The Relentless Sabertooth - How to combat the stress of modern life

30 seconds...

That's how long stress is "supposed" to last.

Either the Sabertooth eats you or you get away. Then you shake it off and life continues on.

But modern life brings with it the specter of The Relentless Sabertooth. Nowadays, the pursuit of the predator is endless. A bad boss, a negative friend, a looming deadline, a deteriorating marriage, a financial tight spot, and any number of other sources of stress mean we've always got a tiger staring us down.

Did you notice my use of the term "shake it off"? It's no accident of etymology. If you watch an animal who has been startled into great attentiveness and then decides there's no threat after all, you'll see them shake off the tension before they return to whatever it is they were doing.

We were meant to do the same thing. But as with so many other natural gifts of movement we were given, for the most part we've abandoned this practice to societal convention.

After all, it would look weird if we actually shook off the tension after being reamed out by our boss, right? Sure. Except by not doing it, we're holding onto that tension - storing it up to cause trouble for us down the road.

What are the negative consequences of chronic stress?

Among other things, if you ignore your daily stress you'll be able to look forward to:

• Disrupted learning - Chronic stress affects your ability to think and learn. Children from emotionally stable homes have better success rates at school. Stress-unchecked-even affects your memory.
• Weakened immune function - If you don't deal with your stress, you'll get sick more often. A great book to learn more about this is Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers.
• Increased disease risk - Chronic stress also sets in motion a series of physiological processes which predispose you to many of the diseases of civilization-heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, etc.

Two things you can do about it, today...

• Shake it off - Everyone I introduce to Scott Sonnon's vibration drills feels silly when they first try it. But then they get addicted. The most comprehensive guide to CST vibration drills is the RESET dvd. The concepts are presented mainly as they relate to sports performance, but the techniques are brilliant for sloughing off your daily stress.
• Find balance - Practice Prasara Yoga. It helps to realign your structure. Stress is accompanied by superfluous muscle tension. If left unchecked, this leads to pairings of short & tight muscle and connective tissue pitted against lengthened and loose tissues.

Sample Vibration Drills

(from my buddy John Sifferman)
 

Follow-Along Prasara Yoga Sequence

Comments

[Lillea Woodlyns]

This is great advice! I just realised I've been doing something like vibration drills after certain kinds of exercise because it truly does shake out the tension - it just seemed natural to shake like that! I also have shaken a bit when I've had trouble sleeping. I do it while lying in bed and it really helps!

[Adam Steer]

Lillea - Glad you found this useful. You should check out Scott Sonnon's RESET dvd. There's tons of useful information in there!

Cheers,
Adam

[Hugo]

Great stuff, thanks Adam. You mentioned this on BER, I've been working them in between sets, it's a big help.

[Wil]

Truly a great post, Adam... your expression of CST as it relates to stress here is probably the best I've read!

Thanks!

[Adam Steer]

Hugo - Vibration drills are a Godsend for high intensity metcon!!

Wil - Thanks man!!

[Alex Katsanos]

Hey Coach Steer,

Interesting vibration drills. Huge CST fan may get my CST someday...I'm also a Trager practitioner and we love to shake our selves and people like that. Also we add an inquiry question while we shake each part. "How can it be lighter? How can it be more free?" It stimulates the Vagus nerve which is part of the para-sympathic nervous system relaxing you.

[Adam Steer]

Hey Alex - glad you dropped by. Thanks for taking the time to add to the conversation. Sounds quite interesting. I'll have to look into Trager. I've read a bit about it but haven't yet taken the time to dig around.

Cheers,
Adam

[Enlarge Maxx]

The best way to combat modern day stress is doing yoga. Yoga has what it takes to be the best treatment therapy.