April is National Stress Awareness Month

By your Fitness Trainers at Century Fitness

Health professionals have studied how stress affects the body for a very long time. There is still so much more to learn, but most agree that managing stress and keeping your body and mind as “even keel” as possible is vital to good health.

What is stress actually?  In the early 1950s, Dr. Hans Selye started to chip away at this mystery.  Stress in animals and humans is a nonspecific response in the body, he noted.  His research defined stressors as outside factors, which when combined with environmental causes (even nutrition) can cause a specific or non-specific effects in the body including the release of hormones.  Stress is like an alarm to your body.

Stress can be short duration or long-term, which can have different effects on the body.  Stress can be considered “positive” such as the effects of your workout and your body’s response to accommodate and even improve.  Stress can be considered negative such as the physical pain and mental toil of being a soldier on the battlefield.  Stress can be influenced by many factors including our own thoughts.

This popular stress inventory test is a decent self-check of where you might stand:

This article is intended to provide general knowledge of health and fitness principles and should not be taken as medical advice or used to diagnose health problems or for treatment purposes. It is not a substitute for medical care provided by a licensed and qualified health professional. Always consult your doctor or licensed healthcare provider for personalized advice on diet and exercise.