How to Improve Your Trading Through Physical Toughness

In this blog post, I am going to explain how to improve your trading by maximizing your physical toughness.

"Evolution has equipped us with a stress response that can be fatally dysfunctional in modern society", says John Coates author of The Hour Between the Wolf and the Dog.

Chronic stress leading to elevated, sustained levels of cortisol may be responsible for most of the deadly modern health conditions like hypertension, heart disease, type-2 diabetes, immune disorders, and depression.

For traders, chronic stress and high levels of cortisol are commonplace since traders experience such high levels of variability, uncontrollability, and uncertainty present in the markets.

If chronic stress and high levels of cortisol lead to such deadly diseases, the question becomes: can we turn off cortisol? Can we control its toxic body-brain feedback loop?

Unfortunately, the reason so many people struggle with managing cortisol levels in the body is that our conscious and rational selves have very little control over the parts of the brain that are responsible for cortisol production.

There is a disconnect between our conscious selves and the primitive parts of our brains.

The main reason for this is that although we have a large system of neurological fibers called axons running from our brain stem and our limbic system (emotional part of our brain) to our neocortex responsible for our rational efforts, we have far fewer axons running to our primitive brain part and so far less conscious control over them.

Despite this conclusion, research into the physiology of stress response shows us that stress is mostly a physiological preparation for physical action.

First, this research allows for the possibility of training our physiology so that we have greater mental and physical toughness to guard us against the fatigue, anxiety, and psychiatric disorders that follow chronic stress and prolonged elevated cortisol levels.

Second, it also shows that stress arises from our objective circumstances which can be changed, changes that in turn can positively affect our mental state and physical health.

It turns out that physical toughness today is very well understood in the area of sports science which can directly be applied to other professions like trading.

Here's how to step by step:

Step 1: Exercise daily

Sports scientists have found that resilience from stress comes from experiencing stress.

They know that to build lean muscle mass and expand aerobic capacity athletes must endure a training regimen that shocks their muscles and strains their cardiovascular systems to the point of mild damage to tissues and add periods of rest and recovery.

Stress, recovery, stress, recovery - structured to deplete an athlete's resources, but only just, and then replenish them.

Periods of challenge and recovery can tune our nervous system so that we approach stressors with resistance and an optimal mix of hormones, neuromodulators, and nervous system activation.

Studies show that just 20 mins of exercise per day can have dramatic effects on promoting physical toughness and limiting stress response-induced chemicals like cortisol.

Step 2: Get plenty of rest

Now, in this first sentence, tell the reader where so many go wrong when it comes to this second step.

Many traders don't get enough rest to allow for proper recovery from elevated levels of stress and cortisol.

Cortisol is crucial in supplying us with the energy and focus that we need to mount an all-out mental or physical effort (flight or fight response).

However, prolonged elevated levels can be caustic to the body because of their catabolic effects. Cortisol literally eats the body to produce energy and our bodies degenerate under its influence.

We need cortisol to deliver metabolic support during challenging times but we have to prevent it from turning into a broad range of physical ailments, as well as anxiety and the tendency to view things as a threat rather than a challenge.

Getting proper rest and downtime turns catabolism off and upregulated anabolic hormones like testosterone to rebuild our depleted energy stores so that we have the appropriate amount of fuel to draw on the next time we are challenged.

Athletes and overall healthy people have a positive ratio of anabolic to catabolic hormones.

Trading is a very taxing activity on our bodies mentally and physically. Getting plenty of rest each day will help balance the effects of the hard these hard efforts.

Step 3: Rinse and repeat!

A toughened physiological state emerges when an individual experiences periods of stress followed by periods of recovery. I am not suggesting that a trader should become an athlete as well but one should become more like an athlete if he or she wants to experience superior results.

Exercise daily and get plenty of rest to maintain appropriate stress response hormone levels. Seek a positive ratio of anabolic (rest) hormones and catabolic (action) hormones.