How Stress Savages Your Muscles

by Lee
(UK)

Stress. It's everywhere you look. And even during those moments when you manage to temporarily escape it, you can often fall victim to a nerve-jangling bout of "awfulizing".

Awfulizing Agony

For those that don't know, awfulizing is the term used by psychiatrists to describe the agonizing act of obsessing on the worst outcome of any situation.

An example?

In Scooby Doo, it's when Shaggy snaps and starts wailing, "We're all gonna die!" until Velma bitch-slaps him out of it.

Now while most folks aren't quite so dramatic about such things, they can still fall foul to awfulizing. Why is this so terrible? Apart from the obvious dangers to your sanity, these imagined stresses do NOT make you more efficient or effective.

And it gets worse.

Soon the toxic dump of cortisol that strikes your system when you start to stress, can savage your muscle gains faster than a silverback gorilla with a Tommy gun. Jeepers!

So what can you do?

Just the Facts, Ma'am

The good news is, this sad and stressful situation can be avoided by simply focussing on the task at hand.

How?

Keep calm, remain rational, and like Dragnet's Sgt. Joe Friday, judge things on "just the facts, ma'am" (that means, what you KNOW to be true, and not what catastrophe you imagine might happen - a dramatic difference).

Practice this one step, and you will safely help diffuse the stress bomb that has been scarily tick-tocking inside of you. Your sanity, and those muscles you work so hard for, will gladly thank you for it.