How Stress Impacts Your Abs

With today’s frenzied, fast-paced lifestyles, it’s no wonder that a vast majority of us are under some level of stress as we go about our everyday tasks and activities. There are plenty of catalysts for stress: career concerns, fights with family members, tight schedules, and a lack of “me time,” just to name a few. While some stressors can be good for us, helping to foster a sense of activity and urgency and making us feel needed, it’s a commonly recognized fact that too much stress can have a negative impact on our health.

Stress has been linked to a weakening of the immune system, making us more susceptible to a range of illnesses, as well as an escalation of blood pressure and increased frequency of headaches. But what many don’t know is that stress can also have a negative impact on your efforts to obtain a flat washboard stomach.

The link between stress and the stomach may not seem like a direct one, but there are a surprising number of negative correlations:

• Some studies have linked workplace stress to metabolic syndrome, which encompasses such afflictions as high blood pressure, inefficient burning of glucose, an expanded waist size, and escalated levels of fat and cholesterol in the body. Together, these symptoms can be detrimental to your efforts to achieve a trim tummy.

• High levels of stress can cause serious digestive problems and a bloating of the midsection, which prevents the “six-pack” abdominals we all covet.

• Muscle tension and back pain are common side effects of stress. These afflictions can negatively impact the effectiveness and frequency of your abdominal exercises, preventing you from gleaning maximum benefits. Muscle pain can also make it impossible to perform the supplementary cardio workouts that are necessary to burn the fat stored around the midsection.

• Stress can cause dizziness or lightheadedness, which can cut your stomach workouts and cardio routines short.

• A general lack of energy and sense of fatigue are common complaints of those under stress. If you’re tired and lethargic, it’s much more difficult to find the motivation to complete an abdominal workout, or, for that matter, any exercise.

• An indirect impact of stress comes with many people’s methods of coping with it. In the face of anxiety or tension, some may resort to unhealthy “solutions”, such as consuming junk food, bingeing on caffeine and sugar, eating too much, and smoking.

Luckily for you (and your abs), there are certain things you can do to lessen your levels of stress. Among them are getting a good night’s sleep each night, observing healthy eating habits, avoiding nicotine and alcohol, maintaining a positive and optimistic viewpoint, taking steps to reduce job stress, scheduling time out of your busy schedule to focus on yourself, and exercising regularly.

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