One issue that has seen a lot of attention in recent years is stress; specifically, how bad it is for you. Now, I don’t think anyone has ever thought stress was *good* for you, but the last 10 years have brought increased awareness of just how bad it can be. A short list of issues might include headaches, lack of sleep, difficulty recovering from illness, and weight gain. So it’s no surprise that poor athletic performance might get added to that list. Now, of all the things that cortisol (the stress or “fight or flight” hormone) does to you, the one *good* thing it does is provide a short-term boost to certain kinds of athletic performance. That’s the fight or flight part; in theory, you can outrun a tiger, lift a car off your baby, that sort of thing. That’s why sometimes athletes “get up” for big games. But most of the effects of stress - even for athletes - are bad. Cortisol is like a payday loan; you borrow against your future athletic performance at a really high rate of interest. If and when you can’t pay back that “stress loan”, you can spiral further and further into an athletic performance deficit. Now, the good news is that exercise also is a good way of getting out the stress spiral. Exercise can “burn off” stress, enable better sleep, and just get your mind off things. So if you’re stressed, by all means keep exercising. But if your goal is peak athletic performance, managing your stress level has to be one of the tools in your toolbox, right next to nutrition and sleep. This is one of the reasons why choosing workouts you actually enjoy is important; we have enough stress in our lives, who needs it at the gym? Certainly I don’t. Over the last few days, I’ve had occasion to really notice stress and its impact on athletic performance in my own life. My job has been very stressful the last week or so as the result of a few bad decisions made by my coworkers, and that stress has started to spill over into the exercise studio. The other day I showed up for a spin class and I could barely even get through the set; my mind was elsewhere, and so was my body. I could almost *feel* the disconnect between my muscles, nerves and the intention centers of my brain. Again, exercise can help with this problem, but best not to have it in the first place. Of course, the issue is: how to avoid stress? Well, that’s a tough one, of course; living an intentional life, nutrition, sleep, meditation, all are good practices. I’ll have more to say about each of these topics later. For the moment, it suffices to add one more reason to avoid stress: your athletic performance.