You work long hours, not enough sleep, you’re stressed out, and that high intensity workout is the only thing that keeps you going. I get it, and we’ve all been there and will flow in and out of states of stress. The key is properly managing and working around that stress.

If you’re already in a high stress environment, then adding a high intensity workout may actually be detrimental to you. Some people get stuck in that “fight or flight” or sympathetic response all day every day, which is problematic. The opposite being the “rest and digest” or parasympathetic response. This is when we’re much calmer, not feeling that go, go, go mentality, and have a lower stress environment.

So we have all this extra stress, and yes the workouts may be helping you manage or cope with things, but we need to be strategic. With more stress, you want to put less on the body to yield a good response because at a certain point, adding stress on top of stress is doing more harm than good. So if you’re having a high stress day, maybe just go on a walk or lighter jog. You could still weight train, but a lot lighter than normal. You’re not going to be PR’ing that day. Do a lighter lift, stretch longer, work on mobility and range of motion. Longer stretches and holds can also calm the central nervous system back down, as it’s giving the body the relax and lengthen response. It’s not getting ready to do work.

When you have the high stress days and still need that workout, go in with the objective of coming out lighter. Release the stress, but let’s work on doing it properly rather than hammering ourselves into the ground. It may be a badge of honor to always go as hard as you can, but that’s not going to serve your body well long term. Let’s be nice to ourselves, because that’s an OK thing to do.