CANADIAN PHYSIQUE ALLIANCE DECEMBER ISSUE | Page 98

If you are reading this, you
are probably a very highly
motivated individual who
has some serious goals.
Whether that may be having
a killer physique for your
next physique show or you
just want to live the
happiest, healthiest life
possible while operating at a
higher level of
consciousness. Most of you
who read this have a busy
lifestyle: such as having a
career, post-secondary
school education, families,
and still prioritizing your
health and fitness all take
time and effort. Although it
is amazing to live life to the
fullest and doing all these
things, they can take a toll
on us and oftentimes may
lead to us feeling
overwhelmed, having
trouble focusing, and even
developing anxiety.
This overwhelming feeling
can oftentimes lead to
increased amounts of stress
which can really impact our
hormones and thus throw
off our energy levels and
even our sleep patterns. 
Think of a time when you
were going through a very
stressful or overwhelming
period in your life, was it
difficult to shut your mind
off and even go to sleep?
How often were you
preoccupied with the issues
in your mind? Perhaps you
felt distracted and instead of
efficiently doing a few things
you were trying to cram in
and mediocrely do a million
things.
When sleep duration and
quality is low, our activity
output high, and our stress
levels even higher, how do
we usually feel? Burnt out
and exhausted.
We still have our
responsibilities to handle
and on top of that, we want
to have great training
sessions. So we start having
3 and 4 cups of coffee a day
instead of 1 to 2. We may
begin to also start enjoying
energy drinks to just
function and get through
the day. Oh, and don’t forget
the pre-workout you are
having right before the gym
in order to just get through
that hard set of squats. 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2083418 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24266378
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20834180 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18844328