Psychological Stress & Training
Stress. It’s a word we’ve all used to describe life more than once. There are many contributing factors- family issues, relationship issues, workload, mental health, lack of sleep or proper nutrition, transition periods, finances, politics, and what have you. Being a human on this earth is difficult (for many reasons), and that can easily take a toll on you.
By nature of existence and depending on the circumstances, we experience hardship, struggle, and shitty mental health to a certain degree and frequency. Acknowledge how and when this shows up for you as an athlete. If unaddressed in training, stress-related reductions in performance can contribute to the load you're already taking on.
Of course, stress exists on a spectrum and impacts individuals in different ways. How you respond, how your body reacts, how your habits and overall well being change- will depend on you. As an athlete, it’s a part of your experience, especially in a hobby sport where your external responsibilities & duties are endless. External factors, psychological conditions, are an essential conversation for sustainable success and enjoyment of this sport- so that you can better understand your body, how to adapt, and how to adjust your mentality/expectations. Stress can potentially decrease your performance, but it doesn’t have to ruin you, either- and can add fuel to your fire, depending on how you respond & cope.
Potential training-related Implications of Stress
Decreased Recovery
When we discuss “recovery” as an overarching topic, the typical thought process is related to the physical:
How your body feels,
How sore you are,
how tired you feel,
whether you’re in pain, etc.
We assume that our mental capacity is infinite, but our physical barrier is far more limited. Even further than acute recovery fluctuations, “overtraining” and “fatigue” are almost always conceptualized on a physical level.
With this mentality,
-If you’re “overtraining,” it’s because you lifted too heavy/too frequently/with too much volume- and you’ve damaged your muscles/tendons/ligaments’ ability to recover,
-If you’re fatigued, your body is exhausted from the work it's performed.
Yet, this is not an entirely accurate depiction. Most Powerlifting athletes are not at risk of “overtraining” on a physical level. Overtraining is a chronic, long-lasting condition that occurs for weeks, impacting your performance for multiple consecutive blocks. We don’t see examples of lifters training 6 days a week, with high intensities and volumes daily, pushing past every warning sign for weeks on end. Your body's physical structure can likely recover from more than you give it credit for.
But we don’t exist in a vacuum. What further decreases your capacity is your mental load & external stress. If you removed work, social events, relationship issues, financial instability, and your sole purpose was to sleep 8-9 hours per night, eat consistently 3-5x/day, and train hard almost daily- you’d be able to handle more weight, volume, and intensity. Yet, that is the reality of literally no one, so it’s an irrelevant example.
Psychological stress influences recovery more than you may realize. When you’ve spent 8 hours outsourcing your energy, using your brain for various tasks, and supporting everyone around you, you’re not fresh going into a training session.
Especially when:
consumed by anxiety over relationships,
worried about the world and your current state,
experiencing a direct stressor such as divorce, eviction, etc. (as examples),
The energy you have left & the ability to switch your brain to athlete mode- is limited.
You cannot fully, with 100% capacity, show up for yourself as an athlete. And that is OK. Because you can keep getting better even though your threshold is limited. We can get strong and adapt to a variety of conditions.
When your bandwidth decreases, know and acknowledge that. It’s important to be aware of the situation. The potential effects there will include:
more fatigue post-training sessions,
RPE increases,
lower ability to exert effort and psych yourself up,
and more difficulty in focusing & feeling excited about the gym.
Everything may feel harder & your ability to tolerate & respond to higher-intensity training sessions can decrease- but you can still train.
Being mindful of how you feel,
adjusting your expectations,
and continuing to put forth effort-
will pay off in the long run, both physically and mentally.
Understand that Psychological fatigue is not a “willpower” or “weakness” issue. Mental struggles are not less valid than physical ones- and can occur on a greater scale & degree. Their impact can run more widespread & significant than physical pain or injury. You cannot "mental gymnastics" or grit through every stressor that arises- and attempting to will only leave you further beat up and disappointed. Acknowledge your bandwidth, know how that can impact you, and prepare to modify and work around it. And, if you find yourself chronically under-recovered, peel back those underlying layers and look for insight into why that may be.
2. Motivation/Perception of the Gym
When experiencing burnout, fatigue, and exhaustion, feeling inspired or excited about the gym may be absent. What once was the highlight, the joy of your day may now be a dreaded task of necessity. When energy is zapped and consumed by everything else, your enjoyment of typical hobbies can drastically change.
Where you’re at in your training journey, your current goals, your community, and how you’re addressing stress- can all impact whether your perception changes and how you view training in your current phase of life. Periods of difficult mental health or exhaustion influence how you experience “non-essential” aspects of your life.
During this time, be aware of how you feel going into the gym vs. coming out of a session. None of us will ever feel amazing, stoked, or thrilled 100% of the time, but most of your training sessions should leave you feeling better than when you came in, serving an overall net positive in your life. If training becomes a chore, where you’re forcing yourself to go through the motions of every movement, a zombie searching for an escape out of that prison- you have some things to address.
Don’t expect to go back to feeling over the moon excited: motivated by PR goals with high, consistent energy when you’re going through a difficult period, but look for ways to derive more spark from the gym.
Maybe it’s temporarily decreasing your training frequency, or for others- further prioritizing and blocking that time off for yourself.
Your training sessions could be quieter, with headphones and efficiency, so you can focus on recharging your batteries, or maybe you get energy from your teammates- and lean on that support system.
Allow your goals to shift: If you’re in a meet prep, this may include further grasping onto those numbers you’re chasing, using them as drive and fulfillment daily. Or, you may need a pivot- re-focusing on goals that excite you, potentially a different style of movement, more volume, new variations, whatever helps you keep coming back.
Motivation in the gym will never be consistent through all phases of life- yet it should remain beneficial to you, even when your drive is lower. When these symptoms arise, go through an internal check-in. Find ways to continue training and make the process more bearable and accessible for yourself.
Reframing Your Training
For some athletes, psychological stress can become a strength. It’s important to be intentional when discussing mental health struggles- and understand that they can represent resilience and empowerment. It's well-documented in the research* that strength training can reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress in both adolescents and adults*. Human bodies and brains are incredibly adaptable and capable, and we possess a significant ability to progress, grow, and sustain ourselves through even the most pressing phases of life. Battling with hardship outside of the gym can represent your true strength & help you tackle those issues inside of it, and vice versa:
Standing up through a grindy, nearly impossible squat shows tenacity, grit, and badassery.
Putting yourself in new environments & leaving negative ones (such as starting a business or quitting a corporate job) represent these same qualities. The scenarios & processes involved are extremely different, yet both can serve as examples of self-efficacy and strength.
Using Your Conditions To Uplift Your Performance
The gym & training can take on different meanings as life ebbs and flows. This perspective can depend not only on what your current goals & programming look like but also on what you’re dealing with outside of that. Training is an area of life where you have complete agency and autonomy over that choice- and can deliberately use it to your advantage. Determine what feels the most supportive to your brain.
What deeper meaning provides the foundation for your training work?
How do lifts connect to other aspects of your life?
What do you want to receive from training within the next few months?
What emotion helps you cope, and how can you bring that into your lifts?
Use the gym as an example of your strengths, whatever you’re dealing with.
It can take on the one place of your life where you get to feel empowerment and success when everything else seems up-in-the-air chaotic.
It can become a place to release, to be fully present, to remove the mask you put on elsewhere, and to express your emotions authentically, without judgment.
The determination and stubbornness you show in other areas, how you’ve had to fight through a depressive episode or recover from a breakup, can allow you to recognize the deep layers of power, fortitude, and endurance inside- that you weren’t even aware of.
Channel that same energy into your lifts.
Our most difficult times can become our most reflective, insightful, and prosperous ones as athletes- because the ability to continue such a disciplinary practice during struggle- shows a level of spirit, will, and dedication- that can lead to beautiful outcomes. The yearning for joy and satisfaction through dark periods only increases, and the gym can be a direct outlet for finding that. You learn a lot about yourself in this process, and seeing continual growth when stress is high can shatter self-limiting beliefs. These markers provide evidence to the contrary when experiencing doubt in your abilities. We only have current data points to draw from, and when you create positive ones in the gym, surprising yourself with your efforts, that carries over elsewhere.
Essentially, give yourself grace when you’re having off days & that shows up in your performance, but don’t disempower yourself into believing you can’t achieve or succeed when things are hard- in fact, the opposite may be true.
It’s profound how your journey as an athlete can shift and grow during these phases. Let yourself experience that in whatever way possible.
2. Finding Comfort In Routine & Familiarity
When control and grounding are lacking in other areas of life, the gym can provide that.
It’s predictable. That’s one of the most comforting aspects of Powerlifting. We switch things up periodically, but you know what you’re doing in the gym. These lifts are practiced, meditative, something your body remembers even when you feel like you don’t.
Moving your body, especially in a way that allows you to feel comfortable and confident in your abilities over time, can help you cope and derive relief.
When you feel insecure about your abilities elsewhere,
When you’re desperately longing for stability and calm,
Prioritizing a space where things feel familiar, routine, and memorable- allows you to handle those less controllable variables outside of it.
Try to set aside the gym as a place of pure focus.
In each set, you’re solely thinking about your body and your cues, fully drawn to what’s occurring in the movement:
Letting yourself recover between sets, removing distractions,
Keeping rest periods timed, not responding to texts or work messages between sets,
Listening to music or drowning it out, depending on what helps,
and letting the goal/priority remain on you, how you feel, doing productive work, and connecting to yourself during that process.
It can be hard to make this switch when you’re directly transitioning from a stressful environment, so use your warm-up to recenter yourself. Play some music as you mobilize, progressively ready yourself for your session, with each set building up to the next & thinking ahead to what your focus is, etc. Give yourself time to prepare.
When you’re distracted, your brain flying in every other direction during the ascent of your movements, responding to this and that email before you complete your next set, planning out your day for tomorrow, texting back a million people, you won’t gain that same sense of comfort and stability. It’ll only add to the stress you’re taking on. Try and separate, break away, dissociate from all of those external factors when you walk into the training hall- and it’ll take on a new meaning.
-
Stress is an unavoidable aspect of life for literally everyone, and sometimes hits us harder than others- due to many factors. The events outside the gym can draw parallels (or oppose) how you feel inside, partially depending on how you cope, your recovery habits, your response to circumstances, and your current goals. Know that recovery & motivation can be more sensitive during these times, and allow yourself to adjust and adapt if that’s the case. Maybe that means changing expectations and current programming to better suit your phase of life. Yet, it’s important to prevent this self-fulfilling prophecy, as that deprives you of the potential benefit & release you can gain from training during difficult periods. Your lifts can become your source of self-fulfillment, accomplishment, comfort, stability, and catharsis: depending on how you view them. Set intentions and goals that feel meaningful to you in the moment. Be deliberate about how you treat your training sessions, creating that environment for yourself- so that you continue finding success and positivity through that outlet. While stress decreases our bandwidth, capacity, and enjoyment- how we approach and deal with those situations also reveals a lot of strength and tenacity- which carries over to the gym.
*Relevant References:
-Effects of Strength Training on Adolescents’ Mental Health: Barahona-Fuentes G, Huerta Ojeda Á, Chirosa-Ríos L. Effects of Training with Different Modes of Strength Intervention on Psychosocial Disorders in Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Sep 8;18(18):9477. doi: 10.3390/ijerph1818947. PMID: 34574400; PMCID: PMC8471285.
-Comparing Different Exercise Interventions’ Impact on Depression: Zhang Y, Li G, Liu C, Guan J, Zhang Y, Shi Z. Comparing the efficacy of different types of exercise for the treatment and prevention of depression in youths: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. Front Psychiatry. 2023 Jun 2;14:1199510. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1199510. PMID: 37333923; PMCID: PMC10272399.
-Efficacy Of Resistance Training on Depression Symptoms: Gordon BR, McDowell CP, Hallgren M, Meyer JD, Lyons M, Herring MP. Association of Efficacy of Resistance Exercise Training With Depressive Symptoms: Meta-analysis and Meta-regression Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials. JAMA Psychiatry. 2018 Jun 1;75(6):566-576. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.0572. PMID: 29800984; PMCID: PMC6137526.
