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“C” Is For Cortisol

Looks like the stress from trying to look "sexy" while lifting this Kettlebell is starting to get to Greg...
It appears that the stress from trying to look "sexy" while lifting this Kettlebell is starting to get to Greg...

After much of my research and reading about fitness and nutrition, I’ve learned about how simple everyday stress can quickly undo all the hard work we put in at the gym. Much of that is related to an important hormone involved in the body’s “fight or flight” response to stress. This dreaded hormone is called Cortisol. When secreted in small doses, Cortisol can actually have positive effects, such as:

• A quick burst of energy for survival reasons
• Heightened memory functions
• A burst of increased immunity
• Lower sensitivity to pain
• Helps maintain homeostasis in the body

However, too much of a good thing can be detrimental. Prolonged or elevated levels of Cortisol can lead to weakened immune function, decreased muscle tissue, blood sugar imbalances and a naughty message to your body encouraging it to store fat, especially around your abdomen! Each of those side effects is less than ideal on their own, but mix all of them together, and it’s bad news all around!

How can you avoid this recipe for disaster? With sleep, proper nutrition, and exercise! Do your darndest to get a good 8 to 10 hours of proper sleep a night. You’ll feel the positive effects of this in all areas throughout your day! Nutritionally speaking, a proper diet is the aspect over which you probably have the most control. A Zone/Paleo diet prescription is ideal, but as long as you are eating good-for-you, high-quality foods, it should help you keep on track when you’re not getting enough sleep or exercise. Intense exercise in short bursts, such as CrossFit, acts as a positive stress that helps our bodies adapt and become stronger. This does not include overtraining! Resist the temptation to WOD hard all the time. Too much volume of exercise, without adequate rest, can actually cause your body to release excessive amounts of Cortisol which in turn eat away your muscle tissue and signal your body to store belly fat. Meaning, you’re essentially back where you started! If you ask me, a result like that definitely isn’t worth the extra work!

Strive your hardest to see that all three of these factors fall in line. But if that doesn’t happen, you have to make the best of things by at least being consistent with your workouts. Remember: you can’t out-train bad nutrition. If the majority of your stress-control is out of your hands, I encourage you to at least give your diet extra care so that all of your hard work in the gym is not sabotaged by your stress. Good luck!

Today’s Workout:

Buy-In – Warm up well

WOD – “Rambo”

Elite: For time:

  • Row 800m

then 4 rounds of:

• 10 chest to bar pull-ups
• 10 thrusters @ 65/95

  • Run 800m

Zone 3: scale to normal pull-ups, 45/65

Zone 2: 600m row, scale to assisted pull-ups, thrusters 35/55, run 500m

Zone 1: 500m row, 3 rounds, thrusters scaled to ability, run 400m

Cash-Out – Stretch yo’self

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