Exercise is a form of controlled metabolic stress.

Like all controlled stressors, it is applied in a fashion that is stressful enough to sound the alarm but not too stressful to break yourself. However, in elite athletics, this process becomes much more of a balancing act than one may expect.

In life, there are many forms of controlled and uncontrolled metabolic stressors influencing the body. These stressors can come in the form of psycho-social stressors, dietary stressors, lack of sleep, internal perceptions, injuries, and illnesses.

Now, these uncontrolled metabolic stressors may not be noticeable as we go through our daily lives, but once they begin accumulate, they can manifest in many different forms. This is the whole idea of the human body acting as a dynamic system.

Now, let’s say you eat like crap, don’t sleep well enough, and train really hard. We know that training, when relative to your redox state, puts you in a period of immunosuppression. This situation is represented by the second of two graphs and depending on the intensity and uncontrolled metabolic stress, that “open window” may remain open longer.

On the other hand, when the system is functioning well and the body is able to recover from a relatively moderate stressor, immune defenses will acutely rise  creating an immediate positive response.

Lifting is much more than reps and sets. It’s about how those reps and sets are fitting into the bigger picture.

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