Truth About Stress

Ran some treadmill 'hill' sprints today. 9mph at 6% for 1 minute with 1 minute off. 6 intervals was tough. That's called stressing your cardiovascular system, in a good way. Unlike drinking 7 red bulls in a night (which I've done). That is BAD stress.

Big lesson. There are good and bad types of stress. That's the focus of today's post. Keep that in mind as we go along.

Next, we'll agree that hard MRT workouts are great...but train smart.

Don't throw in lunge jumps if you - or your client - can't do them safely or effectively. That turns good metabolic stress into bad joint stress.

Stress is a fine line between good and bad.

Stress can make you grow (literally and figuratively), and stress can damage and destroy you. Literally.

In that situation where you physically can't handle the stress, you need to substitute a more appropriate alternative (low box jumps, total body extensions, close-stance bodyweight squats).

Or heck, just use stationary bike interval training. It WORKS. That's the method used in most fat loss interval studies.

Bottom line: Have a good reason for everything you do. Have a good reason for bearing specific stressors so that your body can cope, accommodate, and adapt.

Physical adaptation (i.e. training improvements) are what happens when we apply good stress during a workout.

Physical deterioration (i.e. overuse and and overtraining detriments) are what happens when we apply either a bad stress or too much of a good stress during a workout.

Again, it's a fine line between good stress and bad stress.

Today's Kickbutt Mindset Tips carry on with our stress message: "Stress (can) kill. No matter how painful in the short-term, remove all chronically (negative) stressful situations, environment, and people from your life…Search out positive people and experiences." – Kekich Credo #35

Now when I posted this on my Facebook page, I was dismayed to see so many people offering excuses as to why they couldn't follow Kekich's advice. There was a lot of 'moaning and groaning' as my mom used to describe my childish excuses when I was asked to take out the garbage back when I was 10 years old. Moaning and groaning is expected of a child, but not as an adult. At least not one that is taking personal responsibility for their actions, as one should.

Listen, you can't go your whole life blaming everyone else for the life you've gotten yourself into. That's right, you got yourself here. Only you can get yourself out of whatever negative situation you are in. And only you determine how the stress is going to affect you mentally. You control your reactions. You control your life.

For this outlook in life, we have Viktor Frankl to thank for best explaining it. As a prisoner of war in a Auschwitz, the most infamous of all German concentration camps, Frankl suffered and toiled for several years, and was one of the few to survive the atrocities.

In 1946, Frankl published the first version of what eventually became his book, "Man's Search for Meaning". This book has been the most influential of my adult life. In his book, Frankl chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate based on his psychotherapeutic method of finding meaning in all forms of existence, even the most sordid ones, and thus a reason to continue living.

Two of my favorite quotes from Frankl are:

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." - Viktor E. Frankl

Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. - Viktor E. Frankl

Unfortunately, most people do not, and will not ever understand this. They will choose only to complain and will not look for a way to change their circumstances.

You, on the other hand, are different. You can change. And as Ghandi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world."

Start today. After all, as Dan Sullivan, one of my coaches, once said, "You can either create or you can complain."

If there is stress & trouble in your life what steps are you taking to change that right now? Are you creating a better life or just complaining? Seek those who will support your change. Good people are out there...they do exist. They want to help.

If it is physical changes you want to make, Turbulence Training is here to help.

If it is financial, heed this thought from another one of my mentors, Dan Kennedy, who says, "Show me the people you hang out with, the library in your house, and the material you read day-to-day, and I can predict your bank balance. Association matters."

Make the right choices, starting today. And forget about past mistakes. Take only the lessons, and not the regrets, from the past.

If you fall "off the wagon" - in any area of life - cut your losses, don't stress about it, and get right back on track. Immediately. It's minor damage that can be dealt with...and there's nothing you can do about the past anyways. Focus on what you can do now and in the future.

Craig Ballantyne, CTT
Certified Turbulence Trainer

PS - That was heavy, yet positive stress.

Time for a lighter, silly, positive stressor.

=> http://www.TurbulenceTrainingFanpage.com

Just a pic of my dog eating peanut butter from an ice cream scoop that was the commemorative gift at Joel Marion's wedding. Nothing to see here.