You're Not Lazy, You're Just Stressed: The Connection Between Stress and Exercise

    Everyone thinks that the only reason why people don't want to workout is because they are lazy, but what's the real reason? What is causing people to stray away and lack any form of motivation to exercise? Well, it is evident that humans are complex beings, so there isn't a single answer to this question. However, one possible answer that is mentioned and is backed by studies is the idea of being too stressed out. According to a study by Buhr et al. (2023) that was done on rats, being exposed to some type of stress or trauma caused a change in the rats' brain chemicals, which in return, made the rats less physically active. Another study by Yoon et al. (2023) that was done on the same topic but with humans found that there is indeed a connection between being stressed out, and a lack of exercise. If we take this all into account, it is safe to claim that one of the most important reasons for someone to become less physically active is being exposed to or is currently going through a stressful event or events.

    The study that was done by Buhr et al. (2023) had two goals in mind. One was to see whether stress actually causes a lack of exercise and if the severity of the stress mattered, and the second goal was to see if stress causes a change in the brain chemistry and a change in how the muscles react during exercise. This was tested by having the rats be electrically shocked, which was their way of creating stress, on their tails using three different amounts: 0 tail shocks, 50 tail shocks, and 100 tail shocks. The results showed that the more the rats were shocked, the less they wanted to exercise. It also showed that their dopaminergic levels decreased, which is responsible for up regulating motivation (Buhr et al., 2023). Lastly, the rats' muscles saw an increase of oxidative stress, which made their muscles fatigue faster (Buhr et al., 2023). In other words, when the rats experienced a traumatic experience, they lost motivation and their muscles could not properly recover quick enough, which made it harder for them to continue exercising.

     Very interesting study, but now I wanted to see if something similar was conducted with humans. The study by Yoon et al. (2023) did exactly that. It is a self-reported study where the researchers gathered three groups of people. One group was for those who reported that their life was filled with "very severe" or "severe" amounts of stress, the next was for those who reported their stress as "moderate", and the last group of people was for those who reported their stress as "slight" or "very slight". There they had each of these groups commit to exercising for 30 minutes at least once a week. The results showed that those who reported "moderate", "very severe", or "severe" amounts of stress exercised less than those who only had "slight" or "very slight" amounts of stress. Essentially, the more stress someone has, the less likely they will want to workout. The study explained that stress reduces motivation, and increases feelings of weakness and fatigue (Yoon et al., 2023). Also, those who are under stress tend to not have an adequate amount of self-regulatory resources, which further makes someone want to avoid any type of physical activity (Yoon et al., 2023).

    Both of these studies are extremely important as they spread awareness to those who believe that their stress won't have a direct negative effect on their activity levels. The problem with not knowing this information will unfortunately allow those people to sink deeper and deeper into their sedentary lifestyle. A sedentary lifestyle is an extremely unhealthy way to live. It causes you to have an increased rate of dying early, lower your energy levels, increase your weight, and your fitness levels will drop as well. This is why studies like these are great as they provide helpful information that will benefit millions of people. 

    Overall, stress is a problem when it comes to wanting to be physically fit. The study from Buhr et al. (2023) found that stress makes someone less motivated and causes their muscles to have a hard time recovering, which will make them fatigue faster than normal. Moreover, the study from Yoon et al. (2023), also found that stress causes a lack of motivation and a sense of feeling weaker and more tired. When you allow the stress to win you over, you won't even realize it, and by then it'll be too hard to get back up. This is why it is important to be educated on the negative effects of being stressed out when it comes to your physical fitness.     

                                                                    References

• Buhr TJ, Reed CH, Wee OM, Lee JH, Yuan L-L, Fleshner M, Valentine RJ and Clark PJ (2023) The persistence of stress-induced physical inactivity in rats: an investigation of central monoamine neurotransmitters and skeletal muscle oxidative stress. Front. Behav. Neurosci. 17:1169151. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1169151
• Yoon, E. S., So, W.-Y., & Jang, S. (2023). Association between Perceived Psychological Stress and Exercise Behaviors: A Cross-Sectional Study Using the Survey of National Physical Fitness. Life, 13(10), 2059. https://doi.org/10.3390/life13102059