Performance Quest Fitness & Athletics: Cortisol

SATURADAY, NOVEMBER 26TH, 2011

Open Class 10:00am

Strategies for Cortisol Management and More

Sleep in a pitch black room and don't stay up late: Rsearch shows that after only two nights of inadequate sleep a person's body begins to react as if it has type II diabetes! But what is inadequate sleep? It's literally the point at which you have to wake up to an alarm instead of when your body naturally tells you to get up! The cumulative effects of this are increible when we think about how many years people go having to wake up to their alram nearly every morning. And it's not all about how much you sleep either. Just like most everything else that I teach, quality typically counts for more. Even the smallest amount of light will disrupt your meltonin production and staying up too much past dark (sunset) throws off your circadian rhythms. This mean absolutely NO LIGHT! AND THIS IS VITALLY IMPORTANT! No cell phone lights, no computer lights, no alarm clock lights and cover your windows with blackout curtains. This means no lights even if the electronics are on sleep mode. If you have to get up to go to the bathroom do your best to leave all lights off or as minimal as possible. There are a whole host of things you should/should not do before and during sleep as well. Among the most important are watch TV or sit at the computer. Read this article, 33 Sleep Aid Secrets, for some of the more important tips to get better sleep and why. Sleep may be the number one factor influencing your health. Yes, even moreso than exercise and nutrition!

Reduce your amount of stress: "All of us have a personal relationship with stress, but few of us know how it operates within us or understand how the onslaught of the modern world can stress us to the point of death!" Some stress is going to happen no matter what - it's unavoidable. However, much of the stress we deal with today affects us simply because of poor management. It is believed today that your body is wired to only be able to deal with one or two major stressors at a time! Think about the impact of this for a moment. That means that if my nutrition isn't dialed, my boss has given me a deadline on the big Szyminski account, and my relationship with my wife/husband isn't going so well that I've overextended myself. And this doesn't even take into account kids, exercise, or even the one I mentioned before - sleep. For a little more insight on stress check out these articles: Kill Your Stress...Before Your Stress Kills You!, 12 Compelling Reasons To Ditch Stress From Your Life, How To Feel Better When You're Stressed, and also consider watching this documentary titled, "Stress, Portrait Of A Killer", which my geeky self found to be extremely interesting.

Training: This includes variety, avoiding injury, not doing too much too soon, not overtraining/taking proper rest, periodization, etc.

Nutrition: Foods you have an intolerance to increase cortisol and this is a stress to your body. For more on nutrition read...MY BLOG!

Supplemental Protocol: Siberian Gensing, Macca (Adaptagen Blend), Magnesium (shuts down cortisol production), Black tea (blunts cortisol release from stressful release 50%-75%).