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Lecture Notes

The third approach to managing stress—and again, this is just a general approach—is called physical engineering, or also termed stress-fit, and by this we mean that it's easier to deal with stress when our bodies are healthy from participating in regular physical activity, and this occurs for two primary reasons. First, when we experience the fight-or-flight reaction, the excess energy and biochemical byproducts are circulating in our body, and physical activity can help get rid of those, that excess energy or those byproducts. Second, remember that physical activity also stresses the body; it's a stressor. We get the same physiological response from physical activity as we do from stress, but it's a good type of stress that can help you deal with future responses to other stressors, and we call this physiological reactivity, when increased cardiorespiratory fitness buffers some of the effects of the stress response.