Stress managment for peak performance
The best way to manage stress
A good friend of mine is a highly paid consultant to business owners internationally. His presentation consists of Ten Absolute Essentials for Making Your Business Succeed! The most important of the ten? “Don’t die!”
Most people live at a ridiculous pace today. The following poem says it all, and especially for the busy business owner…
This is the age of the half-read page
The quick hash with the mad dash,
The plane hop with a brief stop,
The lamp tan in a short span.
And the brain strain, and the heart pain,
And the cat naps until the spring snaps,
And the fun’s done!
For far too people today − lost in the hectic shuffle of spread sheets, and stressful heartbeats − the following simple truth is overlooked: The best way to manage stress, stay out of the hospital, and perform to your optimum potential; is to consistently eat smart and give your body the vigorous exercise it needs.
After I stepped out of the NFL I went through the agonizing process of losing my muscle and motivation to stay fit − believing that I had already exercised enough for several lifetimes − I found it virtually impossible to find the time to fit fitness into my busy life.
Since 1989 I have been helping busy business professionals learn how to better manage their most valuable asset − their body! Far too many people today completely overlook the importance of properly maintaining the most important thing in their busy lives − themselves. Here is the bottom line; if you are not functioning at full capacity; if you are not consistently performing at peak levels of efficiency; your productivity will suffer. And, if you die, your productivity will really suffer!
“The Body”, wrote Theodore Herzl “is a marvelous machine…a chemical laboratory, a powerhouse. Every movement, voluntary or involuntary, is full of secrets and marvels.” Your body is made up of over 100 trillion cells. It has over 650 muscles, over 200 bones, and is covered with 4 million nerve endings with impulses traveling at 300 feet per second. Your body has over 60,000 miles of tubing just to carry the blood.
Insidiously sedentary
On average, we are seated for 12 to 16 hours a day! Living in the 21st century, one of the greatest obstacles to staying fit is that automation and technological conveniences have rendered most people sedentary. Most people are not moving on a daily basis in the way our bodies were designed to move. Elevators, escalators, automobiles, golf carts, remote controls, gas fireplaces, etc.. All these things make life easier but they are leaving our bodies behind.
I remember when I had to physically pull the garage door open, get in the car and back it out, and then get back out of the car and pull the garage door closed. Then when I got back in the car, to cool off, I had to crank a handle to roll down the window. Today I can do everything I just described by pushing two buttons! Though they may seem like little things, they all add up to sedentary living. As Evan Esar put it, “Walking isn’t a lost art; one must, by some means, get to the garage.”
This lack of movement is now forcing us to regiment exercise back into our lifestyle, or face the consequences of inactivity. Regular physical activity, that we used to get throughout the day by how hard our body had to work, quite naturally reduces the risk of developing or dying from some of the leading causes of illness and death.
Regular physical activity improves health by reducing the risk of; heart disease; diabetes; high blood pressure; colon cancer; depression and anxiety; weight gain; and premature death. Exercise will help us to maintain healthy bones, muscles, and joints, and promotes psychological well-being.
Dr. Daniel Anen, author of the bestselling book, “Change Your Brain Change Your Life”, says, that as it pertains to your brain, exercise is literally the fountain of youth. Exercise consistently and you will change your brain. When you exercise, you think better, concentrate better, and your memory will be better. Exercise boosts blood flow to the brain. Exercise boosts growth factors in the brain that help you grow neurons! You say, “Wait a minute, I thought we were born with all the brain cells we would ever have.” Well, here’s some great news; ten years ago, scientists discovered that the brain can produce new neurons, and exercise makes it happen!
But wait, there’s more! It is now known that exercise is the single best non-drug thing you can do to help depression. A head-to-head study compared Zoloft (considered one of the best antidepressants) with exercise. At the end of 12 weeks they were equally effective. At the end of 10 months, exercise blew past Zoloft!
Feeling depressed? Here is your choice: You can take Zoloft for 12 weeks and not be depressed − but keep in mind that 60-80% of those who use antidepressants suffer sexual side effects − or you can exercise for 12 weeks and not be depressed. It’s no contest! But with all that said, why are so many people not giving their body the exercise it needs? Why do so many people tolerate functioning at less than 60% of their potential?
In search of a fitness formula that works
I have found that most people eventually recognize they are under performing and commit to some kind of exercise routine. However, they eventually give up because they either cannot maintain consistency, or they get frustrated by not realizing the results they expected.
Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. For many, exercise represents a similar kind of insanity. Exercise insanity is where you do the same thing over and over again expecting the same result but never get that result. This is where many people get stuck.
After repeatedly failing to be consistent with exercise by attempting to follow the standard recommendation of working out 2-3 times a week for 30-45 minutes; I realized the problem wasn’t me, it was the recommended formula. Today, the recommendation is 30 minutes a day but it is not working! We know that it’s not working because only 10% are fit! Something’s clearly wrong with the recommendation.
As America’s Fitness Coach, I feel my greatest contribution to fitness has been that I changed the paradigm. Rather than try to pound a square peg in a round hole, which is analogous to trying to force people into an exercise paradigm where most will fail, I decided to change the rules. If everyone’s greatest enemy with exercise is time, and it is, why not increase the frequency, increase the intensity, and decrease the exercise time requirement to only ten minutes?
Here’s my tagline: It’s far better to brush your teeth for 2-3 minutes a day, than for 45 minutes 2-3 times a month!
To be successful at forming a lifelong habit, it is imperative that it becomes almost an unconscious part of your daily routine, just like brushing your teeth. Trust me, if you are struggling to fit fitness into your busy life, try the following and watch what happens.
1. Exercise at very high intensity: 80-100% maximum effort.
2. Exercise on an empty stomach: This allows your body to dig deep into its stored glycogen (stored carbohydrate) within the liver and muscle.
3. Do primarily anaerobic exercise: That is focus on exercises that maximize building strength.
4. Exercise for a short duration: 5-15 minutes (Long duration exercise actually enhances the production of Cortisol − the stress hormone. Many people are “over-exercising” which can dampen weight loss, energy levels, and immune function) This will play a key role in helping you to stay motivated with exercise as a habit in your life. Why? Because you’ll see better results, while spending less time working out.
Finally, I draw an important distinction between exercise and a workout. Exercise is anything you do to get your body moving; take the stairs instead of the elevator; go for a walk whenever you get a chance; take every opportunity to play your favorite sport, golf, tennis, etc.. In other words KEEP MOVING! A workout, on the other hand, is something all together different. Exercise can and should be fun, but a workout, if done with intensity, is not fun. That’s because it’s hard work! Your body was designed to be stressed, muscles, bones, heart, lungs, brain, etc.
Stress your body for less stress
