Sport against stress: Regular physical activity makes an essential contribution to the promotion of health, which is why you should better exchange the couch for the treadmill in the evening.
- What is stress?
- Problem our time: wrong stress management
- Couch vs. Sports: That's why it's better to move
One appointment chases the next and the lunch break in the office is shorter thanks to the many meetings. A life in the fast lane - after all, you want to be able to keep up and best increase steadily. To shake off the stress of everyday life, there's nothing better than putting your feet up in the evening and relaxing on the couch. Oh but! People who do sports instead and have a physically active life in their spare time can compensate for stress much better and usually live longer. Especially healthy is moderate physical activity, because even sports is only as healthy if you operate it in moderation.
What is stress?
Stress is a natural and healthy reaction of the body. He is a primal instinct that signals that the body is threatened by external and / or internal factors and must react quickly to handle the situation. In just a few seconds, the stress hormones adrenalin, insulin, cortisol and norepinephrine are released. At the same time, the pulse rises and the muscles tense - our cardiovascular system is working at full speed. For our ancestors, it was vital to react in dangerous or combat situations in this way, because only then is the body on alert and ready to really give everything.
Problem our time: wrong stress management
The biggest problem today is that we simply sit out tension, concentrated energy and stress hormones instead of moving them down, as nature intended. We force our body to persist and deprive it in the stress situation, the possibility of movement, which is why the excess energy and the secreted stress hormones can not be optimally broken down.
Couch vs. Sports: That's why it's better to move
Sure, the evening on the couch, after a busy day, with a good movie is tempting. And of course, this program also feels the body as a relief. Only it takes much longer on the sofa, until the distributed stress hormones are reduced.
When seated, the body slows down breathing, blood pressure and heart rate, but the tension in the muscles remains and the stress hormones continue to circulate. Only by exercise are hormones such as endorphins and serotonin produced that neutralize them. If this does not happen permanently, the body gets into a permanent alarm state and it comes to a state of exhaustion. Concentration difficulties, sleep disorders and digestive problems can be the unpleasant result.
Sport against stress - but please with breaks
It's great when sport becomes an integral part of your free time. However, it is also true here: Better in moderation than in overdose, because who drives his body constantly to peak performance and breaks do not allow, runs the risk that the exercise loses its good health-promoting effect. The direct effect refers to influencing physical, mental and social health, such as strengthening the cardiovascular system.
A protective and preventive effect is achieved when sport mitigates the harmful effects on health of chronic stress events in particular. But also preventive sport can affect the health. So you take more time for balancing moments that the body necessarily needs in the stressful everyday life regularly to be able to work and to perform the performance that is required of him. Ideally, there are three training sessions per week.
Prepared for everyday life: Sports Thank you
A positive self-esteem or the ability to overcome training in spite of internal or external obstacles (self-efficacy), lead to the fact that even with the confrontation with stressful everyday events, the own courses of action are rather optimistic and you stand firm and secure and the challenge provides.
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