BUILDING RESILIENCY

RESILIENCY TRAINING:

Take your daily discomfort vitamin

Our present day lifestyle affords us to live in a state of perpetual comfort and ease. Not too long ago if you wanted to survive you had no choice but to relentlessly work hard while braving harsh elements. In our modern world, technology has automated and controlled for all of those hardships. Recently people have been starting to ask, what is all of this comfy living doing to us on a physiological level? Are our bodies in fact hindered by this omission of hardship and discomfort?  Was the exposure to a daily challenge part of an integral stimulus to our biology succeeding and staying healthy?  Do our bodies require something like a "daily discomfort vitamin"?

There is growing evidence that exposure to small bits of challenge to the system could actually be crucial to its vitality. It appears that exposing the body to "threat" in one area say, cold exposure bleeds into the workings of the immune system, bolstering it. This cold exposure has preliminarily been shown in studies to improve the immune system.(1) This is explored further by Scott Carney in his book "What Doesn't Kill Us". He takes an in-depth look and personally experiences the teachings of Wim Hof, who is world renowned for his death defying stunts of cold water plunges, and honed breathing techniques. Hof and many of his followers(big wave surfers, extreme sport enthusiasts) have found his methods effective and have achieved seemingly super human feats such as walking Kilimanjaro in shorts and a t-shirt.      

In Moises Valasquez Manoff's "An Epidemic of Absence", he investigates how exposing the body to an allergen which is a threat to the patient can ultimately decrease their overactive autoimmune response. What has been termed the "hygiene hypothesis" theorizes that our immune systems need constant exposure to germs(threat) and dirt to develop a healthy immune system. Proper immune function is contingent on a daily lesson in dirt in order to inoculate itself from future onslaught. 

Exposure to load in the form of strength training has been shown to have an effect in areas of pain management and psychology. Educator and physiotherapist Greg Lehman has used slow graded exposure of load on the body to strengthen it, as well as calm the body's hypersensitive nervous system creating a decrease in sensation of pain. Several investigators have also found that individuals have benefited psychologically in mood and self-esteem solely with the implementation of strength training programs.(2) 

Even in brain health, Lisa Barrett noted that leisurely doing Sudoku puzzles doesn't cut it to increase the brains capacity.(3) There has to be an intelligible challenge for cerebral tissue for increased brain functioning. A little steam has to be coming out of your ears as you toil over a solution to a complex math problem, or conjugate that verb in a foreign language. The common thread tying all this together is the idea, that exposure to a bit of discomfort, irritant, load, or challenge incrementally increased over time on a daily basis is a fundamental ingredient to a healthy system. 

Where I find this idea to be lost is those individuals who are either recovering from injury or trauma. In the initial stages of healing and/or trauma recovery there is indeed an amount of time that individuals need to steer clear of stressors in order to facilitate healing. Unfortunately with our present medical model these people are discharged acutely and not coached on how to make it back to the world without feeling a bit like a hot house flower. Instead of being an orchid only able to withstand 2 degrees of temperature variation, they should strive to become that determined resilient weed that is thriving despite growing in concrete, receiving two drops of rain, and freezing temperatures. They need to be exposed to that daily discomfort pill to become more comfortable with discomfort.

Strive to become that determined resilient plant able to flourish even in less than ideal surroundings.

Now if you have worked with folks who have chronic pain or trauma you will know that it comes with a good amount of fear and anxiety. Exposure to any sort of discomfort can be terrifying for them. They end up avoiding all irritating factors. They become religious about sleep, food, and stress in order to quell the nervous system which as I said before is fine to do in the acute stages, but this is not the route to a resilient system. 

Firstly you want to educate them on the basics of pain science. (Good resources:http://www.pain-ed.com/public/resources/, http://www.greglehman.ca/ ) Try to get them to embrace the sense that their body inherently has the ability to heal, and can recapture a healthy state. There will be bits of discomfort along the way which can be scary, but ultimately lead to a stronger self. Patience by the caretaker and client is critical, the path is definitely not a straight line there will be setbacks, but remind them often of their overall progress and milestones. Implement a program in a VERY slow fashion as you expose them to challenge. The challenge may be walking to the end of the block. Over time, with consistency, and gradual progression can lead to something bigger, like a 5k run a year later. Ultimately the goal over time is a human being that will be able to withstand and bounce back from any proverbial curve ball thrown its way.  

Lastly again there is no denying that any system works well when looked after properly with optimal food, sleep, exercise, and socialization. These elements can be looked at as the "comfort vitamins" or good self care. When the body has this optimal care its ability to withstand a challenge is at its peak. In human tissues there is a stress strain curve pictured below in which there is a point at which the tissue breaks(failure point). The body's breakdown threshold(failure point) can be looked at in a similar fashion, it’s at its highest when the system is healthy. The daily exposure to discomfort has the ability to push that threshold(failure point) on the graph higher. 

For example, if you had 2 runners who both didn't have much to eat, had a family crisis, and a red eye flight the night before, runner A that has trained in suboptimal conditions and is more acquainted with discomfort has better prepared and will be more tolerant to the described circumstances. Athlete A has inoculated his body for the not so ideal conditions thereby trained to withstand more without overreacting(immune system), breaking down(tissue breakdown), or flaring up with pain(nervous system). As Dan John puts it, athletes need to know "Can you go?" The bouts of discomfort into the training regime will turn that question into, "Can you go", when life's a s#&% show?

Can you still perform even in unideal conditions such as lack of sleep, nutrition, or inclement weather.

Adding a daily discomfort vitamin can be a useful and effective tool to being a strong and resilient human being. This dose of discomfort can prove even more valuable in those who consider themselves as broken in which it can be a crucial supplement along the path to putting the pieces back together stronger. 

1) Kox, M. Et al. Voluntary activation of the sympathetic nervous system and attenuation of the innate immune response in humans. Proceeding of the Nat'l Academy of Sciences of the USA. 2014 vol. 111(20)pg. 7379-84.

2) Stone, Michael, Stone M., Sands W., 2007. "Principles and Practice of Resistance Training." Human Kinetics, pp. 229-240.

3) Barrett, Lisa Feldman, "How to Become a Superager" New York Times. Dec. 2016.

4) Graph:  Rami K. Korhonen and Simo Saarakkala (2011). Biomechanics and Modeling of Skeletal Soft Tissues, Theoretical Biomechanics, Dr Vaclav Klika (Ed.),