Boot camp Melbourne

The body is an amazing thing. I have a friend who is training for a marathon. he isn't a great runner - he initially struggled to run 5km, but he is now up to 30. He goes out and runs a little more each time, three times a week, it's nota  gruelling training regime but is shows us how adaptable we are.
After all, how do we get fitter, faster and stronger? We adapt. The principle of super-compensation tells us that when we put stress on our bodies and then allow periods of recovery, we over-compensate in order to adapt to the stress. Our
muscles get bigger and stronger, our heart pumps more efficiently and our neural system gets quicker [1].

This is the stress-recovery cycle and it is responsible for all the training benefits that we get when we train (and recover) properly. How does this apply to our everyday performance? Well, the good news is that this stress-recovery cycle applies to everything you do, not just physical exercise.
Let’s focus on the two key elements here – stress and recovery.

80% SYNDROME

It’s happened to everyone. You’ve been turning up to training, going through the motions, but not really pushing yourself. All of a sudden the last month of training hasn’t really shown any results. You look
back at your training diary and you have been running the same times, lifting the same weights, doing the same exercises for four weeks. No wonder the improvements haven’t materialised.

So what do you do? You give yourself a good dose of reality and vow to start pushing yourself again and, of course, you will see the benefits.
The first part of the stress-recovery cycle is obviously ‘stress’. If you don’t place your body under stress then there is no need to adapt [1]. If my friend just kept running the same 5km circuit every other day for a year, he would never be able to run 30km. This just makes sense, right?
But for many people, the reality is that they live the majority of their lives with that ‘going through the motions’ mentality. In some research from Harvard University. 100 middle managers were asked if they would take on a dream assignment even if it meant they had to do their current fi ve-day work week in the space of four in order to free up
some time for the project. Even though they all described themselves as time-poor, 99% of the managers said they would take on the project. They wouldn’t work longer hours, but they would work more effectively [2]. If they can all improve their performance at their current jobs then why don’t they?

And like most things we practise often enough, we can get really good at performing below 100%. If you are just going through the motions for eight hours a day at work, chances are that you are doing it in other parts of your life as well. People with the lowest scores in workplace engagement also show the lowest scores in overall wellbeing
and strength of relationships [3]. In my own experience with executive coaching, I have found that if people are disengaged at work, their spouses will often tell me that they are also disengaged at home. It has become a habit.

We even relax at 80%! Too many of us check work email on holidays instead of fully immersing ourselves in our recreation time. Why do we do this? Part of it is self-preservation. We have learnt in the past that going flat out is not sustainable – and it’s hard – so we try to avoid it. Other psychological studies have found that we avoid the anxiety-inducing parts of our lives (which are usually the most productive parts) by doing things that keep us busy, but aren’t
as necessary [2].
The other explanation is that our life is full of interruptions that sabotage our ability to be completely focussed. This has even been termed ‘constant partial attention’ and describes the fact that we have real trouble performing at 100% on a regular basis.

IT’S HAPPENED TO EVERYONE. YOU’VE BEEN TURNING UP TO TRAINING, GOING THROUGH THE
MOTIONS, BUT NOT REALLY PUSHING YOURSELF.”

STRESS IS GOOD

We know how to increase the stress on our bodies – we lift heavier weights, run faster or swim further – but how do we do the same thing in other parts of our everyday lives? How do we engage the stress-recovery cycle?
When we increase our intensity – whether that means increasing your focus and drive at work or spending quality time focusing on your relationships with your family and friends – we effectively put ourselves under a degree of stress [4]. And, as the rule states, this forces an adaptation response, which should improve our performance the next time we do it.
Engaging the stress-recovery cycle at work might mean scrapping the ‘busy work’ and focussing on the productive work; at home it might mean focusing on the kids without distraction; at Uni it might mean listening intently; or personally it might mean spending time with loved ones instead of watching TV.
When we learn to do this, our performance goes through the roof. There are many experiments that show the detrimental effects of inattention and less intensity. Drivers talking on their phones are four times more likely to have a collision and are slower to hit the brakes in case of an emergency [5]; people typing emails while talking on the phone are five times more likely to make mistakes.The bottom line is that when we aren’t fully engaged, our performance goes down [5,6].

However, when we are under the right degree of stress, our performance can increase by as much as 50% [6].
This might involve a stretch goal from a deadline or boss, but without the panic-attack. But parts of our self-preservation instincts are right - we can’t operate at this level forever.
Neuroscience and evolution tells us that our brains were only built to handle high levels of stress for about 30 to 60 seconds – after that time we would either be eaten by a predator or escape its claws.
Prolonged stress causes a hormone imbalance that affects just about every imaginable measure of physical and mental performance including attention, decision-making, strength, aerobic power and problem solving [6,7].

That’s where the recovery part of the stress-recovery cycle is most important.

“IN EXERCISE, YOU KNOW THAT RECOVERY IS AS IMPORTANT AS YOUR ACTUAL WORKOUT IF YOU WANT TO AVOID OVERTRAINING AND BURNOUT. THE SAME PRINCIPLE APPLIES IN OTHER DIMENSIONS – IT IS A CRITICAL PART OF THE CYCLE.”

TACTICAL RECOVERY

In exercise, you know that recovery is as important as your actual workout if you want to avoid overtraining and burnout. The same principle applies in other dimensions – it is a critical part of the cycle.
It’s been shown that, mentally, we can only operate at full intensity for a maximum of 90 minutes and after this time performance decreases gradually on most cognitive tests – in MRI scans we can actually see the brain shrink under prolonged periods of stress [4].
Just as our muscle cells repair themselves when we rest, the brain does something similar.
While our bodies are resting, our brains are going haywire. They are consolidating learning and solving problems, they are growing and alleviating stress. In some NASA studies, 26 minutes of rest helped increase performance by 34%, and in other studies problem solving ability increased two-fold. Rest also helps us rebalance the chemicals and hormones that are so destructive [4,6,7].

Think about what this means for your performance at work. If you take regular recovery breaks, how much more productive would you be? It would allow you to perform at 100% intensity more of the time. You can apply the same thinking to anything in which you want to perform your best.

WHAT DOES RECOVERY LOOK LIKE?

Recovery is anything that helps us disengage mentally and, if possible, physically from the intensity of our activities. It is anything that helps us slow down – reading, yoga, listening to relaxing music – whatever helps you to relax physically and calm your mind.

We need 10 minutes of recovery every 90 minutes at work to help stay focused; we need 20 to 30 minutes of recovery every day to help combat the effects of cumulative stress; we need one hour a week of recovery in order to stay on top of our total performance.

References:
1. Bompa, TO. Theory and Methodology of Training. 1985. Kendall/Hunt: Iowa
2. Ashkenas, RN, Schaffer, RH. Managers Can Avoid Wasting Time. Harvard Business Review. 1988; May-June
3. Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. 2009.
4. Loehr, J, Schwartz, T. The Power of Full Engagement. 2003. Free Press: New York, NY
5. Strayer, DL, Drews, FA, Crouch, DJ. Fatal distraction? A comparison of the cellphone driver and the
drunk driver. Human Factors. 2006; 48(2): 381 – 391
6. Mendl, M. Performing under pressure: stress and cognitive function. Applied Animal Behavioral
Science. 1999; 65(3): 221 - 244
7. McEwen, BS. Allostatic load: when protection gives way to damage.
The End of Stress as We Know It. 2002. Dana Press: Washington, DC

Aricle contributed by

Ultra Fit Magazine
www.ultrafit.com.au