Psychological Stress impairs muscular recovery

This one popped across my screen today. Stress is always an issue with all sorts of impacts on health. Interesting to see this study of its impact on the muscles and how they react to training:

Psychological Stress Impairs Short-Term Muscular Recovery From Resistance Exercise

PURPOSE:
The primary aim of this study was to determine whether chronic mental stress moderates recovery of muscular function, perceived energy, fatigue and soreness in the first hour following a bout of strenuous resistance exercise.
METHODS:
31 undergraduate resistance training students (age = 20.26 ± 1.34 y) completed the perceived stress scale (PSS) and Undergraduate Stress Questionnaire (USQ; a measure of life event stress) and completed fitness testing. Following 5 to 14 days of recovery, they performed an acute heavy-resistance exercise protocol (10-RM leg press test plus six sets: 80-100% of 10-RM). Maximal isometric force (MIF) was assessed prior to, following, and at 20, 40, and 60 min post-exercise. Participants also reported their levels of perceived energy, fatigue, and soreness. Recovery data was analyzed with hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) growth curve analysis.
RESULTS:
Life event stress significantly moderated linear (p = .013) and squared (p = .05) recovery of MIF. This relationship held even when the model was adjusted for fitness, workload, and training experience. Likewise, perceived stress moderated linear recovery of MIF (p = .023). Neither USQ nor PSS significantly moderated changes in energy, fatigue, or soreness.
CONCLUSION:
Life event stress and perceived stress both moderated the recovery of muscular function, but not psychological responses, in the first hour post strenuous resistance exercise.

I think this may well have relevance to the work of Marcora that I've poined to before. so much of this stuff is mental. Perceptions are so important. When you feel stressed everything will feel harder and of course your performance will be impacted

Dry January

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was taking part in "Dry January". I didn't make a big song and dance about it, but I decided to go for a calendar month or so with no alcohol. A few people have asked me about my experience, so here are a few points. Why take a break from drinking? Alcohol is an interesting topic. As a drug it is widely accepted in society, central to so much of our socialising and leisure. There seem to be lots of health benefits - so we are told - yet there are also a lot of problems in terms of health, relationships and lifestyle that come from drinking. Over a few years I'd begun to become aware and then concerned that I was drinking too much and too regularly. I am in a busy and stressful job and sometimes a glass of wine after work to relax is really helpful. But over time, one glass became two. Two glasses became ....I might as well finish the bottle. A habit got established....and was starting to get too e...

So where have I been?

You will have noticed that this blog has been quiet for a while.... There are a few reasons for that, reasons that I thought I'd list here: WORK - my day job has been incredibly busy and stressful this year. Working 10-14 hour days the last thing on my mind when I got home was putting something on here. FACEBOOK/TWITTER - I suppose I've been using other channels to do some of what I used to do here. Quick fire posts pointing to interesting studies or news etc tend to get posted to Twitter (@chrishighcock) or to the Facebook Hillfit group http://www.facebook.com/groups/263083947097000/ REASSESSMENT - I've found myself less comfortable with some of the positions I've taken in the past. Sometimes I'm embarrassed by some of the things I've promoted. I'm not Paleo or low carb. I think Tabata and intervals are misunderstood and misapplied. I cannot really claim to be HIT. I find myselfunable honestly to post things on here and pretend that I am some sort o...

Taking up space for a brief update

I've a couple of posts in draft that I will get up soon - an update / reflection on Dry January and some thoughts on the scheduling benefits of short workouts if your life is busy. Before that though, I am pointing to something else. However, I wanted to highlight something that is coming this weekend that I've been involved in. Amber Rogers (Gokaleo and author of Taking Up Space ) has been pulling together a bundle of books from various authors with a common theme, one that I've been pushing here recently. Keep it simple, avoid the hype, be patient, be consistent and flee the gurus. I've talked before about how we get obsessed with pushing for more and more, when enough is OK. I've given my view that so much of the health and fitness internet world is more like a gnostic religion than something that will benefit your life. There are other voices out there saying similar things and I'll be pointing to a bundle of books later this week ...

Conditioning Research

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