Go Team!

Olympic coverage has been on 24/7. And we're not complaining!! Watching gymnasts land sequences of flips on a beam that's the width of a phone, discovering sports that we didn't even know existed (handball and competitive kayaking), and cringing when anyone has to run for longer than an hour has been very entertaining. We here at shakeoffstress have been in awe, to say the least. And the Olympics make us want to get moving!! In this post, we'll be talking about how you can use exercise and team sports to help you to shake off stress.

Side note before we get into it: this post means a lot to me!! (This is Melissa, the founder of shakeoffstress). Establishing a healthy and regular relationship with exercise helped me to manage my stress at the beginning of the pandemic. My favorite ways to exercise were running and doing workouts on Youtube, while I tried to ignore that I would be playing lacrosse if it was a normal year.

These workouts taught me a lot. I learned about the importance of rest days, warm-ups, and cool downs after running for too long too fast and injuring my foot. I learned that doing fun, less strenuous workouts that made me feel good could be much more beneficial than a killer workout. I am very far from a medical professional, however, all of these tips and tricks have been researched and the sources are hyperlinked. As this is my personal stress relief technique, I hope this article is helpful and that you can take a piece of it away with you!! Alright, now let's really get into it!!

First, we're consulting the Huffington Post, for their guide to healthy exercise. They spoke to Marjorie Nolan Cohn, who is a certified Health Fitness Specialist. The first tip for a healthy relationship with exercise: listen to your body. The feeling of endorphins flowing through your body after a workout that makes your legs feel like jello is hard to beat. However, if you're feeling especially tired or sore, it may be time to take it easy.

That's where the concepts of rest days comes in!! Ms. Cohn recommends taking at least one rest day a week. If you're feeling restless, light movement such as stretching or a leisurely walk could help alleviate the feeling. Building rest days into your schedule ensures that your body has time to heal and take a breath before you return to regular workouts.

The next tip is about how to smoothly integrate exercise into your life. Have you ever heard the phrase 'Your clothes are meant to fit you'? The same goes for exercise!! Exercise is meant to enhance your life, not restrict it. If something comes up on a day you have a workout planned, Cohn advises not sweating it. The same philosophy is applied to creating a workout schedule.

Although there is a lot of information out there about the benefits of working out at a certain time of day or the benefits of certain types of workouts, Cohn writes that you should decide when you want to work out and how, for yourself. You could be doing a HIIT workout every morning at 5 AM, or doing a combination of dance, kickboxing, and yoga after school. It's all up to you to decide what makes you feel good!

Our next set of tips comes from Runner's World, and a woman named Elizabeth Millard. She starts by bringing up some of the symptoms people may experience if exercise begins to take an unhealthy hold on their lives, including injuries from too much work and too little rest, anxiety over scheduling that prevents workouts, and guilt over missed workouts.

One thing she advises to help alleviate stress is taking a moment to think about why you actually like exercising. This process is called the "five whys." You come up with one statement about why you like exercise, and keep asking 'why' four more times. For example:

1. I like exercising because I feel better after I do it.

2. Noticing that my strength is increasing is a big motivator for me.

3. If my strength is improving, it's a direct result of the work I'm putting into exercising.

4. I feel that if I'm dedicated to exercising, it helps me to be dedicated to other things in my life, like school.

5. This helps me to stay focused, feel good, and get good grades.

Her next tips involve figuring out how much exercise you need to feel good, and how to change your thinking regarding exercising. First, Millard suggests setting a goal for exercise that is achievable. There's nothing wrong with wanting to work out for 90 minutes, five days a week. However, when you miss a day, or don't have enough time to do a workout, stress revolving around exercise begins to creep in. So instead of wanting to work out for 90 minutes, five days a week, maybe you try working out for 90 minutes a couple times a week or working out for 30 minutes five days a week. These modifications can help you feel good about exercising and avoid stress and guilt.

In addition, Millard says to take into account how much exercise you're really getting throughout the day. Say you spent the whole day gardening, and didn't have time to get in a workout. All that walking around, carrying heavy bags of dirt, and constantly crouching is a way to get your body moving while doing something you enjoy. Sometimes, it helps to have a reminder of the different ways exercise can look and feel.

Finally, let's look at the relationship between stress and team sports. An article from Modius provides seven ways that sports can help you relieve your stress. They start by listing some of the physical benefits of medium intensity, regular exercise: higher energy, increased mood, reduced stress and anxiety, healthy weight, and healthy blood pressure.

Next, they get into what this article is all about: how to maintain your mental health when playing team sports. Their first tip? Taking the time to do a proper warm-up before any form of exercise. This helps to prevent injury and to make sure your body and mind are ready for a good workout. Adding on to this, they suggest using proper protective equipment. Mouthguards are not fun, but I know I was definitely thankful for mine when I got hit in the mouth and my lip took the blunt of it instead of my teeth.

Finally, they emphasize that balance is key. Having a social life, doing well in school, spending time with your family, and putting your all into sports can be extremely difficult. If you're looking for some tips on time management, check out our post from last month, Saved by the Bell ;)

We at shakeoffstress got so inspired writing this post that we're writing this conclusion after a workout. And after reading all these tips, we factored in time for a cool down (although weren't quite motivated enough to do a warm up). We here at shakeoffstress hope this article was informative and gave you some information about how to shake off stress with exercise and sports. Thanks for reading

:-)

Comments? Questions? Leave them down below!!