Understanding Your Nervous System as an Athlete

Athletes often live in a “high-alert” state due to pressures to perform, balancing aesthetic goals with performance, maintaining good grades to be eligible to compete, navigating new social and living environments, finding work-life balance, and so much more. While some of these stressors are acute, meaning short term, poor stress management allows these stressors to fester and become chronic. 

Chronic stress triggers our sympathetic nervous system, which is "fight or flight". This system contradicts the parasympathetic nervous system, which is our rest and digest state. The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are the two main domains of the autonomic nervous system, the part of the peripheral nervous system (PNS) that regulates involuntary processes. The PNS controls heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, digestion, and temperature. When the body is not in balance, your ability to control rapid breathing, digestion, and adaptation to your external environment can be impaired.

Living in fight or flight increases cortisol, the stress hormone, which triggers hyperinsulinemia and sympathetic nervous system activation. This nervous system state causes the motor activity in the stomach and intestines to slow down, which will decrease ghrelin, our body's hunger hormone. This is why you may experience a decreased appetite during higher periods of stress or before an athletic event. Reduced appetite leads to poor nutrient intake. This is especially problematic in an athlete population who require a higher demand of energy intake. Poor appetite + high intensity exercise = undereating. Under fueling for sport puts you at risk for injury, illness, hormones dysregulation, chronic fatigue, and so much more!

Stress does not only impact your digestive system, but also hormone production, performance, and sleep. Chronically high cortisol increases blood sugar, which can lead to insulin resistance over time. This puts you at increased risk for chronic disease and impairs your quality of sleep. High cortisol can also impair hormone production, leading to menstrual irregularities and decreased libido. The combination of lack of sleep, impaired hormone production, and increased feelings of anxiety have consequences on the field such as slower response time, inability to adapt to temperature changes, and poor coordination. 

Our bodies are communicating constantly, we just have to pay attention! Here are a few signals that your body may be under-recovered: 

• Chronic fatigue despite 7-8 hr of sleep each night 

• Soreness that is lasting days 

• Increased stress fractures and/or injuries 

• Getting sick more often 

• Getting winded and/or fatigued in a shorter period of time during exercise 

• Clenching of the jaw

• Irritability 

• Restlessness

• Heart palpitations 

• Feeling stuck or numb 

• Proscrasination 

  
  

It is time to start listening to your body! If your body is communicating the red flags listed above, take action. Rest is an essential part of an athlete's career. Rest is not lazy, it is adaptation! Your muscles need time to recover, to grow back stronger, and to adapt to the limits you are pushing your body to on a weekly basis. Many of our athletes feel guilty for taking a rest day as it can feel lazy and unproductive. We invite you to reframe this thought pattern and try something like this instead: 

“Rest and recovery days are an essential part of the process to becoming a better athlete. If I expect my body to show up for me during my events, I need to provide my body with the rest that it is demanding of me so it can rebuild and repair itself. Although rest can be uncomfortable, resting will allow me to do what I love at a higher level for a longer period of time.” 

Focusing on stress management can help athletes move from “fight or flight” to “rest and digest”. Here are some of our favorite ways to trigger the parasympathetic nervous system, or “rest and digest”:

• Box breathing before meals and/or athletic training

• Incorporating yoga and/or stretching into your weekly routine 

• Humming your favorite song once per day

• Arts and crafts

• 15-30 min naps throughout the day 

Stress management is underrated when it comes to athletic performance, and often overlooked when it comes to symptom management. If you are an athlete, or an active individual, with performance goals that feel overwhelming, reach out! Our team of registered dietitians are here and ready to help you level up your game by tailoring a nutrition plan for you with key aspects of nervous system regulation. At SkimWellness, we help you prioritize your health, not just performance! 

Citation:

Mazur M, Furgała A, Jabłoński K, Mach T, Thor P. Autonomic nervous system activity in constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome patients. Med Sci Monit. 2012 Aug;18(8):CR493-499. doi: 10.12659/msm.883269. PMID: 22847198; PMCID: PMC3560712.