Let me tell you about the first time I really got punched in the face.
No, it wasn’t in a bar. Nope, not at the playground as an adolescent either.
To be honest, I had never been in a fight in my life.
Sure, Ryan and I would have our “altercations” like any siblings do. At moments, blood was shed and holes were put in walls (Dad didn’t wasn’t quite happy about that one). But I never considered these real bone on bone brawls.
We would argue and wrestle until someone got hurt only to be separated. After a few minutes of cooling down, we were right back to being bros again.
So I guess you could call me more of a lover than a fighter. Especially in my younger, more timid years.
Anyway, back to the first time I really experienced getting punched in the face and how it changed my life.
My opponent was a familiar face. Only he had a grown a few inches and gained more than a few pounds of muscle from our younger years. Yup, you guessed it. It was a flash back to our bedroom beatdowns except we were actually in a ring now.
The bell rang to start the round. Fearlessly, I stepped in to spar my brother and amateur Muay Thai fighter, Ryan. In my head, I had this. Just like those earlier years of the older brother’s dominance. Then a sneaky, quick jab popped me right in the nose. No harm, no foul.
Guess little bro isn’t so…well, little anymore.
As I geared up to continue the round, my body my sympathetic nervous system had other plans.
They screamed “GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE”.
And that was to run. Run as fast and as far as possible away from this VERY mean man.
Just like Tong Po…
No matter how much my mind thought I was capable of sparring again, my survival mechanisms kicked in.
So not did only have my first experience of getting punched in the face (thanks Ry!) but I learned about the powers of the adrenals and my hormones.
Particularly, the fight-or-flight response.
By all means, I’m not advising you to go talk some smack at a bar at some meathead until you leave with a little shiner. So I’m going to save you the pain and humiliation and put this into perspective for you.
[Take a martial art instead. You can learn a lot about yourself after you take a hit. A little soul searching in an aggressive manner.]
So every time you are stressed the f**k out, your adrenals act in the same fashion as if you were being chased by a lion and running for your life.
You and me baby ain’t nothing but mammals…
Whether it’s…
Traffic pissing you off
Your boss or girlfriend yelling at you…AGAIN.
Punching yourself in the face because you missed your target macros.
[You don’t do that, right?]
Over time, you begin to wreak havoc on your body.
Basically, your body puts everything besides what you need to survive on the back-burner. That includes your digestion, libido, and recovery from your last workout.
We are meant to handle short term stresses. The problem lies in chronic, long term stress.
It’s a vicious cycle too. Chronic stress can be a result of poor nutrition, overtraining, lack of sleep, inflammation in the body, food sensitivities, metabolic disorders, mental stressors, and more.
No before you get all stressed out, here’s some of the solutions:
1. Remove potential stressors.
Get rid of everything in your control that stresses you out. Recognize the things that stress you out but that you cannot easily remove from your life. Instead, we must implement strategies to better deal with them. This includes traffic and the weather.
2. Determine if you are in adrenal fatigue with a saliva test.
While you’re at it, get your thyroid tested as well. Be sure to test for these specifically:
• TSH
• T4 (Free and Total)
• T3 (Free and Total)
• Reverse T3
• Thyroglobulin antibody (ATA)
• Thyroid Peroxidase antibody (TPO)
3. Work with a coach.
Make a plan of attack. Figure out what you should remove from your diet, supplements you could possibly take, and strategies to get you into a more parasympathetic (rest and digest) state.
Iron Mike Tyson says it best.
Everyone has a plan – until they get punched in the face.”
Now, you have your plan. Go execute but first tell us about the first time you got punched in the face.
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