A workout can be a great way to unwind after a stressful day, but ruminating over that unpleasant meeting with your boss may make your exercise session less effective.
New research suggests that if your brain is tired, the rest of your body may be tired as well, because the two go hand in hand. Why is it that mental and physical fatigue are so closely connected?
Part of the answer is that physical and mental fatigue affect the same region of your brain—the anterior cingulate cortex. If that part of your brain is broadcasting “my brain is fried” signals at the end of the day, then it’s likely your muscles will be tired even before you head for the gym.
Exercising after the occasional harrowing day is unavoidable, but if you are chronically stressed, you could be seriously derailing your fitness goals. A new study in the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology found that mental burnout significantly affected physical performance.
Runners were intentionally stressed by being forced to complete a difficult computer test immediately before a 1.86-mile race (3,000-meters). The race times for runners who had taken the test were about 15 seconds slower than for the runners who hadn’t taken it.
But the deleterious effects of stress are actually farther reaching. In this article, we will review 10 ways stress can sabotage your fitness efforts. If you walk around in a semi-permanent state of overwhelm, perhaps your next workout should consist of several rounds of high-intensity stress management—instead of crunches or curls!
1. Stress Impairs Working Memory
Stress affects the part of your brain that deals with both short-term and long-term memory, and “working memory.” Working memory is what you use when you must consider multiple pieces of information at once (e.g. decision-making).
The process of thinking, perceiving, and evaluating requires your brain to have processing power—much like a computer. The more stress there is in the background, the less processing speed you will have at any given time.
If your working memory is impaired, as it is with chronic stress, even the simplest tasks become difficult, and athletic performance is no exception.
Whether you are an elite athlete or just engaging in a routine exercise class, if your brain is struggling to process information, then you'll fatigue more quickly—mentally and physically. Making matters worse, when your stress levels are high, impulsivity typically trumps patience, which is not helpful at the gym or anywhere else.
