Strength social sessions could help you live longer

14 Apr

14 APR

Author: Rosemary MacLennan-Crump

This is my second blog post during national stress awareness month. As stress has such an impact on our mental and physical health it’s important to me, but I’d hope it was important to everyone. In this post, we’re going to look at how working out together in the FUSHIUP strength sessions, can be a help when managing stress. And how, managing stress can ultimately help you to live longer!

Stress

First up, how on earth are we expected to not feel stressed? If we’re worried about feeling stressed isn’t that going to make us more stressed??!!! Well, yes and no. I really understand how when you are in an intense stress period, you cannot possible see how there could possibly be a way out of it. My clients are women over 35. So, I am addressing this group. But, that doesn’t mean I don’t understand that many people feel stress. And, that's before we start considering intersectionality. One hormone that helps regulate stress is Progesterone. It, like Oestrogen, starts to leave our bodies in perimenopause. You might just be stressed because life is hard. You have lots of responsibilities and there is loads of shit going on. But, any calming from progesterone is also disappearing! (NB. Lots of people take progesterone as part of hormone treatment as do I. I love me, my little progesterone pills).

FUSHIUP Strength social sessions

When you come to a FUSHIUP session, you work out with a small group of similar age women to do exercises, mostly weighted to help you build strength. When I say small groups, I mean small groups, there will be no more than 6 women plus me, supporting you in the session. These are different to regular fitness classes they are a time to bond, share stories and build strength together.

Research has shown that when we do an activity with people that have a similar interest this helps to improve your physical health (Social relationships and physiological determinants of longevity across the human life span). So working out with people that are already similar to you has loads of bonus points to help with health and life span).

Yes, you might already have a great group of friends, but they might have dwindled over time and life changes. If you are fortunate, to have a good group of friends are they having a positive impact on your health habits? Often friendships, particularly in the UK and even more particularly in Nottingham are based around drinking together (read consuming excessive quantities of alcohol). So, sometimes the benefits of social interaction with friends can be tainted by the poor health habits those associations encourage us to have. At FUSHIUP, we encourage healthy habits. These habits benefit both your body and your mind.

But how does this all actually help our stress levels?

I've spoken about the social aspects. They have magical powers to help your stress levels. Last week, I spoke about how strength exercises can help too. The magic is in the combo.

If you missed last weeks blog post and can’t be bothered to find it or are likely to get distracted if you go and hunt for it J. Heres a recap on how weighted exercises can help reduce your stress levels:

1. Strength training can reduce stress and anxiety by reducing the stress hormone cortisol

2. Strength training can reduce inflammation in the brain and reduce stress markers

3. Strength training releases endorphins

4. Strength training builds confidence. When we use weights we not only get physically strong, we also get mentally strong

5. Strength training builds resilience, which then helps you in other areas of your life.

Sounds and stress

Music is a key part of FUSHIUP sessions, I carefully choose the songs. Most of the songs are by amazing female artists, with tracks that are going to get your ready to workout. You might even want to belt out a chorus, think Missy Elliott, SWV, Lady Gaga and Nelly Furtado. Music works with neuron transmitters to send signals to the cerebral cortex in the brain and help to boost our mood. Music that we know and trust releases prolactin in our brains which is a comforting hormone.

Reducing stress with FUSHIUP

So, for National Sress Awareness month, I’ve shared with you how the social support of a FUSHIUP session can help reduce stress. At FUSHIUP, you are doing a shared activity with people who are similar to you. We’ve also looked at the wider benefits of using weights and strength training to improve our resilience and mood. We then top that off, with the power of music.

So FUSHIUP sessions pack a powerful punch when it comes to alleviating stress or at least contributing a few endorphins to boost your mood.

Book your FUSHIUP session and watch out as we expand!