You’re following your usual training plan, but suddenly the weights feel heavier, you’re more tired and your progress has slowed. At the same time, work, study or life in general has been stressful.
It’s easy to wonder: is stress affecting my gains?
Stress can affect your sleep, appetite, energy, concentration and recovery, which can make it harder to train at your usual level. But a stressful week doesn’t undo months of training.
Here’s what stress may change in your training, the signs worth noticing and how you can adapt.
Does stress affect muscle growth?
It can, particularly when stress is ongoing. But the relationship isn’t as simple as “stress equals no muscle growth.”
Short-term stress is a normal part of life. A few stressful days are unlikely to suddenly stop your progress.
Ongoing high stress is where it may start to have more of an impact. One study found that people who reported higher levels of psychological stress recovered muscle function more slowly after a tough resistance-training session (Stults-Kolehmainen and Sinha, 2014).
There are indirect effects too. If you’re stressed, you might sleep less, eat differently, have less energy or find it harder to concentrate. Over time, those changes can make it more difficult to train consistently and recover well.
As a trainer, I've had clients come into a session after a particularly stressful day at work and assume they needed to push harder because their performance felt off. Once we reduced the weight slightly and focused on controlled repetitions, they completed an effective workout without turning it into another source of pressure.
How stress affects recovery
Training gives your muscles a reason to adapt. Recovery gives them the chance to do it.
For muscle growth, some of the biggest practical issues are whether stress is disrupting your sleep, food intake and ability to train consistently.
Sleep is particularly important. In one study, five nights of restricted sleep, around four hours per night, reduced myofibrillar protein synthesis in healthy young men (Saner et al., 2020). In simple terms, this means their bodies were less effective at building and repairing the proteins that make up their muscles.
A client of mine was once frustrated that her progress had stalled, but she was also waking up several times each night to care for a young child. When we stopped judging every session against her best performance and adjusted her programme to what she could realistically recover from, her training became much more manageable.
Does cortisol affect muscle growth?
Cortisol is a hormone your body naturally produces and it plays an important role in helping your body respond to stress and make energy available when you need it.
So why is it associated with muscle loss?
Cortisol belongs to a group of hormones called glucocorticoids. When glucocorticoid exposure is high for a prolonged period, it can shift muscle protein balance by reducing protein synthesis and increasing protein breakdown. This is why cortisol is often described as a “catabolic” hormone.
But that doesn’t mean every rise in cortisol is bad for your muscles. Cortisol naturally changes throughout the day and can temporarily increase during exercise too. A temporary increase is very different from prolonged or excessive exposure.
Signs stress may be affecting your training
One difficult workout isn't necessarily a sign that you need more recovery. Everyone occasionally has a session where a familiar weight feels unexpectedly heavy.
Pay more attention when several changes continue across multiple workouts.
For example:
- Your usual weights consistently feel harder
- Your strength or repetitions keep dropping
- Soreness lasts longer than you're used to
- Your sleep or appetite has changed
- You arrive at workouts already exhausted
- Training feels mentally draining
- You feel like you're not recovering between sessions
Look for a pattern, rather than judging your progress based on one session.
Should you train when stressed, and how should you adjust?
You don’t automatically need to skip training when you’re feeling stressed. The important question is what kind of session makes sense that day.
It can help to distinguish low motivation from poor recovery.
If you don't particularly feel like training but your body feels normal and your performance has been stable, you may simply be having a low-motivation day. Starting your warm-up or committing to the first ten minutes can help you decide whether you want to continue.
Poor recovery tends to show up differently. Maybe your normal weights have felt unusually difficult across multiple sessions, you're still sore or you're feeling physically exhausted before you've even started. In that situation, pushing harder may not be the most useful response.
You still have several options. You could:
- Do fewer sets
- Use slightly lighter weights
- Leave more repetitions in reserve
- Choose familiar exercises
- Shorten the session
- Take an extra recovery day
- Plan a lighter training week
For example, instead of completing six exercises for three sets each, you could choose four exercises and perform two or three sets. You're maintaining your routine without expecting exactly the same performance from yourself during a demanding period.
Sometimes you'll start your warm-up and feel much better than expected. Other times, you'll realise that rest is what you need. Both are valid outcomes.
If you are unsure how to adjust your training during a demanding period, a personal trainer can help you adapt your routine to what you can manage.
How to support muscle recovery
Focus on the basics that are most likely to make a difference: rest where you realistically can, eat regular meals with enough protein, stay hydrated and allow enough recovery between demanding sessions.
The World Health Organization recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week, which works out to around 22 minutes a day. During October, The Basic-fit app gives you an easy way to fit those minutes into your day. You can choose between Energy, Confidence and Calm and follow a series of 22-minute sessions based on what you need that day.
You don't have to optimize everything at once.
I once had a client who was going through a particularly busy period at work. She was overthinking, regularly skipping meals and still trying to keep up with all of her usual workouts. Instead of asking her to improve everything at once, we chose two things that felt realistic. She started preparing an easy lunch for busy workdays and we replaced one of her harder workouts with an extra recovery day. It made her routine feel manageable again without giving up training altogether.
You can also slow down after training with a personalised massage in one of the massage chairs at your club.
Your recovery routine should reduce pressure, not create more of it.
When to get extra support
Stress is a normal part of life, but you don't have to handle persistent stress entirely by yourself. Consider speaking to a healthcare professional if stress continues for a longer period or starts affecting your sleep, appetite, relationships, work or ability to manage everyday life.
The same applies if exercise starts becoming a source of guilt or pressure rather than something that supports you.
Depending on what you're experiencing, your GP, psychologist or another qualified mental health professional can help you find appropriate support.
Key takeaway
Stress can affect muscle growth and recovery, especially when it continues over time. That doesn’t mean a difficult week suddenly wipes out the work you’ve already done.
Pay attention to patterns in your recovery and give yourself permission to adjust your training when you need to.
Before your next workout, ask yourself one question: do I simply lack motivation today, or am I showing signs that I haven't recovered?
The answer can help you decide whether to do your normal workout, make it lighter or give yourself an extra day to recover.
Whatever you choose, the Basic-Fit app can help you match your training to how you feel. Pick a video workout, try a yoga or Pilates session, or use a meditation when you need more time to slow down and recover.
This article is for general information only. Individual needs can vary depending on health status, training experience, and personal goals. If you have a medical condition or specific health concerns, consider seeking advice from a qualified healthcare professional.
