De-Stress Your Workout

By Team Beachbody

Isn't working out all about stress, you ask? After all, you want to amp yourself up and go at it as hard as you can, pounding away like an Olympian in a Gatorade ad. Getting motivated to workout certainly has that adrenaline side to it, but it is also supposed to make you feel better. When you finish, you should feel more relaxed and less stressed than when you started. Certainly you can focus your anger and aggression into the meat of the session, venting away some anxiety. But you should also start and finish each workout with some calming moments.

Triathlete Nate Llerandi had this to say about the subject of transitions:

"Life seems to be all about rush, rush, rush. Gotta squeeze in every milli-second of training during the lunch hour, then hose off, scarf down lunch and get back to the office. Or maybe you go through a similar pattern in the morning before work as you and your wife try to spend some time together and get the kids ready for school as well.

"Whatever stress your workout routine is adding to your day, it's time to ease it back. Take an extra couple of minutes to get ready for your workout. Think about what you're about to do and get your mental state in line with your physical state. Then, after your workout, don't rush back into life. Take a few minutes to let your HR recover, stretch, cool down a little bit and basically just tone your energy down before returning back to work, life, family, what-have-you.

"Too much of what we do is about flipping switches. Turn it on, turn it off, then turn it on again. Instead of running around using On/Off switches, start implementing some dimmer switches. Ease into and out of your workouts. You'll get more out of them and you'll lower the overall stress in your everyday life."

If you're doing Power 90^®, you may be keeping yourself motivated that the "stress" of working out will end in 90 days. But if you ask anyone who works out regularly, and ACTUALLY enjoys it, you will likely find that they have found a way for exercise to be an occasion to reduce stress. Try incorporating that thinking into your daily approach, and you will experience a gradual change in how you approach working out. First, you will miss fewer workouts because you won't use being stressed out as an excuse not to exercise. (It will actually turn into a reason to exercise!) Second, you will find it easier to stay motivated during the workout if you look for how it's making you feel better rather than fighting it for the entire session.

If you have ever found it hard to maintain a fitness regimen, try taking the stress out of it. If you exercise looking for stress relief, you should find it infinitely easier and more valuable.