Xercise (especially X Gym style Xercise), is the best way to alleviate stress. How do I know? Because of the countless comments to that effect from our members since I opened the X Gym in 1998.

But don’t just take my word for it. Science backs up my claim. There are numerous studies, but to keep readers’ eyes from glazing over, I’ll mention just a few here:

The Effectiveness of Exercise Interventions on Coping with Stress: Research Synthesis

Getting Fit for Life: Can Exercise Reduce Stress?

Stress relief: The role of exercise in stress management

Do exercise and fitness protect against stress-induced health complaints? A review of the literature

Who uses exercise as a coping strategy for stress?

And it turns out that X Gym style Xercise is best for stress reduction because of its unique factors of cardio and strength benefits. How does that work you ask? It’s due to the intensity and timing of each Xercise.

The X Gym methods cause the heart rate to spike towards the end and clients approach and achieve Complete Muscle Fatigue (CMF) in each Xercise, but then the heart rate comes back down during the switch to the next Xercise, until CMF is achieved there, and so on, 5-7 times during a session.

If you were to graph that heart rate response, it would look like interval training, and, as far as the body is concerned, it is, so even though it’s great strength training, it’s also cardio training.

Traditional strength training doesn’t provide this because the sets are too short. With only 8 to 12 reps, and those reps being fast and ballistic, everything is over in about 20 to 30 seconds. Also, since multiple sets are required per exercise, CMF is never truly achieved, nor a heart rate spike to speak of, which is why traditional exercise programs require separate workouts for strength and cardio.

But we also have specific cardio classes in our group training routine, in addition to all of our strength classes. We have named it Xardio because it’s our own style of interval, training that is much more beneficial than traditional interval, training, or traditional cardio exercise. Our Xardio classes also provide strength results, while traditional cardio doesn’t. In fact, traditional steady-state cardio actually takes away strength results.

The CMF in itself is also a huge stress buster, and traditional trainers rarely (if ever) get there because they don’t actually know what it is or what it even feels like. At the point of CMF, muscles are squeezing stress out, much like a deep tissue massage. Good massage therapists will have stories of their clients spontaneously laughing or crying on the table and they don’t know why. It’s because stress is stored in soft tissues and the therapist is getting that stuff out. The same thing happens with CMF, but most people don’t experience that because they don’t take their exercise to that level outside the X Gym.

Both strength training and cardio training have been shown through research and proven through X Gym to be extremely effective stress busters – arguably the most effective known to man.

Research also shows us a catch-22: People who are stressed are much less likely to exercise, so it’s harder for them to get started, but that’s why we have our brain type test, to help people with such struggles and motivation issues, so X Gym truly is a full brain and body package and the best way to bust stress and keep it at bay!

P.S. I’ve also written a previous article on what to do when you don’t feel like Xercising (usually because you’re too stressed). Just click here to read.