Happy Friday!

Here are your biweekly tips and tricks to becoming a better, faster, and more resilient swimmer.

Let’s Not Get Rid Of Stress

Our society has us all asking how we can get rid of stress.

How to feel less stressed in 5 steps.

How to live stress-free. 

Do these headlines sound familiar? They’re scoured all over the internet. Our society has us all focused on living stress-free.

The thing is, stress isn’t inherently good or bad. You need stress for growth. What do I mean by that? Stress is crucial and is used as a stimulus to improve (fill in the blank). For example, in order for bones to grow, you need a compression-type force to stimulate bone growth. As great of an exercise swimming is, it’s important to add resistance training and walking and/or running to your fitness routine because that compression force (and gravity) will help with bone growth and reduce your chances of developing osteoporosis as you age.

If stress is so good, why are we constantly being preached at to reduce it? Well, like anything, too much of anything isn’t good for you. The dose makes the poison and the term “moderation is key” holds true.

Excess stress can inhibit our abilities to perform. We need stress hormones, such as adrenaline, to increase our heart rate that allows us to feel excited and pumped to race. But too much of it, especially if it’s unmanaged over a long period of time, can lead to health problems such as hypertension.

The take-home point? Stress is good. Too much is bad. The key is stress management.

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Tip Of The Week(end)

Since the topic this week is stress management, let’s talk about some tricks for quick stress relief when you’re feeling overwhelmed.

Stress Management Trick #1:

Go for a walk outside. Research shows that nature and exercise both alleviate stress. So let’s combine them to really feel a good amount of stress reduction. Want to make it your workout for the day? Walk outside for 30 minutes every day and you’ll hit your quota for moderate intensity exercise for the week, according to AHA.

Stress Management Trick #2:

Do diaphragmatic breathing. What's that? That’s a breathing technique where you focus on using your diaphragm (the muscle that contracts to expand your lungs during inhalation) as opposed to your accessory muscles.

Many people, especially swimmers (we’re all mouth-breathers… not really by choice), breathe with their accessory muscles. Now what are those? Those are the ones that help with breathing but are typically an accessory to the diaphragm. They include all those muscles that expand your chest. It’s called chest breathing. Typically when we breathe with our mouths, we automatically use chest breathing techniques. This expands, lifts, and elevates your rib cage in order to fill your lungs. Great for swimming, not so great for stress management.

Instead, try this:

Lie on your back and place one hand on your stomach and your other hand on your chest. Breathe into the hand on your stomach while keeping the hand on your chest still. For this reason, diaphragmatic breathing is also known as belly breathing. This type of breathing technique helps reduce stress and refocuses your breathing onto your diaphragm rather than your accessory muscles.

Stress Management Trick #3:

This 3rd trick kind of goes hand-in-hand with diaphragmatic breathing.

Our central nervous system has two modes. Parasympathetic and sympathetic. When we’re stressed, our sympathetic nervous system activates and we’re in the fight or flight mode. To “deactivate” your sympathetic nervous system, you’ll need to activate your parasympathetic nervous system, AKA rest and digest mode.

One quick and easy way to activate your parasympathetic nervous system is to perform a 1:2 ratio of inhalation to exhalation. For example, breathe in for 4 counts, breathe out for 8 counts. A prolonged exhalation period will kickstart your brain to start relaxing.

Want to maximize your relaxation? Inhale slowly for 4, exhale slowly with pursed lips for 8. Combine this 1:2 ratio of inhalation to exhalation with diaphragmatic breathing while lying on your back with your eyes closed. Rinse and repeat X10 and feel instantly better.

As always, please give me feedback by replying to this email. What did you enjoy reading? What do you want more or less of? Other suggestions? Please let me know. I love sharing the wealth of knowledge and I want to make sure you find it valuable.

Have a FANTASTIC weekend.

Until next time,

Sandra

PS - Need customized strength coaching or stroke analysis from someone who’s recovered from 10+ injuries and surgeries, and helped many others recover from the same? Sign up for 1:1 coaching with me on Skillest.

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