Resolve Your Stress

There are many things to consider when deciding on when to train, what to train, and how to train. Stress is something to consider in your decision making. Stress can be mental or physical (emotions or physical activities or combination of both). When you're stressed you can feel emotionally erratic. It can affect your ability to concentrate. Stress reduces your ability to recover. Recovery is where you gain from training and learn how well your program was designed.

If you introduce training stimulus (excessive cardio or heavy weights) that is inappropriate while in a highly stressed state you can do more damage than good. A great place to start your quest towards better health and/or better performance is to lower your stress. Improve your happiness in life. Change your outlook on the future and let go of the past. Develop a training plan that is designed around your specific needs right now with an eye towards the future. Improve a little bit each day.

Adopt an attitude that is open to change and seek to find the best solution for you rather than accepting a one-size fits all approach. For example, just because strength training has been shown to have health benefits doesn't mean you should throw all your chips onto the table and go lifting as heavy as you can. Learning how to train properly (how to do the exercises, how to recover, how to stretch, etc).

If you want better results you'll have to do what others don't/won't do. Ask questions of commonly accepted beliefs, question commonly practiced methods, question yourself without judgement, and learn from everything you do in order to do it better the next time.