Exercise and stress: training when the pressure is already high

What activity does for the mind

The evidence that physical activity benefits mental health is consistent. The World Health Organization's guidelines state that in adults it reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression, and improves cognitive health and sleep. The British National Health Service recommends exercise as part of the management of mild to moderate depression.

Some of the effect is immediate. A single session of moderate exercise lowers tension and improves mood for several hours. Some of it is cumulative: fitter people show smaller rises in heart rate and blood pressure under psychological stress, and recover faster afterwards.

There are plainer mechanisms too. A session is an hour during which the telephone is out of reach. It gives the day one thing that was completed. For people whose work produces few clear endings, that is worth more than it sounds.

Why the same thing can be too much

The body does not distinguish cleanly between sources of stress. A hard interval session, a night of five hours and a hostile board meeting all activate the same systems and draw on the same capacity to recover.

When total load exceeds recovery for long enough, the signs are recognisable.

• Sessions feel harder at the same pace or load.
• Sleep is poorer despite tiredness.
• Resting pulse is raised on waking. See resting heart rate.
• Minor illnesses recur.
• Mood is flat or irritable; motivation falls.

In athletes this progression is called overreaching. In executives it is usually caused less by training volume than by adding ordinary training to an extraordinary workload.

The principle: constant frequency, variable intensity

Stopping exercise during difficult periods is the common response and the wrong one. It removes the measure that most protects sleep and mood at the moment it is most needed.

The better response is to hold the habit and change the content.

• Normal weeks: train as planned, including hard sessions.
• Heavy weeks: same number of sessions, shorter and easier. Replace intervals with steady moderate work. Keep strength training with the same loads and one set fewer. See zone 2 training.
• Crisis weeks: thirty minutes of walking a day and one short strength session. See daily steps.

A morning check

The check above takes thirty seconds and asks five questions, each scored from zero to two.

1. How did you sleep?
2. How sore are your muscles?
3. How is your mood?
4. Is your resting pulse at its usual level?
5. Do you want to train?

A total of eight or more means train as planned. Five to seven means train at reduced intensity. Below five, walk, stretch or rest. It is a simplified version of the wellness questionnaires used in sport, not a medical instrument, and its value lies in being done every day so that a change stands out.

Which activities suit which state

• Wound up and restless: steady aerobic work, 30 to 45 minutes. Running, cycling, swimming. The rhythm does part of the work.
• Flat and tired: a short strength session. Lifting something heavy for a few sets is energising in a way that a long run is not.
• Unable to switch off: an activity that requires attention. Padel, tennis, boxing pads, climbing. It is difficult to rehearse an argument while returning a serve.
• Depleted: a walk outdoors, in daylight, without a telephone.

Burn-out is a different matter

The World Health Organization defines burn-out in its International Classification of Diseases as an occupational phenomenon, not a medical condition: a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It has three dimensions.

• Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion.
• Increased mental distance from one's job, or negativity and cynicism about it.
• Reduced professional efficacy.

Exercise helps with the first. It does not address the causes, which lie in the work itself, and it should not be used to extract a few more months from a situation that needs to change. Persistent exhaustion, loss of interest, or thoughts of hopelessness call for a consultation with a physician, not a new training plan.

What a week under pressure can look like

• Monday: 30 minutes of strength, two sets of each movement.
• Tuesday: 20-minute walk at lunch.
• Wednesday: 35 minutes of easy aerobic work.
• Thursday: walk.
• Friday: 30 minutes of strength.
• Weekend: one longer session outdoors, with someone else.

About two and a half hours, none of it hard, all of it protective.

The role of a coach

Under pressure, people misjudge their own state in both directions: they skip sessions they need and force sessions they should shorten. A coach who sees you twice a week notices the change before you report it, and adjusts the session in the first five minutes. That adjustment, made week after week, is much of what the coaches of the Club are for. How to get started.

If low mood, anxiety or exhaustion persist for more than two weeks, or you have thoughts of harming yourself, seek medical help without delay.