UKH

Over the last year or so I've spent a lot of time running. Before that I hated running and avoided it and had a fairly sedentary life. I would just go on long hikes a few times a year and be in pain for a few days after.

Now I'm active I find that little things massively change how I feel. Before I could eat whatever I want and I would feel the same. Now I have higher expectations of my body I feel the detriment when I eat crap food. It's a handy positive feedback loop.

I skipped my long run last week as I went on a very lazy holiday abroad. I don't normally notice any reduction when I skip a long run. Whilst on my lazy holiday I was surprised how quickly I felt really weak. With no expectation in the day, getting up was hard, I felt tired, doing a few press-ups were suddenly very challenging. So I went on a couple of runs as I didn't like how the lazy experience made me feel. Runs felt hard but ok.

Any, back to the UK, went for my usual long run on Sunday, found it quite tough, and I still feel pain in my legs two days later. This never normally happens, not even if i skip a long run.

The only difference is a lazy week.

It's almost as if by not having any expectation my body has decided to waste away a bit quicker than it normally would. Is this a thing? I would have expected to feel stronger as I finally gave myself a proper opportunity to heal and adapt.

It's made me wonder that if i could actually afford a lazy life of luxury it would probably kill me. 

Is my experience likely an anomaly or do we actually need a bit of stress in our life to stay functional? Or am I just weird? Can't discount that.

I’ve no doubt that waking up thinking “I have to do this today” is better for you than just dawdling along with no structure.

I would guess that the mind/body takes the lack of stress as an opportunity to prioritise overdue rest and recovery over maintaining performance, and that it will take a week or two of resumed training to see the benefits of that process.

If you want to peak for a race, you taper down to a week of active recovery, not total rest.

Yes, i find steady exercise is as good for your mind as it is for your body. If I could only choose one activity, it would be running, however slowly that is as I age. If you could afford to be lazy it would be to your loss.

I would put it this way, most or all of us need activity and exercise in our life to stay well physically and mentally. IMO

Thanks for posting 

I'm like you but polarised. Loads of low level exercise all day, nearly everyday. Walking, lifting, pushing (plenty of brain work chucked in too contra to the opinion of some), but on the rare occasion I do some cardio it makes me feel slightly weird because I'm not used to it. However I feel great afterwards and literally glow as my skin is perfused. I should / will do more.

Completely agree. 

Humans evolved in an environment where physical effort was a daily reality. Just because most of that effort is no longer required to survive, doesn't mean our bodies and genetics have adapted to that (yet!).

“Humans are not physically normal in the absence of hard physical effort.”

Yes, but if you're going back that far to establish the baseline, bear in mind that humans as were would also likely have been under more stress, and more at risk of injury and premature, grisly demise.

Humans constant pursuit for comfort is slowly killing us. It is the same cave man brain that wants to get more fire wood, a better shelter and more meat on the table. It was useful then.

In 2024 it manifests differently and is causing huge health issues. 

Do difficult things, it is good for you

Agreed.

But even rolling back a generation or two many more people had physical jobs, had to walk to work etc. So I think on a physical level we have noticeable shifted the baseline (again/more) very recently, and most of the general public don't get nearly enough 'physical stress' to be healthy.  

whether it's true or not I choose to believe this

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole recently about processed foods and their impact on our health. Conclusion I came to is there is strong correlation between processed foods being available in a country and health issues like heart attacks and diabetes.

Outside of this correlation the science seems to be a bit all over the place.

I wonder if countries generally start eating more processed foods just as the work type moves away from manual labour?

I think we have created an almost perfect storm really, over last 30 years a huge increase in availability of ultra processed foods, while moving away from manual labour and activity as daily part of working life, and also increasing screen time, phones etc so even leisure time is sedentary.

Its little wonder so many people are in such poor health.

The science is presumably trying to find causation to explain the correlation. Remembering that correlation is not causation.

Yes, stress is good for you in small doses where you know there will be an end (a deadline for project, and exam or test, a crux on a route), and a recovery time afterwards.  What is not good for you is ongoing stress with no foreseeable end. That's a recipe for mental health problems, and probably physical health problems too.

Structure and staying active are crucial to staying happy for me and I'd imagine most people. 

A sedentary lifestyle and crappy diet is basically a fast track to chronic physical health conditions not to mention negative mental health effects.

I really hope that I'm stating the obvious here.

Our prehistoric ancestors had to eat like pigs when food was available and get as fat as possible. You never know how long the lions are going to keep you in the cave so trough that doughnut and don't worry.

unless, of course you are a cat!

The body learns from stress, for example unaccustomed vigorous exercise initially (and painfully) destroying muscle cells, which then rebuilds stronger with repetition - so progressively becoming more able to withstand that kind of exercise with fewer aches and pains.

There's some convincing evidence that the mind also has similar 'plasticity' in its ability to form new neural pathways as a positive reaction to stressful stimuli:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1073858418771538

If stress (like long runs) eventually becomes enjoyable over time, neurotransmitters can reorientate themselves in such a way as to completely smother the negativity experienced in the initial stress, transforming it into positivity.

Not only that, the mind so altered can actually stimulate an unwilling body to do more as enjoyment of the exercise kicks in. I don't know what comes first; is it a positively stimulated mind overcoming the body's initial inadequacies, or is it a strengthened body allowing neuroplasticity to take place? Perhaps it's both consecutively or maybe in some people, one takes precedence over the other.

I think stress has different impact for everyone.