Once upon a time (a long time ago) there was a man and a woman sitting by a tree, suddenly they hear a sound. A crack of a branch, the ground begins to shake and suddenly a thunderous roar fills the air. The man and the woman take a quick glance at each other and immediately as if their bodies were machines they begin to run. Their hearts begin to race; their legs take them from rest to full speed in seconds. As they reach safe harbor they sit down on a rock and all is well, they are at peace once again. The man and the woman never saw the creature that loomed behind them; they did not need to see the danger to know how to respond because their body’s instinct to survive kicked in…. 
This is the story of how our bodies respond to stress and it happens every day. When we face stressful situations in life, whether running from a predator, dealing with a deadline, or a bumpy time in a relationship our body releases sympathetic hormones (aka the “fight or flight response”) to allow our body to act, but the problem is that we aren’t always able to run away from stressful situations as our body was designed. So we end up hormonally out of balance which can negatively affect our immune system, sleeping patterns, our attitude as well as the physiological processes required to lose weight. The consequence in the gym is prolonged recovery time, decreased performance and a possible “detour” from our fitness progress.
Once upon a time (just yesterday) there was a man and a woman sitting in an office, they were stressed out and they kept it all inside. They went to the gym to continue a rigorous training routine but they were too fatigued to continue, they went back the next day and they started to notice unusual weakness and injury.
This is the story of how our bodies respond to stress. If this is happening to you, try to find a way to reduce your stress levels. Try a massage, a yoga class, tai chi or just take a vacation and you’ll notice a big difference when you get back in the gym.
