Stress Recovery: Why Stress Itself Might Not Be The Problem

Stress has become a catch-all term for everything from pressure at work to intense training blocks, and for good reason…chronic, unregulated stress is clearly associated with increased inflammation, cognitive decline, cardiovascular issues, and impaired recovery. From a physiological standpoint, unmanaged stress absolutely is a problem.

BUT the story is more nuanced than "stress = bad." In its natural form, stress is a tool. It’s a response system designed to protect, adapt, and improve. The trouble arises when stress sticks around–when the body gets stuck in the middle of the response without a clear off-ramp. In other words, stress that moves is useful. Stress that lingers is what breaks us down.

We don’t burn out from stress alone. We burn out from unfinished responses, from strain that loops instead of resolving. It’s not the presence of challenge that causes wear; it’s the absence of closure.

What Happens When Stress Doesn’t Move

The stress response is a full-body event. It starts in the brain, particularly the amygdala and hypothalamus, and cascades into the nervous, endocrine, and muscular systems. Blood pressure rises, breathing patterns change, and focus narrows. The body prepares to act.

In a healthy cycle, the body responds, acts, and then resets. The parasympathetic system kicks in, breath slows, muscles release tension, and cortisol and adrenaline taper off. Unfortunately, modern stressors don’t always offer that resolution. We don’t get to sprint away from inboxes or shake off an awkward meeting. We often hold tension without release. Over time, this leaves the nervous system in a sustained state of activation.

The result? Functional freeze. We might look fine. We’re training, showing up, getting things done, but internally, things are rigid. Focus feels mechanical and emotions feel either too muted or too loud. This isn’t just burnout. It’s unintegrated stress accumulating in a system with no exit route.

Physiology of Getting Stuck

When stress patterns repeat without a full resolution, the body adapts by defaulting to those patterns. The nervous system, always aiming for efficiency, makes rigidity the baseline. Even with time off, the system struggles to return to a rested state.

This is why rest alone often doesn’t restore energy. We can sleep more and still wake up foggy. We can train less and still feel drained. When stress isn’t integrated, the recovery signal doesn’t register. We’re technically resting, but the body doesn’t feel safe enough to let go and get the benefit from downtime.

Psychologically, this might feel like frustration for no clear reason,  flatness in activities that used to bring joy, or a persistent sense of effort without reward. These are signs of a nervous system waiting for closure it never got.

More Than Fight or Flight: The Freeze Response

We often simplify stress responses to "fight or flight,” but the freeze response, though less discussed, is just as vital. It’s the survival response of stillness. It’s a way to avoid detection or emotional overload when action feels impossible.

In high performers, freeze often goes unnoticed. It doesn’t look like collapse. It looks like productivity without presence. It looks like showing up, pushing through, and achieving goals without ever feeling fully engaged or restored.

This "functional freeze" shows up as reduced HRV, persistent low-level inflammation, and emotional blunting. It can also lead to decision fatigue, physical tightness that resists stretching, and a sense of internal misalignment with what’s actually happening. It’s not always obvious, but it’s often the real root of chronic underperformance.

Stress Recovery and How It Moves Through the Body

When given a chance, the body has its own ways of completing stress responses. Movement, breath, and emotional expression are a few of the most basic, and most effective, ways to re-establish safety and reset the nervous system.

In animals, this is easy to observe. After escaping danger, many mammals shake or tremble before returning to baseline. This isn’t just a quirk! It’s how their nervous systems discharge activation. Humans still have these same mechanisms, but we often suppress them. We override with language, habit, and social norms.

Controlled breathwork is effective way to help the system settle. A technique we’ve talked about before is the “physiological sigh,” which is a double nasal inhale followed by a slow exhale. It’s been shown to quickly reduce arousal in the body by activating parasympathetic pathways. When practiced regularly, this helps reacquaint the system with what calm actually feels like.

Another path to resolution is rhythmic, low-stakes movement. Walking without urgency or mobility work without an agenda. These patterns, especially when repeated, send a signal to the brain that action was taken and the threat is gone. The point is to complete the stress loop, not push to exertion.

From Stuck to Integrated

Stress is inevitable, but getting stuck in it isn’t. The key distinction is whether our system is given space to recover, reflect, and integrate vs. whether it’s forced to brace, perform, and move on before it’s ready.

What people often describe as burnout or plateau is frequently a form of incomplete processing. The system isn’t broken. It’s just over capacity, and until it feels safe to downshift, it won’t.

This isn’t just emotional. It’s structural. The nervous system learns from experience. If we consistently override signals (i.e. ignoring fatigue, pushing through emotional friction, skipping recovery rituals) our system learns to mute its cues. Over time, that muting becomes our baseline. Performance continues, but the cost rises.

Integration means recognizing when the loop hasn’t closed. It means checking in before checking out. Are we holding our breath? Is our body bracing? Are we acting from clarity or just habit?

When stress cycles through, we feel it. Rest starts to actually do what it’s meant to. Performance becomes expressive again rather than just effortful. We don’t eliminate stress to be healthy. We learn to complete it.

References

1. Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation. W. W. Norton & Company.

2. Levine, P. A. (2010). In an unspoken voice: How the body releases trauma and restores goodness. North Atlantic Books.

3. Huberman, A. D., et al. (2023). Brief structured respiration techniques can rapidly reduce physiological arousal. Cell Reports Medicine, 4(1), 100895.

4. Dana, D. (2018). The polyvagal theory in therapy: Engaging the rhythm of regulation. W. W. Norton & Company.

5. McEwen, B. S. (2007). Physiology and neurobiology of stress and adaptation: central role of the brain. Physiological Reviews, 87(3), 873-904.

6. van der Kolk, B. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Penguin Books.