Recently I suffered from a fairly serious injury in my pursuit to tryout for American Ninja Warrior. I know the risks associated with some of these activities, but for me it is worth it. Even so, I'm pretty bummed out that I have to back off from training for a bit due to the pain I am feeling.
So I figured I would turn my experience into a blog post since most people have suffered from chronic pain at some point in their life. Whether it be from exercising too much or too hard, or possibly just from sitting at a desk all day, we tend to get pain that sticks around for a while. But other than the pain we feel and the compensations that may develop, what other concerns are there?
Many of you are probably familiar with or at least heard of the hormone cortisol. There are ads on with miracle products that can reduce your cortisol levels and burn unwanted belly fat. Unfortunately these probably won't work. I've never tried them so I can't say for certain but I would be willing to bet there is little to no effect from taking them.
Just in case you have never heard of cortisol or just aren't sure exactly what it does, here is a quick review. When we experience stress in our life we will release hormones to react to the stressor placed on our body. People will react to stress differently so depending on the person and the situation, different hormones will be released from one person to the next. For example, if a person feels that they are in control of the stressor they may release norepinephrine (our fight hormone.) If they feel out of control they may release epinephrine (our flight hormone.) When the stress is prolonged or the individual feels defeated or helpless the end result is an increase in cortisol.
Cortisol has many functions in the body. It takes protein from the body to be converted into energy during prolonged exercise or low carb diets, it moves fat from one area of the body to another, and it also regulates which type of substrate (fat, carbs, or protein) will be used for energy for the body. The main reason most people have heard of cortisol is because cortisol can take fat from stores in the body and move it to the abdomen. This is what you have heard in those commercials. When cortisol increases there tends to be more fat storage in the stomach.
So where does pain come into all of this? Well there are many forms of stress on the body. Exercise is stress. It can be good or bad stress depending on how it is implemented. So yes how you exercise may make your stomach bigger. Pain is another form of stress. The body doesn't want to experience pain and it is trying to work hard to get rid of it. When you have chronic pain you are essentially chronically stressed. This means higher levels of cortisol. There are numerous studies showing that those that are depress, in chronic neurological, or psychological pain have higher levels of cortisol. When they receive treatment, they will experience a decrease in cortisol levels.
The bottom line is the body can react perfectly fine to stress but too much can lead to a lot of issues. If you have chronic pain you really need to do something about it. Just trying to push through may make it worse. And you probably are making your fat loss goal harder and harder. This doesn't mean you have to quit working out, but a solution should be found. The underlying cause of the pain must be eliminated.
If you need help finding the cause of your pain so you can remove unwanted stress and break through your weight loss plateau please contact us. We currently have openings on Friday mornings from 8-12pm to meet with one of our physical therapists.
Please call 858-755-5200 to schedule an appointment.
You Stay Healthy San Diego,
Mike Deibler MS, CSCS
San Diego Premier Training
Many of you are probably familiar with or at least heard of the hormone cortisol. There are ads on with miracle products that can reduce your cortisol levels and burn unwanted belly fat. Unfortunately these probably won't work. I've never tried them so I can't say for certain but I would be willing to bet there is little to no effect from taking them.
Just in case you have never heard of cortisol or just aren't sure exactly what it does, here is a quick review. When we experience stress in our life we will release hormones to react to the stressor placed on our body. People will react to stress differently so depending on the person and the situation, different hormones will be released from one person to the next. For example, if a person feels that they are in control of the stressor they may release norepinephrine (our fight hormone.) If they feel out of control they may release epinephrine (our flight hormone.) When the stress is prolonged or the individual feels defeated or helpless the end result is an increase in cortisol.
The bottom line is the body can react perfectly fine to stress but too much can lead to a lot of issues. If you have chronic pain you really need to do something about it. Just trying to push through may make it worse. And you probably are making your fat loss goal harder and harder. This doesn't mean you have to quit working out, but a solution should be found. The underlying cause of the pain must be eliminated.
If you need help finding the cause of your pain so you can remove unwanted stress and break through your weight loss plateau please contact us. We currently have openings on Friday mornings from 8-12pm to meet with one of our physical therapists.
Please call 858-755-5200 to schedule an appointment.
You Stay Healthy San Diego,
Mike Deibler MS, CSCS
San Diego Premier Training
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