How to Reduce Stress With Exercise

Video Transcript

"Hey. I'm Ashleigh Gass, strength and conditioning specialist with Brilliantathlete.com. Most people actually begin exercise programs to reduce stress, and there's three angles I'll talk about. Number one, breath work; number two, walking; and number three, weight training. Now, breath work has actually been made very popular by a gentleman by the name of Dr. Andrew Weil. And he has a technique that can be very, very beneficial. I'll just refer to it as the 4-7-8 technique. And you can do this one anywhere. I'm sitting down. That's really all you need. You can do it sitting, or you can also do this one standing. So 4-7-8, what this means is that you would take a breath in for four seconds, hold for seven, and then exhale for eight seconds. So four seconds to breathe in. I'll begin the exercise. Eight seconds out. Again, four seconds in, seven seconds hold, eight seconds to exhale. And when you exhale on the eight seconds, keep your tongue on the roof of your mouth, behind your front teeth, and make the exhale- make it audible. So you should hear yourself exhale. So that's a breathing technique that's actually been shown to be very beneficial for stress reduction and overall improvement of health. The second one is walking. If you're not already doing so, just begin a walking program, daily or every other day. You could go out either before work or when you come home at the end of the day. Go for 20 or 30 minutes, build your stamina as you go. Once you get used to a walking program, it's very beneficial for muscle development and body fat loss to begin weight training. So, one exercise that you can use for stress reduction is a weight training exercise that's beneficial from several angles. It's just a shoulder raise. So to begin, start with good posture. So bring your shoulder blades gently in together and down towards your butt. Okay, that's as opposed to starting like this. Begin with your shoulder blades gently pulled together, down towards your butt. Arms straight, dumbbells come up to shoulder level and slightly out to the side. And back down again. And maintain that good shoulder blade posture throughout this exercise. I'm using very light dumbbells. They're two pounds. This would be a good starting weight for most of you. You can also use soup cans, if you don't have dumbbells. So I've just done four rep's there. You can work your way up to 10 to 20 and then increase your weight, as you get stronger. So again, most people begin exercise for stress reduction. And if you're finding yourself in a hurry all the time and really just high strung and wound out at the end of the day, make sure you begin getting your exercise in. It can be in the form of breath work, walking, and/or weight training. Thanks. I'm Ashleigh Gass, strength and conditioning specialist, Brilliantathlete.com."