The notion of stress is as old as man.
Whether: chiseling a tool out of rock, hunting for game or taking an exam, most every activity is about utilizing, feeling and performing with a form of stress.
It seems that many sporting events, workouts, and jobs recreate stressful scenarios in which we can re-dramatize these endorphin laden conditions again and again.
I actually don’t like the term “performing under stress” because every day there is stress to a certain degree and the connotation of being under something isn’t leveraging the thought in the healthiest of ways. So I believe in doing one’s best to stay afloat and abreast with stress and I am proposing that notion of finding peace within the turmoil, such is life for most of us.
With > Under
The definition of stress is “constraining force or influence and stresses can be external or internal” and I believe that finding healthy stress is the key to a healthy life.
The avoidance of stress is impossible, so choose which stressors that you would like to push towards to achieve your goals. Understand your breaking point and what is within and without of your control to leverage healthy stress as friction to move forward.
Keep moving forward
Significant delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS) is one example of fatigue. Fabled sprint coach, the late Charlie Francis, used to say at his seminars that the central nervous system (CNS) is like a cup of tea that you must never let overflow. Every stressor, whether it be personal problems, interval training, weight training, or lack of sleep, adds tea (in this case, fatigue) to your cup. If the cup of tea (fatigue) does not overflow but is adequately stressed, supercompensation (fitness) takes place.
International Sports Science Association
Remember the most important law of conditioning: Your muscles need sufficient stress in order to grow bigger, stronger, or more enduring.
Andy
