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
Great post bones! CrossFit is a great to help reduce that stress from everyday life. When you are stressed, cortisol is released.
I am not sure if I am ready for 65lb thrusters again from Thursday’s wod cause I did 30 then and now 40 tomorrow. Oh well I am game 🙂
Awesome post, Bones! As usual 🙂 And a beastly WOD…sorry I am missing this one!
“live for nothing, die for something”
John Rambo, in the movie Rambo
also from the same movie –
“ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
“Raahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
“ARRrrggggggggghhhh!”
…one of my alltime favorites (for real)
John Rambo would do this workout then win the Vietnam war singlehandedly while ousting the commies from Afghanistan. I’m in.
turts
This workout looks sick. It’s like a Fran, but with chest to bar, rowing for an appetizer, and running for dessert. I’ll be there. Hopefully my shoulders can handle it after the last few days.
Is this a Crossift Zone special or is it an actual named WOD?
This is a Zone/Turts special Spidey… but maybe just as likely to pop up on the main site??? My left foot is pretty angry at me right now but I’m hoping it’ll be good for an 800m blast 🙂
My favorite quote from the first Rambo was made by Colonel Trautman ~ “I didn’t come here to save Rambo from you, I came to save you from Rambo.”
My complaint about Rambo is that he was in the Army which makes him a bit of a pansy – if he really wanted to be tough he would have joined the Marine Corps! : )
“Retreat Hell! We’re just attacking in another direction.” ~ Major General Oliver P. Smith, USMC
Yo Adrian, I DID IT!!!
Oh sorry, wrong film.
Great WOD today. Tough after yesterday’s overhead squats.
Are we going to create a WOD called “Rocky”?
Running, floor press, double unders, tire flips.
Only if the running involves stairs 😉
hey donald! I didnt know rambo was (only) and army dude… i figure though since he kicked so much ass he could be considered an honorary member of the marines – but you would be the better judge of that 😉
hoo rah!
tough wod tonight, my quads will be sore for a while… good times
turts