DEALING WITH STRESS AND ANXIETY WHEN WORKING OUT

Many people complain that anxiety is directly affecting their workouts. It is a fact and it's not discussed as often as it should be. Both stress and anxiety can impact your motivation and also your progress in the gym. It can make you lack concentration during your training and prevent you from achieving results.

☝️According to Healthline, stress is a situation that triggers a particular biological response. When you perceive a threat or a major challenge, chemicals and hormones surge throughout your body. There are several types of stress, including acute stress, episodic acute stress, chronic stress.

 ☝️Chronic anxiety can interfere with your quality of life and can also have serious consequences on your physical health. Anxiety has a negative impact on your cardiovascular system, your digestive system, your immune system, and your respiratory system. so be mindful and do not hesitate to seek help from the experts.

A few things I usually suggest when you find yourself in this position:

✅Be aware when it happens. Sometimes you don't even notice it, you get too caught up in your busy life. Once you are aware of the situation you will be able to keep it better under control and find your balance again.

✅Talk about it. When this happens just share your emotions with someone, it can be your gym buddy, your trainer, or your best friend. People often discover that they experience the same emotions as others when they talk about them. At that moment when they realize it (many times it happens when the other person says ‘Me too’), they get a feeling of immediate comfort and release knowing that the other person in the room has been through the same emotions at some point.

✅Don't be too hard on yourself. It is ok to feel the way you feel. And it is actually fairly common. You have no reason to feel embarrassed about how you are feeling. Accepting your emotions without putting extra pressure to get rid of them instantly will help in the long run.

✅Switch the mentality! Your workouts should not be perceived as some sort of work task or dreadful chores you must finish. You should look at them as an escape from your daily tasks, a break from your busy life. A time when you just focus on exercising and your mind take a break from overthinking.

✅Take deep breaths and stretch before starting your workout. This can ease the anxiety and reduce the stress. Breathing deeply will help your body relax and will calm down your mind.

✅Assess wise! It is ok to skip a workout or two. It’s not the end of the world if mentally you’re not prepared to train on a day. Sometimes we think that only the body should be ready, but the mind should be as ready as the body in order to perform. Although exercising will help to manage better your anxiety and stress levels, you need to be able to evaluate if the workout will cause more harm than do a good thing for you.