Stress and Physical Activity

Abundant scientific evidence

 Experimental studies use endurance exercise only
 Neuro-endocrine acute and chronic response to
exercise varies according to type of exercise (strength
X endurance)
 Stress involves an extremely complex chain of neuro-
endocrine events and studies may only measure a
few
 Emphasis on cardio-vascular response, adrenal
response or inflammation varies according to the
current focus of the medical research community

Problems
 Scientific research must be the foundation of
health decisions (“evidence-based medicine”),
but science offers provisional truth and limited
scope
 It is up to front line practitioners – physicians,
coaches and other health science related
professionals – to bridge this gap
 Deal with the basic facts:
◦ 1. exercise has a positive effect on the response to
psycho-social stress

How to deal with the problems

 Deal with the basic facts:
◦ 2. What we know about the neuro-endocrinology of
stress and what we can measure
◦ 3. What we know about neuro-endocrinology of exercise,
exercise physiology and conditioning research

 A balance between working within a framework

and experimenting:
◦ 1. Some exercise must be done (adopted framework)
◦ 2. Try what works best for each person
Conditioning classes: strength resistance, agility, power, cardio-
vascular endurance, etc
Strength sports:

-Strength
-Power
-Proprioception
Dance: agility, coordination, cardio-respiratory conditioning,
strength
Track and field: speed, power, cardio-vascular endurance,
agility, coordination
Volleyball, basketball, soccer and other ball team sports: speed,
agility, coordination, social skills, power
Fights: strength, power, agility, coordination, space perception,
reaction time, etc
 “a real or interpreted threat to the physiological
or psychological integrity (i.e., homeostasis) of
an individual that results in physiological and/or
behavioral responses” (McEwen 2005)
 Any stimulus that provokes a shift from the
optimal functioning of the main systems that
ensure the organism’s survival and reproduction
in a state of least disturbance, also known as
homeostasis (me)

What is stress
 Stress is not unique to animals or even eucaryotes.
Any living creature is vulnerable and reacts to stress
 Stress is not “good” or “bad”: it is an element of the
relation between the organism and the environment
 Stress can be acute or chronic
 All living organisms live in a permanent state of being
disturbed and reacting to such environmental
disturbances => the stress reaction system is central
to the survival of any organism
 Acute distress: accidents; death of a
loved one; acute illness; violent attacks
and assault; intoxication; infection; loss
of job; divorce; climatic catastrophes;
extreme heat; extreme cold; terrorist
attack; dehydration

Types of distress: acute

 Chronic distress:
◦ Job related: underrecognition; long term unemployment;
job dissatisfaction; excessive responsibility;
◦ Relationship related: abuse; chronic failure to
communicate, mistrust
◦ Environmental: long term exposure to toxic substances;
excessive heat; excessive humidity;
◦ Food inadequacy: long term malnutrition/desnutrition;
long term use of food that causes intolerance
◦ Religious and ethnic conflict; other types of endemic
social conflict

Types of distress: chronic

 Allostasis and allostatic load
 allostasis is stability through change -
mechanisms attempt to change the
controlled variable by predicting what
level will be needed
 allostatic load refers to the price the body
pays for being forced to constantly adapt
to adverse stressful (psychophysiological)
events

Allostasis and Adaptation

 General adaptation syndrome (GAS) is
the predictable way the body responses to
stress as described by Hans Selye (1907-
1982). First published in 1936
 The first physical conditioning models were
based on adaptation research
 Later research and theories proposed
that stress could be negative or positive
and manipulated to generate desired
results

General adaptation syndrome

GAS curve
Some of the processes causing
disease
 Cardio vascular disease, high blood pressure
 Immune system disorders: auto-imune
disorders; frequent infections; micro-infection
syndromes (fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue
syndrome?); Crohn’s disease
 Inflammatory disorders: Crohn’s disease, other
digestive inflammatory disorders
 Vulnerability to muscoloskelletal injury and
disorders
 Digestive disorders: gastritis, gastric ulcers,
irritable bowel syndrome and other digestive
inflammatory disorders

Stress related disorders

 Skin disorders: psoriasis, alergies
 Asthma
 Diabetes
 Eating disorders: under acute stress,
anorexia; under chronic stress, obesity;
 Psychiatric disorders: PTSD, adjustment
disorders, depression, anxiety, substance
abuse, panic attacks
 Sexual disorders
 Gum diseases
 Brittle nails and hair loss
Exercise: what is training
Hormones and resistance exercise
 the level of chronic exposure to exercise is
one of the most potent factors influencing
the neuroendocrine stress response to an
acute exercise session
 as a person becomes more regular and
chronic in their exercise pattern, the
neuroendocrine stress response to
exercise becomes attenuated

Exercise stress as adaptation to

any stress
 This greater hormonal responsiveness
after exercise training appears to be due
to both the fact that the absolute
workload necessary to elicit a maximal
response is much greater and to there
being a glandular adaptation resulting in
an enhanced hormonal secretory capacity

Exercise stress as adaptation to

any stress
 evidence supports an abatement of the
neuroendocrine response to other life
stressors by exposure to exercise training.
 Traustadottir and colleagues examined two
groups of adult women who were subjected
to a standardized psychosocial stressor.
 the cortisol response to the stressor was
substantially lower in the physically more
active women compared with those who were
more sedentary

Exercise stress as adaptation to

any stress
 The suggestion that exercise may have a
carry-over effect on the acute stress
response to other stressors suggests
physical exercise could, perhaps, be part
of an intervention strategy to deal with
some chronic stress-related health
problems in the young and old alike.

Exercise stress as adaptation to

any stress