Exercise Scientist’s #1 Tip For Handling Stress - Dr Mike Israetel

Duration: 11:11 2256 transcript words EN summary

Video summary

Dr. Mike Israetel defines stress management through two primary lenses: determining how much external stress one chooses to accumulate and deciding how to psychologically process unavoidable stressors. He illustrates this with a relatable scenario involving driving in traffic; while going out on an off day might seem like fun, the act of sitting in heavy traffic is inherently stressful because it increases physiological arousal by 100%. The core decision lies in whether one needs to go somewhere or can simply stay home, acknowledging that there is no universally correct answer but rather a context-dependent choice. Once exposed to stressors like road rage or unexpected delays, the individual must choose between engaging in futile logical arguments about why construction exists or adopting a mindset of pure logic and acceptance, recognizing that they cannot control external events like traffic jams or sun angles affecting paint drying times. The discussion extends to social media interactions as another significant source of modern stress, using Simone Biles' experience with online criticism as an example. Israetel advises athletes and individuals facing public scrutiny not to internalize comments from strangers who will never meet them in real life. He suggests adopting a "50s kid" mentality when entering comment sections—treating interactions lightly so that negativity passes through without impact—or simply avoiding the section altogether if possible. This approach transforms stress management into an active choice about whether to expose oneself to specific digital environments and how to maintain emotional equilibrium within them, emphasizing that professional athletes still face significant stress from sources like social media drama despite their elite status. Israetel identifies two fundamental contributing factors for managing these pressures: avoiding actions one does not want to do when possible, and improving reactions to unavoidable situations. When a situation is controllable, such as adjusting travel times to avoid traffic or communicating delays with loved ones during flight cancellations, individuals should take immediate action before shifting their focus entirely away from the problem. However, once it becomes clear that no further productive steps can be taken—such as being stuck on an airplane due to mechanical issues—the most effective strategy is to accept the lack of control and disengage mentally. He argues that any residual stress felt in these moments is merely an archaic remnant of primate times, a biological echo rather than something requiring active resolution. The central takeaway for handling unavoidable stress is encapsulated in his "one super simple tip": asking oneself, "What can I do about this?" If the answer involves actionable steps, those tasks should be added to a to-do list and completed as soon as feasible; if the answer is that nothing can be done, one must stop trying to solve an unsolvable problem. Israetel uses examples ranging from physical altercations where throwing the first punch might resolve conflict quickly to mundane scenarios like watching TV on a delayed flight to demonstrate this principle of control. By distinguishing between what lies within our sphere of influence and what does not, individuals can prevent unnecessary psychological distress and maintain their composure regardless of external chaos or criticism.

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we haven't talked about Stress Management whatever that means I don't know what Stress Management is in the technical sense of the term yeah yeah talk to me what is Stress Management so Stress Management means sort of two things one is how much stress are you choosing to accumulate how much stress are you exposing yourself to and the other is how are you dealing with the stress that's vectoring in one way or another so for example probably the quintessential example of Stress Management is is do I choose to sit in traffic to go somewhere will it be stressful let's say it's your off day and your girl's like hey let's go to the mall now the mall's dope but it takes 25 minutes of driving to go to the mall driving if you're doing it or you're sitting in a passenger seat and the driver that's doing it sucks is a stressful activity it increases your stress 100% so the First Choice you have is do we really need to go somewhere or can we just chill at home there is no correct answer to that just the context answer that's correct at the time and also Stress Management is okay now that I'm driving [ __ ] it we're going to the mall we chose that it's a good decision the amount of stress psychologically that hits me from driving I have a choice in a lot of this is from like I have a pretty interesting history of meditation and mindfulness practice but you don't need all that Eastern mumbo jumbo it's all really valid [ __ ] but you just think about pure logic let's take the logic of road rage or just being upset that traffic exists you're going somewhere you think it's going to take 20 minutes Google map says 30 you're like the [ __ ] but whatever that thing is get stuff wrong every now and again though almost never in my experience you're driving drive and driving 70 mph red lights up ahead you're like oh my God this is the freeway this is America I was promised Baldi and no traffic I'm going back to Russia said no one ever and all of a sudden you're sitting in traffic and you're pissed and you start to have all these thoughts some of them you eject out of your mouth like what are they doing construction for it's one of my favorite things if you philosophically pick that apart be like Oh no you're right let's stop doing construction so the roads can Decay and we don't have any roads construction is necessary no do they always do it at the right time what are you a systems engineer you know what time they're supposed to be doing it at do you know how the baking of the Sun affects when shut up but to to paint that picture is logically at a pure logical level you can do nothing there's a standup comic that was like talking about road rage and he's like I'm in a stack of cars there's no it's as far as the IE can see and the guy behind me is honking at me and he looks like he's going to get out of his car hasn't thinking of things to tell him if he walked up to me like what you see sir the cars in front of me are solid so I can't actually go through them that is the realest talk in the world so in that moment sitting in your car you have a choice do I just put the [ __ ] podcast on go to Modern wisdom and get some [ __ ] knowledge in my head and just chill or am I like G to have these weird totally logical thoughts of why are they doing construction today or [ __ ] I wish I didn't do this well do you have a time machine no do you have a way to cancel all construction no you might as well chill road rage uh being upset at [ __ ] the boss said taking [ __ ] to heart drama that's another one any scenario you presented with can be very dramatic for you or it can be not so dramatic how you handle disagreements that's Stress Management we're all going to be hit by stress regularly in our lives professional athletes have a lot less stress but they still have stress someone said something on Instagram um what's that girl's name uh Simone biles no no with the dreads that but uh she just like a 100 meter Runner uh oh I know the chick you mean y I was going to say cardi B cuz they a similar VI not a Shaker Richardson yeah I mean she's got the nails of first of all I'm a married man but that [ __ ] fine as hell holy [ __ ] she could get it she's rapid is this on TV she's she's the [ __ ] I love that Vibe she's but she went through a phase where she was really feeling that [ __ ] Funk on social media when [ __ ] were talking that [ __ ] because that's what they do and if I was her Stress Management coach I'd be like do you know how much it matters what the people in the comment section say let's work through this logically and I would tell her it doesn't matter you'll never see these people in real life and if you do they they going to be really kind to you or they're going to shy away because they can't look people in the face you don't have to be in your comment section and if you're going to bring yourself into the comment section bring yourself in with a mentality of what I call 50s kid like leave it to be her attitude oh oh G whiz this person really has a nice suggestion you know they're like the comment is like off yourself and like well life is too difficult to live sometimes even for I spoke about it you know like nothing hits 50s kid it just goes right through them you either bring that energy to the comment section or you don't go into comment section that's Stress Management the comment section exists and sometimes you'll have to be in it how you approach it choosing do I go in here and expose myself to the stress and how do I deal with the stress psychologically that's Stress Management Chris it's a big deal dude so I I've been thinking about this more and more recently there's um two contributing factors especially when it comes to stress or dealing with stress as far as I can see one is not doing things that you don't want to do the second thing is is how do you deal with doing things that you don't want to do but you have to do yeah so with one you're reducing the number of times that you get exposed to it with the second one you are improving the way that you react to things that you've been unable to avoid yep for the first one I think that's relatively plain and obvious if you can adjust your travel time to not travel when there's traffic if you can not expose yourself like that's that's significantly more sometimes you don't have a choice yes and in those you you're liberate you couldn't have done it any other way so great for you uh if you're a determinist you couldn't have done anything any other way but never mind I agree with it what about the second category of Stress Management you've mentioned mindfulness as something that you do um are there any other places that you go to or ways that you sort of advise people I'm in I'm Mike I'm [ __ ] caught in throws of the thing maybe it's public criticism maybe it's scrutiny maybe it's me um uh vacillating about some slight from a short time ago that's fresh or an old time ago and I'm ashamed of it or all of the different things the vicissitudes that we [ __ ] go through are there any places that you yourself or you advise your athletes to go to Vengeance yesid yes let's do it Batman suit you got to make sure it's Kevlar because the bullets will fly um it's really simple one super simple tip exercise scientists one quick tip for vengeance yep uh sorry I said Vengeance again didn't I oh boy oh boy um you ask yourself the question what can I do about this you have one of two answers to that question a list of things you can do something that go on the to-do list and then you're like Gucci that's that's on the to-do list I'm going to get them done as soon as I can could be now could be later could be whatever or I can't do anything about it if you're going to do something about it do something like someone's like you know this is kind of a bit off off color but some of these in because it's been so on color thus far a certain kind of color brown really whatever color vomit is you know a brownish yellow um if you're like in an altercation with another adult male or someone law behaving lawlessly uh there's a high probability if you ever see me in an altercation that I will not be screaming at anybody very high probability CU to me it's only one of two things throw the first punch and we'll find out how much of my brown belt I've earned in Jiu-Jitsu or let's be chill you want to do something or we're going to [ __ ] unplug do something so people that get in the face and get screaming at you it doesn't really bother me much because I'm like dope like I've been in a lot of competition fighting before whatever man throw the first punch no big deal but I'm not going to yell at you cuz like what the hell is the point we're just alluding to the thing we're supposed to be doing anyway which is fighting so most of us are not luckily involved in scenarios like that all the time so let's take a much easier scenario you are sitting on an airplane and the captain just said hey folks you know that [ __ ] that happens he's like something mechanical blah blah 30 minutes maybe what can you do about it now how many people sitting in the back are licensed mechanics that are um actually allowed to work on the Delta Airlines whatever Airbus A3 whatever ever no one almost no one uh so what can you do about it well you have options you can scroll on your phone to see if you can catch another flight almost never does that work out because these things don't have that happen that often you can call some people where that are expecting you or the hotel or whatever and tell them Hey listen I I could be a lot late do that now once you've done that turn on the [ __ ] Monitor and watch the TV oh but you're still on the ground hell yeah you still got your phone you still got Wireless man you get the start modern wisdom podcast RP whatever uh more fun stuff than that you're good there is no more fun there's correct go watch more of our stuff um there's nothing for you to do and so you're good and so any residual stress that you feel is totally fine you'll still feel it but it's like an archaic remnant of our primate timeso stupid to figure [ __ ] out stoic Fork of control yeah yeah that's it very nice trust really is everything when it comes to supplements a lot of Brands may say that they're top quality but few can actually prove it which is why I partnered with momentus they make the highest quality supplements on the planet they're the most rigorously tested literally unparalleled when it comes to third party testing what you read on the label of the product is what's in it and absolutely nothing else if you have been struggling with your Sleep Quality the Sleep packs are one of my favorite product which I use every single night before bed they contain the most evidence-based ingredients at perfect doses to help you fall asleep more quickly stay asleep throughout the night and wake up feeling more rested and revitalized in the morning and there is a 30-day money back 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