High-frequency adaptation to stress
We’ve been writing a lot about the benefits of high-frequency training. High-frequency training helps counteract a multitude of problems our sedentary lifestyle has dealt us. People are made to move around at a moderate pace all day long—that’s how our ancestors survived, and this strategy will help you thrive today.
Working out for two hours, four times a week at the gym will help build muscle, but it will not mitigate the damage that being inactive for 10 hours a day will do to you. It will help, but it’s not the antidote—it’s like eating a salad to alleviate the damage of smoking. Don’t get us wrong, eating a salad does wonders for you, but it does not solve the problem. You need to move more frequently to combat a sedentary lifestyle.
Another topic that has come up lately is stress management. We have had two heart attack survivors on our podcast so far, and both Ripon and Brian told similar stories—that chronic stress led to their heart attack. Both men were in fantastic physical condition, which probably explains why they lived to talk about their experience—but both men traced their heart attack back to stress. So, how do we handle stress? Often, we talk about reducing stress. We think this is a great idea in the short term, a bit like taking time off from the gym if you’ve been working out too much.
We think there is some use in this analogy—you need a break if you have done too much of something—a long break and rehabilitation if you really break yourself mentally or physically. How stress is addressed is often in the context of someone “going down with stress,” and the prescription is usually to take time off to recover, and slowly build momentum as you get back in the stream of life.
But this is all in the context of rehabilitation—what we find interesting and motivating—is prevention. How can we become more resilient to stress? More and more research has shown that stress adaptation is something that can be trained, like a muscle. Mental pressure, heavy loads, the cold, endurance challenges, etc., are not different things, but are different colors created by the same prism—all of the above are stressors, which affect you as an organism.
Too much stress over a short period will break you and a moderate amount of stress, endured too long, will run you down. So, what do we do then? And what should our approach be? Well, this is where it gets interesting. Our thought is that if all stressors are the same, as far as the body is concerned, then the same strategy should be applicable for all domains. You build yourself up and adapt to the stress. You introduce a small amount of stress and wait until you feel comfortable, and then you increase the stress. The key is not stressing yourself more than you can recover from and being consistent over time with your stress adaptation training. This perspective works in almost all aspects of life.
Workload (at work or in general)
Cold
Heat
Strength
Endurance
Patience
The more you optimize your recovery, the faster you can progress. Once you have covered the basics like effective nutrition and adequate sleep—you can start implementing recovery strategies like meditation or breathing practices to further aid recovery.
We will delve deeper into this topic in the following weeks, but we thought that this is a good introduction to our mindset. Try introducing small amounts of stress to your body consistently and see how your body adapts. Figure out what kind of stress affects you the most and lean into it in moderation. If it’s public speaking, then start to present your speech in front of a teddy bear and record yourself, until you feel comfortable listening to your voice—then move on to speaking to a friend, or members of your family. If you’d like to be stronger, then start slow and light and progressively increase the stress. Addressing weaknesses, getting started, building momentum, and being consistent are the key concepts.
We hope you find this perspective useful, and start building momentum—small efforts here and there all add up in the long run.
Until next time
Scott and Lennart