The past couple of years have brought chronic stress levels to an all time high for many people.
I mention this because I continually talk about how damaging stress is, but I fail to give practical ways to reduce stress.
Remember, it’s the sustained stress that is the problem. Not little bouts of stress.
It’s a problem when it doesn’t go down.
Stress in moderate levels for short durations is good for us. That’s called eustress.
Examples of eustress may be the moderate bursts of stress you feel at
the gym or studying for a test, intended to focus you for greater
accomplishment.
The weird, creeping stress that gets added on day over day… that’s a different story.
The
problem is that we don’t necessarily want to compromise recovery, so
being able to rise to the occasion is probably more important for many
of us.
1- Dead Hangs
Literally hanging from a bar for 60-120 seconds every night. Like the bottom of a pullup position.
The
“why” is simple. You’ll find that you’re able to get a deeper
diaphragmatic breath, but the difference is as you continue to do this,
your traps and your shoulder make-up will start to remodel, and this
will allow you to get into this deeper breath state easier.
My problem was always not being able to get a good, depa breath, because my back was so tight.
This
has changed my game. So now I dead-hang for 2 minutes (sometimes I use
wraps to make it easier to grip the bar) and I have become addicted to
the big, DEEP, breath that I get out of it.
2- Add Neuro-Adaptogens To Your Routine.(more biohacking type of way)
Neuro-adaptogens
are a group of ingredients that are shown to support stress reduction
and productivity at the same time (which is tricky; de-stressing and
feeling productive are usually at odds with each other).
Qualia has some cool examples of neuro-adaptogenic ingredients include:
- Extramel® SOD -A form of cantaloupe melon concentrate that may have some interesting effects on stress resilience
- NooGandha® A
cognitive enhancing nootropic-focused ashwagandha that supports healthy
cortisol regulation. Adaptogens like this are some of my favorites
because they help you “adapt” to the stressor (i.e. rise to the
occasion).
- Aquamin® Magnesium highly
bioavailable form of marine magnesium with 72 additional trace
minerals. Works specifically well in this use-case as it seems to be
great for the brain effect (vs some magnesium that is more geared
towards muscles, etc)
Here’s a product to try if you want a complete compound with these ingredients >> Qualia Resilience (code AFL saves you 15%)
It
has these three, plus 14 other ingredients. It’s brand, spanking new
and is definitely worth a shot if you’re into the biohacking side of
things like me.
You don’t have to take it every day, either, take it when you’re stressed to help “rise to the occasion.”
There is a 100-Day guarantee as well click here and code AFL will score you an additional 15% off.
3- Ditch Zoom for a While
Virtually
everything in society seems to be encouraging us deeper and deeper into
virtual communication with each other. I’m getting a little tired of
not getting the real-deal, personally.
I’m tired of zoom calls… I want to travel to meet with clients now.
I’m tired of FaceTime, I want to actually hug my sister.
Pretty cool study that was recently published showed those with lower levels of support from friends, family, and romantic partners not only have higher perceived loneliness, but also higher stress levels.
Even
if you’re an introvert, we evolved as social animals. Prioritize social
relationships that give you a sense of support, because it has
intrinsic relationships to your stress and physical health.
4- Take a lesson from the Japanese (drink a lot of Green Tea)
Check out this study that took a look at green tea consumption of the Japanese.
An observational study of 42,093 Japanese people showed that there
is an association between green tea consumption and psychological
distress – those that consumed 5+ cups/day were at a 20% reduced risk
compared to those who consumed no green tea.
Here is the full study here: Japanese Green Tea Study
.jpeg "green Tea for fat loss")
More than likely it has to do with the theanine content of green tea.
So
I don’t think it is all about a one-hit serving of it, but more about
people that truly make it a lifestyle to consume a fair bit of green
tea.
Also a side note, 5 cups of green tea is probably a legit 8oz serving. So don’t go get 5x Venti sized green teas from starbucks.
Application
Remember there are a lot of lifestyle factors that come into play here.
.jpeg "Stress for Fat Loss")
I
could tell you to sleep more, worry less, meditate more, walk more, etc
and honestly those would probably be the most powerful things you could
do. But we are told that stuff all the time!
I wanted to give you some pragmatic things to try.
It’s
all about putting another brick in the wall to help you gain the
knowledge to build the framework of a more stress free life.
Take it from a guy who’s spent the last 20 years stressed out, but is now about 20% less stressed out 🙂
