Work, money, family, the future – there are plenty of things that we stress about. It isn’t just worries or bad things happening that cause stress, but any sort of change, from getting a promotion at work to planning a wedding, that put stress on your body. Stress can come from emotional or physical changes, illness, drastic changes in the environment, and pushing your body too hard. Eventually, stress can have a negative impact on your mental and physical health. In this article, we’ll take a look at how stress can affect your health and why fitness is a great method to help you relieve some of that stress.
What stress does to the body
Our bodies react to stress in a variety of ways, including fatigue, headaches or other aches and pains, insomnia and other emotional disorders like anxiety or depression. Others might experience gastrointestinal problems like ulcers, cramps or irritable bowel syndrome. Stress can also play a part in cardiovascular health, prompting high blood pressure, heart palpitations, hearts attacks or strokes.
Stress can also adversely affect women and the health of their reproductive systems. Women under stress may experience an absence of a menstrual cycle or abnormal menstrual bleeding. The hormone imbalance that stress creates escalated symptoms of fibroid tumors or endometriosis. Stress can even make getting pregnant difficult for those couples experiencing problems with infertility.
Another way that stress can affect people of both genders is that it quite frequently opens the door to illness. Too much stress can cause our immune systems to falter, making us more susceptible to catching colds or the flu. Stress can even have a negative impact on our skin, causing itchy skin, hives or rashes.
Why exercise can help
While exercise has the obvious benefits of improving overall health and helping you live longer, it can also greatly reduce the amount of stress your body is under. Fitness helps relax tense muscles and promotes better sleeping patterns, plus a wide range of benefits that aren’t so obvious. Exercise promotes better blood flow, including in the brain, which can help combat that feeling of having your head stuffed with cotton.
It also releases endorphins that can provide a happy, healthy feeling after a good work out. There is a lot of evidence that people that work out on a regular basis and are in good health are better able to handle the long term affects of stress. Stress will always be a part of our lives, but combating it with fitness in The Woodlands can certainly help minimize the negative effects.
Get help in the fight against stress
Getting on the right path to better fitness can be difficult and confusing in the beginning, and you may not see the beneficial effects right away, so it’s easy to quit. Consulting an expert in health and fitness is a great way to get going and keep you motivated. Not only can a personal trainer assess your present health and design a work out routine to help you combat stress, but he’ll also be there every step of the way to encourage you.
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