations cause a spike in your blood pressure. Exercise is a way for you to step away from everything else & simply focus on yourself for a minute. The endorphin release as a result of exercise can change your mood & elevate your spirits. You just feel better and when you feel good, when you look good, when you look good you play well... and it's that life time of wellness that we're all working for.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6653721How to Creat a Mindset for Fitness
By Robert Choat
So many people tend to make excuses as to why they can't get fit or even be consistent in their exercise program. You may have heard things like, "I don't have enough time," or "the gym is too far away," or "my children take up too much of my time." Those are all excuses. The reality is that we all can exercise. The problem is that the great majority of people don't really want to. They look for some magic pill solution to getting fit. Folks, let me tell you, there are none.
In order to get fit, you've got to want to get fit. Changing how you look at fitness is a big part of the real solution. It's a mindset change.
How you think about fitness starts with your attitude towards it. That may stem from your childhood, the people you hang around the most, and so forth. Those that have been lifelong athletes tend to keep that mindset. Fitness has always been a part of their daily activities. The average people, and especially in today's world, tend to be couch potatoes. Many are not engaged with their bodies.
In order to develop a mindset for fitness, you've got to take action. The reason for this is the development of habits. Now you may be thinking, "If I'm gonna have a mindset for fitness, you mean I gotta get fit?" Well, sort of. You see, athletes have that natural desire to work-out because they've been doing it most of their life. It's a habit for them.
What I'm telling you to do is to start taking some sort of action based on a goal and a plan. Baby steps at first and then increase it. I will give you some techniques that will help you achieve this mindset faster.
One of the ways that has helped many is to use visualization. Imagine that you are already an athlete and doing the kind of workouts that they engage in. Make sure this takes place in the future in your mind. What you want to do is to work towards that goal. And speaking of that, having a goal is important. Working towards some purpose will help engage you longer into working out.
In fact, any physical activity that you shoot for will help create the desire necessary to achieve it. Consistent and increasing challenges will help keep you motivated. Hanging out with athletes also will help you develop that mindset. It's been said that we are the sum average of the 5 people we associate with the most. So, if you associate with really fit people, you'll start to be more like them. You should be able to find fitness-oriented people within your own community as well as on social media sites, like Facebook.
One tool that will help keep you on track is a journal. Get one and start using it. What you want to is to keep track each day of your activities. Write down all that you did in terms of physical activity and what you ate to feed and fuel your body for performance. The simple process of writing this down will help to install into your subconscious mind that you are fitness-minded. And if you have any challenges that you met and exceeded, write that down too. This adds to what you already did within your own mindset.
BTW, any activity that challenges you physically counts. You don't have to do to the gym to get a good work-out. Having a fitness mindset, you will learn that anywhere is your gym. I recently used what I had in a hotel room to work-out. For my back I simply held on to the top edge of the desk and let my body hang below and did body weight rows. I also was able to do body weight squats and push-ups. There was no excuse from me as to why I could not work-out. I just did it. It's my mindset that led me to figure out how.
I wish you the best in your efforts to develop that mindset. Again, keep on track with your journal. Make sure it matches with you personal goals. And take consistent action with ever-increasing challenges. That's even if you're simply starting a walking program, like 10,000+ steps a day. Just do it.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6655254Exercise Tips- How You can Exercise
after 40 Years Old
By Marc R Ouellette
I thought it was time to write an article for people who are forty or older. When my friend turned forty years old it was not a big deal. Exercising has always been a part of his life for so long, that he never thought about changing his routine. I know through experience that some individuals have to modify their routines in order to avoid injury.
Till one day about a year and a half ago my friend injured his right shoulder. I told him to ice it and go see a doctor to see what the problem was. The doctor told my friend it's the rotator cuff. Now that was a shock to me considering it happened quickly and without any warning. So he started rehabilitation on the shoulder three times a week and also had some ultrasound done. It was not a tear but some inflammation in the tendon area. Doctors called it tendonitis.
Doctor says it happens as we get older, tendons, ligament, and joints become inflamed. Most people have to start to change their routines. Start to think about exercising differently. So how much different? I will show you.
Most people can still exercise after an injury. Inflammation usually subsides with antibiotics or rest. Severe cases rehabilitation or surgery. Lucky for my friend he got better through rehab, (shoulder).
Depending on the injury, your doctor will give you the best advice on how to get better. Once you are feeling better and it's time to start your routine again. Changes are probably going to be needed.
Your body needs to be warmed up before exercising any particular body-part. I like to start my workouts by stretching my body to loosen it up. I also recommend walking on the treadmill for ten to fifteen minutes before working out. This helps getting the body ready for resistance training.
There are many other ways to warm up your muscles and prevent injury to yourself. One way is to start by exercising the body-part with very light weight for one to two sets. Then add more weight to increase your strength. Make your very last set the heaviest and always use strict form. If the weight starts to hurt your body stop at once.
Another way is to lift light weight and add more repetitions, about twelve to fifteen reps. Going lighter is not going to hurt you if you are looking for muscle growth. Actually you may like going lighter, you get a great burn and your body may recuperate quicker.
Rest is also important. Sometimes you just need an extra day of rest as we get older. People over forty sometimes need extra rest if they experience problems with inflammation. Most of the time an extra day is all you need to stay strong and stay on your fitness routine.
I hope in no way have I made forty years old sound very old in this article. Some people who are forty plus never experienced these problems and still workout like they were in their twenties. My intentions are to help the ones that are having problems with their routines because of age factors. I always would love to see people of all ages workout together. It just happens that as we age it's important to modify the workouts so injuries don't happen.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6650572The Various Uses and Benefits
of Exercise Ball
By Marie Claude D Parnell-Kerr
Fitness balls are the in thing right now and all the gyms have them. Using a gym, however, is time-consuming as well as costing hundreds of dollars in fees. Whether you have a busy lifestyle, restricted finances, a physical injury or you are an exercise fanatic and keep wanting to do something all the time, the Exercise Balls are a perfect option for frequent development of core strength, balance and muscle tone to get you that lean body you desire.
I was amazed to find how much choice there was in which Exercise Ball to select as I was not previously aware that the size is relative to your height or that there are slight differences in manufacture depending on the intensity of exercise intended for it. I purchased the Exercise Body Ball as it came with an exercise DVD and a foot pump to inflate the ball. I had never used a ball before and am now wishing I had thought of it sooner. The exercises are easy to follow but definitely give you a thorough workout!
I regularly use my Exercise Ball in place of a chair. I am on my feet a lot during working hours but once home I used to sit on the couch for several hours at a time. My legs became stiff and sore, my back and shoulders ached and my stomach felt bloated. Using the Ball I am forced to sit in a balanced position, which automatically improves my posture. Even in a balanced position, one tiny movement causes the ball to roll so I need to adjust the position slightly; constant movement means that my back does not ache and my legs do not become sore from pressure or inactivity. Despite not always having the time, or the inclination, to use the exercise DVD, I am still able to develop my core strength and improve posture, which reduces backache through other everyday tasks because my back muscles automatically hold me upright correctly. I did not realise that my posture was poor until I started using this ball.
Whilst looking into other ways of using the Exercise Ball, I found that it could also be easily integrated into yoga or Pilates routines. Everyone should possess one; they are easy to use, versatile, come in a range of colours and sizes to suit anyone, kids love them and they actually make exercising fun rather than a chore! With that in mind, how likely are you to want to give up on using it? I might have lost enthusiasm for the DVD (inherent laziness!) but have not lost my love for the ball!
N.B. For back pain sufferers it is recommended to check with your doctor if you can use such a means of exercise.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6573382
