This document discusses stress and physical activity. It notes that while scientific research is important, practitioners must bridge gaps in knowledge. Exercise has been shown to positively impact responses to psychosocial stress. The neuroendocrinology of stress and exercise is complex, involving many systems. A balanced approach that combines established frameworks with tailored experiences for individuals is recommended.

2. Stress and Physical Activity

3. Abundant scientific evidence

5. Problems
 Experimental studies use endurance exercise only
 Neuro-endocrine acute and chronic response to
exercise varies according to type of exercise (strength
X endurance)
 Stress involves an extremely complex chain of neuro-
endocrine events and studies may only measure a
few
 Emphasis on cardio-vascular response, adrenal
response or inflammation varies according to the
current focus of the medical research community

6. How to deal with the problems
 Scientific research must be the foundation of
health decisions (“evidence-based medicine”),
but science offers provisional truth and limited
scope
 It is up to front line practitioners – physicians,
coaches and other health science related
professionals – to bridge this gap
 Deal with the basic facts:
◦ 1. exercise has a positive effect on the response to
psycho-social stress

7.  Deal with the basic facts:
◦ 2. What we know about the neuro-endocrinology of
stress and what we can measure
◦ 3. What we know about neuro-endocrinology of exercise,
exercise physiology and conditioning research
 A balance between working within a framework
and experimenting:
◦ 1. Some exercise must be done (adopted framework)
◦ 2. Try what works best for each person

8. Conditioning classes: strength resistance, agility, power, cardio-
vascular endurance, etc

9. Strength sports:
-Strength
-Power
-Proprioception

10. Dance: agility, coordination, cardio-respiratory conditioning,
strength

11. Track and field: speed, power, cardio-vascular endurance,
agility, coordination

12. Volleyball, basketball, soccer and other ball team sports: speed,
agility, coordination, social skills, power

13. Fights: strength, power, agility, coordination, space perception,
reaction time, etc

14. What is stress
 “a real or interpreted threat to the physiological
or psychological integrity (i.e., homeostasis) of
an individual that results in physiological and/or
behavioral responses” (McEwen 2005)
 Any stimulus that provokes a shift from the
optimal functioning of the main systems that
ensure the organism’s survival and reproduction
in a state of least disturbance, also known as
homeostasis (me)

15.  Stress is not unique to animals or even eucaryotes.
Any living creature is vulnerable and reacts to stress
 Stress is not “good” or “bad”: it is an element of the
relation between the organism and the environment
 Stress can be acute or chronic
 All living organisms live in a permanent state of being
disturbed and reacting to such environmental
disturbances => the stress reaction system is central
to the survival of any organism

23. Types of distress: acute
 Acute distress: accidents; death of a
loved one; acute illness; violent attacks
and assault; intoxication; infection; loss
of job; divorce; climatic catastrophes;
extreme heat; extreme cold; terrorist
attack; dehydration

24. Types of distress: chronic
 Chronic distress:
◦ Job related: underrecognition; long term unemployment;
job dissatisfaction; excessive responsibility;
◦ Relationship related: abuse; chronic failure to
communicate, mistrust
◦ Environmental: long term exposure to toxic substances;
excessive heat; excessive humidity;
◦ Food inadequacy: long term malnutrition/desnutrition;
long term use of food that causes intolerance
◦ Religious and ethnic conflict; other types of endemic
social conflict

25. Allostasis and Adaptation
 Allostasis and allostatic load
 allostasis is stability through change -
mechanisms attempt to change the
controlled variable by predicting what
level will be needed
 allostatic load refers to the price the body
pays for being forced to constantly adapt
to adverse stressful (psychophysiological)
events

26. General adaptation syndrome
 General adaptation syndrome (GAS) is
the predictable way the body responses to
stress as described by Hans Selye (1907-
1982). First published in 1936
 The first physical conditioning models were
based on adaptation research
 Later research and theories proposed
that stress could be negative or positive
and manipulated to generate desired
results

27. GAS curve

31. Some of the processes causing
disease

32. Stress related disorders
 Cardio vascular disease, high blood pressure
 Immune system disorders: auto-imune
disorders; frequent infections; micro-infection
syndromes (fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue
syndrome?); Crohn’s disease
 Inflammatory disorders: Crohn’s disease, other
digestive inflammatory disorders
 Vulnerability to muscoloskelletal injury and
disorders
 Digestive disorders: gastritis, gastric ulcers,
irritable bowel syndrome and other digestive
inflammatory disorders

33.  Skin disorders: psoriasis, alergies
 Asthma
 Diabetes
 Eating disorders: under acute stress,
anorexia; under chronic stress, obesity;
 Psychiatric disorders: PTSD, adjustment
disorders, depression, anxiety, substance
abuse, panic attacks
 Sexual disorders
 Gum diseases
 Brittle nails and hair loss

34. Exercise: what is training

36. Hormones and resistance exercise

37. Exercise stress as adaptation to
any stress
 the level of chronic exposure to exercise is
one of the most potent factors influencing
the neuroendocrine stress response to an
acute exercise session
 as a person becomes more regular and
chronic in their exercise pattern, the
neuroendocrine stress response to
exercise becomes attenuated

38. Exercise stress as adaptation to
any stress
 This greater hormonal responsiveness
after exercise training appears to be due
to both the fact that the absolute
workload necessary to elicit a maximal
response is much greater and to there
being a glandular adaptation resulting in
an enhanced hormonal secretory capacity

39. Exercise stress as adaptation to
any stress
 evidence supports an abatement of the
neuroendocrine response to other life
stressors by exposure to exercise training.
 Traustadottir and colleagues examined two
groups of adult women who were subjected
to a standardized psychosocial stressor.
 the cortisol response to the stressor was
substantially lower in the physically more
active women compared with those who were
more sedentary

40. Exercise stress as adaptation to
any stress
 The suggestion that exercise may have a
carry-over effect on the acute stress
response to other stressors suggests
physical exercise could, perhaps, be part
of an intervention strategy to deal with
some chronic stress-related health
problems in the young and old alike.