Exercise is a form of stress relief.
Countless studies have worked to prove that exercise in a variety of forms has the capability of reducing stress levels in the average person. From aerobics, to yoga, to progressive muscle relaxation, exercise can help to reduce stress levels. The general consensus is that after 20-to-30 minutes of low-impact aerobic exercise, we're likely to be less stressed.
This is all great but what happens when you're not one of the typical, sedentary individuals who these studies are targeted at? Instead, you're the triathlete who trains 15+ hours a week on top of a full time job. Does the same rule of thumb apply?
The answer: not a chance.
Stress is stress.
Your body and mind can't necessarily tell the difference between types of stress. Stress will always be stress. And while some stress is good for you, there's a balancing act that comes with being an athlete.
As an athlete, we balance training along side work, family, relationships, sleep, nutrition, and finances. All of which incur stress.
The distinction we have to make is that the physical stress from training is not different from the psychological stress from everything else.
And the stress incurred from 15+ hours of elite-style training is far and above that of 20-to-30 minutes of simple aerobic exercise. As athletes, we have to avoid the trap that is assuming exercise is always a stress-reliever, and truly acknowledge our limits as human beings. Acknowledging our limits, our short-comings, is never easy and this is especially true for athletes striving to be perform at the top of their game, or within their respective sport.
Training is a vicious cycle.
Stress management through elite training is a vicious cycle that we are destined to lose. Sort of like adding fuel to the fire that we so desperately want to put out. We so often focus on the benefits of exercise, that it's hard to accept that exercise can also result in "mood disturbance and worsened physical health" when not prescribed (or programmed) within the beneficial limits of the individual athlete. The tricky part is knowing those limits.
Extreme cases of overtraining may even result in what is known as staleness syndrome. This is a condition where, without warning, an athlete experiences a decline in performance and tailspins into a behavioral changes as extreme as clinically diagnosed depression.
The solution: take a look at which stressors we have control over and those that we don't.
Adjustments will need to be made. And they might not be the ones that we want. This may cause discomfort, but in the long run, it'll likely lead to a sustainable training program that balances our competitive edge against our mental health.
There are certain forms of stress that we likely don't have as much control over:
Work responsibilities
School schedules
Family
On the other hand, there are certain stressors that we will have control over, such as:
Our sleep schedule
Meal-prepping
Training schedule (yes, it is okay to skip a workout *gasp*)
All in all, we may not be able to reduce stress from certain areas of our life but we can in others. Making that decision, that choice, to actively remove a passion from our daily life is no easy feat.
As dedicated athletes we have the ill-fated assumption that our lives are less if we don't have training in our lives. In some weird way, we're utterly dependent on the need for training, as if our entire world will collapse without it. Cutting a workout short, or cutting one out entirely, won't be the end of the world. In all likelihood, we'll probably benefit from it.
References
Colangelo, J. Life Stress, Work Stress, Training Stress--Your Body Can't Tell the Difference. Trail Runner, 2022. https://www.trailrunnermag.com/training/life-stress-work-stress-training-stress-your-body-cant-tell-the-difference
Exercising to relax. Harvard Health Publishing, 2020.
Jackson, Erica M. Ph.D., FACSM STRESS RELIEF, ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal: May/June 2013 - Volume 17 - Issue 3 - p 14-19 doi: 10.1249/FIT.0b013e31828cb1c9
Raglin, J.S. Exercise and Mental Health. Sports Med 9, 323–329 (1990). https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-199009060-00001
Selna, Elaine. How Some Stress Can Actually Be Good For You. TIME, 2018. https://time.com/5434826/stress-good-health/
Weiss, R. STALENESS SYNDROME. The Washington Post, 1995. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/wellness/1995/08/08/staleness-syndrome/2dcaf770-0349-4f00-b9ff-46ab1faeb384/