Does Exercise Cause Stress?

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

The question “Does exercise cause stress?” needs to be assessed as to whether the stress is physical stress or mental stress.

The human body is an amazing design, it allows you to breath and digest food.  Your immune system cells are working to keep you well.  Your skin is being constantly renewed as is your skeleton.  Your brain is, hopefully, working for you and this is made mainly of fat and water and relies on vitamins and minerals for its function.

We need food to give us the energy for all these complex processes, to keep us warm and undertake a wide range of physical activities.

We only tend to think about our bodies when we become unwell.  If we abuse our bodies we cannot be sure what is going on inside.  If we smoke or drink lots of coffee the body learns to protect itself, combine this with exercise the body could be in a stressful state inside and we cannot see inside.

So, “Does exercise cause stress?” it will depend upon your diet and lifestyle before you started exercising.

When you start your chosen form of exercise you need to start gently and build up, allowing your body to adapt.  Don’t be like my husband who still imagines he is as fit as he was in the Army 20 years ago.  He is carrying an extra 10 kilos in weight and he starts running.

After 10 minutes he returns in such a bad way he never goes again.  He would be better to start brisk walking and then build up slowly running for a minute and walking for a minute and so on.

In his case the question does exercise cause stress the answer is yes.  To fold, one in that his body was stressed – raised heartbeat, sweating, cramps and secondly he was mentally stressed because he realized he wasn’t as young and fit as he once was!

So, whether you are going for gold or just excited for fun you need to get in shape gradually and eat properly.  There are lots of healthy eating tips and you can read my articles on natural remedies for stress and stress eating tips to find out.

If you are exercising hard you will need to focus on fuel foods.  These include grains such as bread, breakfast cereal, pasta, rice, noodles and couscous, there is an enormous variety of fruits, starchy vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn) and legumes.

Develop good drinking habits in advance. 

Sweating is the body’s way of getting rid of heat generated by exercise.  All these fluids must be replaced to prevent dehydration and less chance for exercise to cause stress to the body.  If the dehydrated your work output will drop and concentration deteriorates.

You can weigh yourself before and after exercise, changes will not refer to lost weight and only to lost fluid or dehydration.  Each 1 kg of body weight ‘lost’ is equal to 1 litre of fluid.

Drink as often as is practical during exercise to keep fluid deficit to one kilo or less and avoid the question does exercise cause stress.  Because no it need not.

I can recommend a good sports drink and this is a practical way to refuel and rehydrate during exercise and it tops up your nutritional needs.  Just leave a comment below and I will get back to you.

So, does exercise cause stress?  It can do if you are not properly prepared but if you take notice of building up fitness, eating the right diet, drinking plenty of fluids it will make you feel really good and free from mental and physical stresses.