By Paul Chek, HHP, NMT
Founder, C.H.E.K Institute

How many times have you gone to a trainer, therapist, doctor, or even a coach and had them assess your overall stress levels prior to prescribing an exercise program for you? Probably, seldom, if ever ...

Most gym exercises, sports conditioning exercises, even crunching and pumping in front of your TV (as you make yet another attempt at a six-pack or buns of steel) are catabolic or tissue destructive activities. This is why you typically get sore after a good workout or a 10K run: You have broken down tissue.

All catabolic exercises require the body to repair the damage done by the exercise. If you have an adequate level of hydration, a sound diet and adequate rest and are not overly stressed at an emotional, mental or spiritual level, your body will produce an anabolic, or tissue-building, rebound.

This rebound is dependent upon a variety of anabolic hormones including:

• Testosterone
• Human growth hormone
• Insulin-like growth factor (IGF)
• DHEA

Figure 1 Click to Enlarge

As you can see in Figure 1, when we are exposed to any combination of stressors that elevate our stress hormone levels beyond the optimal, our repair hormones are suppressed. Typically, in athletes this results in over-training syndromes, while in bodybuilders and other people wanting to add muscle or change their body shape, it simply results in a lack of progress.

In fact, a failure to understand this very basic stress-recovery relationship is a big reason for the excessive use of metabolic stimulants and anabolic steroids in bodybuilding, sports conditioning and even among general gym rats. For example, many athletes, bodybuilders, and even some of you reading this, begin the day eating too many carbohydrates (often processed) for your nutritional type. This elevates your blood sugar, triggering a release of insulin to lower your sugar level.

The process continues until your blood sugar is too low, causing glucocorticoids (stress hormones) to be released. Then, these stress hormones trigger the discharge of stored glycogen in the liver -- a response designed to elevate blood sugar.

This cycle of decreased and elevated blood sugar levels typically happens repeatedly throughout the day due to the combination of eating meals and snacks that are metabolically imbalanced and drinking any number of caffeinated sugar drinks. Throw in some work stress, relationship challenges and a traffic jam and you've got a tired body in the gym, morning or night. Then comes Red Bull!

That's often why the diligent, committed and vain alike, who often find themselves lacking that perceived return on their investment in the gym, frequently turn to the many splendors of modern chemistry for help. The result being a short-term gain and long term dysfunction in the form of hormonal imbalances, chronic fatigue and even disease!

Applying the "Less is More" Principle

Frequently, my athletes and patients are shocked when I give them their first exercise program under my guidance because it is so easy, even relaxing since they are so used to being beat up by coaches and trainers. Some are even more shocked when I tell them they will NOT have a structured workout at all, and that they will be using my No Workout Workout routine.

Table 1

When they ask me why I have chosen to do this with them, I show them how high their scores were on my stress questionnaire. (Take a simplified version of my stress questionnaire from my book How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy. Match up your score with the chart shown in Table 1 to see how stressed you really are.)

Generally, people who score under 150 can handle the physical abuse that catabolizes tissue because they have the capacity for a healthy anabolic rebound. They get good results if they have adequate rest between training sessions.

The scores discussed in this article are calculated using the full questionnaire from How to Eat, Move, and Be Healthy, and not the questionnaire you have here:

For those who score between 150 and 259, I generally reduce the volume or frequency of training sessions (or both) to decrease the overall stress level on the body. This lowers the amount of stress hormones being produced and typically helps them sleep better and more effectively regulate their immune systems. Sometimes, athletes start making gains in their lifts and improve sports specific performance for the first time in months because they are finally getting adequate rest and recovery.

For those people scoring above 260, I frequently stop them from performing any form of catabolic exercise because, at this level of stress, they generally have a poor capacity to generate an anabolic response to an exercise stressor. These people are lacking life force energy or Chi. Should they continue and manage to add muscle in this state, they are usually doing it at the expense of vital organ or glandular systems. This leads to an important question: Do you really want to trade your liver or adrenal glands for a bigger set of biceps?

In these cases, I give Chi-cultivating exercises, such as meditative walking, Tai Chi, Qi-gong or suggest the person find a skilled Yoga instructor. I also prescribe the specific zone exercises from my book How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy that will cultivate Chi, feeding the regions of their body specific to their health conditions or mental/emotional concerns.

Planning For The Stress-Challenged

Some people are so stressed out that even learning a new Tai Chi, Qi-gong or Yoga exercise feels like a burden to them. With these people, we go one step further in the application of the No Workout Workout concept. They are instructed to simply park their car at the far end of parking lots and do their best to avoid escalators and elevators when entering buildings.

This approach may seem too soft -- even mushy to those of you who are used to running your life like a sled dog -- but I have seen many people lose weight that they previously could not. I have also seen many heal when they previously could not. And, I have seen many overcome depression and relationship problems where they previously could not!

As my clients apply the foundational health principles in my book, their stress and other related health scores soon drop, making it clear their bodies are ready to receive more challenging exercise programs. When their scores drop into the green zone, it is evident they have regained their capacity for a full anabolic rebound, and we can now pursue exciting goals like making it through an entire ski season injury-free, lowering their 10K time, building the body they always wanted, or setting a personal best in an athletic event.

Working intelligently toward our goals and applying the "How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy" principles makes it obvious that when we apply the No Workout Workout concept to reduce stress, less can become more!

Those interested in learning more about reducing stress and the No Workout Workout are encouraged to begin with the following programs:

• How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy!
• You are What You Eat

Paul Chek, Holistic Health Practitioner and certified Neuromuscular Therapist, is the founder of the C.H.E.K Institute in Vista, Calif. He is also a sought-after consultant to sporting organizations whose services have benefited numerous professional sports teams, athletes and individuals seeking optimal health worldwide.

Paul has produced over 60 videos, 17 correspondence courses and is the author of several books, audio programs and articles. For more information on Paul's popular You Are What You Eat audio/workbook program, or for any of his other health/exercise courses, videos and books, call 800/552-8789 or 760/477-2620 or visit online at the C.H.E.K. Institute Web site. Feel free to request a catalog of CHEK Institute products.

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