Endurance/Resistance Training and Psychosocial Stress Resistance

I was listening to a podcast recently, where a former navy seal captain recounted one of the most surprising things he noticed about going to battle. He recalled that during his first major exposure to combat, rather than losing his mind or “freaking out” about the immediate presence of death and danger, his training kicked in and he remained calm and focused on doing what he needed to survive and “win.” This piqued my interest, and I wondered what prior research said about the effects of training and this superhuman power of ignoring such incredible stress.

I found this study, where researchers found that trained men, or men who regularly engage in intense endurance or resistance (weightlifting) training, had less severe cardiovascular responses (exhibited less heart rate elevation) to psychosocial stress from a TSST, or a Trier Social Stress Test, compared to men with minimal training. In the study, three groups of men (endurance, resistance, and untrained men with minimal exercise beyond bike transportation) were subjected to a mock job interview where they delivered a speech to a panel of judges, followed by a mental arithmetic task (serial subtraction). Before, during, and after each TSST period, each subjects’ heart rate and salivary free cortisol was collected and analyzed. They found that for salivary free cortisol, resistance trained man had the lowest levels of salivary free cortisol, with endurance trained men close behind and with untrained men having much higher levels. These results were not statistically significant however. They found that for heart rate changes, endurance trained men had the lowest changes, closely followed by resistance-trained men and with untrained men having much higher heart rate changes. These results were statistically significant. In addition, the morning salivary free cortisol was higher in untrained men, but this was also not significant.

In an age of comfort and sedentary lifestyles, exercise and discomfort has become secondary to pleasure and convenience, and I believe this is reducing our ability to withstand the stress of reality and life. This study’s result is reason number 1,009,283 why exercise should be a major part of everyone’s life, and everyone who engages in regular exercise (whether endurance or resistance) can have the confidence of knowing that their daily toil is giving them an edge up in dealing with life and acute psychosocial stress in professional and/or social environments. In conclusion, JUST DO IT.

Study referenced in this article: Gröpel, P., Urner, M., Pruessner, J. C., & Quirin, M. (2018). Endurance- and Resistance-Trained Men Exhibit Lower Cardiovascular Responses to Psychosocial Stress Than Untrained Men. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 852. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00852