Developing Physical Resilience

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Our work can involve physical demands that can certainly take their toll; working long hours, working indoors, travel, doing repetitive tasks, heavy-lifting, a fast-paced environment, sitting at a computer for long periods of time…the list goes on.

All of these things require varying levels of physical resilience, not just so that you can get through the day, but also so that you can feel that the work we do is truly valuable. It’s important to keep a close eye on signs of fatigue and make shifts in your environment and work conditions as needed so that your quality of life is not negatively impacted.

Hi, this is Grant Herbert, International Influencer and Sustainable Performance Coach, and this week I want to have a conversation with you around Physical Resilience.

Physical Resilience is your ability to respond to physical stress, specifically, stress that acutely disrupts normal physiological homeostasis. It is the ability to quickly resolve unexpected or unusual environmental, medical or clinical challenges.

A lack of Physical Resilience can cause stress which creates various side effects to your health, which differ with every individual’s situation and environment.

Vibrant health can remain elusive until you take the time to pay attention and listen to your body. The body knows what is good for it and what is not.

This past week, I myself have had to really take stock of what I have been putting my body through lately. Several overseas trips, changing time zones, inadequate sleep patterns, sitting in planes and airport lounges, all these things have left me feeling a little worse for wear.

Right now I am sitting in my hotel in beautiful San Diego, California, waiting to go to the airport for a long journey back to Sydney. I’m tired, my body hurts, and to be honest, even though I cannot wait to get home to my family, I am not looking forward to what’s ahead over the next 24 hours.

So this morning, before I did anything else, I went for a long walk around the city and the bay to move my body and get my 10,000 steps before breakfast.

That’s enough about me, let’s have a chat about you.

Physical resilience is allowing your body to be fit and adapt to stress and the challenges in your life.

There are so many ways for Physical Resilience to be developed and you must choose the correct path for you; but it may be – long walks, power walking, running, classes in the gym, any sport or some action to both improve and strengthen our cardiovascular system to get the oxygen and nutrients into your muscles which is proven to give you more energy.

What can you do to ensure you maintain your Physical Resilience? Here are a few ideas to get you started.

• Sleeping well is necessary to respond to the physical stress. If you missed my episode on Sleep a few weeks ago, take the time to go back and check it out.

• Exercise improves blood flow and oxygen levels in the brain, it also encourages the release of the brain chemicals called endorphins. These endorphins trigger a positive feeling in the body, similar to that of morphine. They are referred to as “the happy pill!”

• There are many benefits of practicing yoga, pilates, meditation and mindfulness.  All your attention is focussed which allows you to observe your body’s reaction as well as your thoughts to gain control and accept positive thoughts. Working on some form of mindfulness first thing in the morning can alleviate stress in your body and if practiced at night can help with a good nights’ sleep.

• Being involved in sports and fitness is fun, social, inspiring, challenging, and for the most part – really good for us. Being mindful of your body and keeping control on a competitive nature is vitally important here though or you can do more harm than good. I know from experience with this one.

• The body must have adequate nutrition and the functional capability to utilise that nutrition; as well the body must excel in eliminating waste. Eating well is therefore extremely important in the Physical Resilience equation.

We humans are complicated so for you to get through those tough physical or strenuous times, physically resilient people possess self-regulation, adaptability, positivity, and control.

It’s not always about peak performance or competition, it’s simply the importance of challenging yourself physically whenever possible; it’s simply exhilarating to do something you just didn’t know you could.

Finally, you need to consider the mind-body connection to your Physical Resilience beyond your medical, physical or nutritional needs. There are social, psychological and even spiritual factors that regularly impact your Physical Resilience.

Well that’s it from me for this week. Join me again next week as we continue the conversation by going deeper on Mental Resilience.