reducing cortisol and heart rate

[goofygoober]

Cortisol is the main stress hormone so lowering it should be a focus
while some of these things may increase cortisol, long term they help at lowering stress response and keep your heart rate down when stress.
Cardio
Cardio helps with lots of things (and it doesn't have to be running.) For cortisol the benefits of running are that your heart rate will go down in a stressful time and that it will help mange your stress response long term.
Most of your cardio should be in Zone 2 every week try to get in 120-200 minutes of Zone 2 cardio ( Zone 2 cardio is a level of intensity where your heart rate is at 60-70% of its max heart rate, lets say you max heart rate is 100 bpm the Zone 2 cardio would be where your heart rate is at 60-70 bpm)
HIIT
a HIIT routine once a week there are like a million online with diffirent exercises the most basic and popular is {4 minutes of running the 4 minutes of rest} X 4
this should be preformed at Zone 4 (80-90% of max heart rate)
Sprinting
You could replace your HIIT with 5 max all out sprint once or twice a week.
Misc
This is small stuff but it could help you in real time, lets say you have social anxiety to avoid stress these could help
- Chewing gum
-PMR
progressive muscle relaxation, taking deep breaths tensing a muscle then relaxing it. Lets take a social setting as example, when not talking try to do this to relax.(doing this with music might make it more effective)
Avoiding stress
you don't want your cortisol to build for no reason so stuff like video games that make you tense. For example I know when I'm playing ranked r6 I'm not relaxed im 90% of the time screaming at the shitter who auto locks vigil and dies trying to spawn peek and doing no site setup.
I feel like I don't really need to give a lot of example since you can decide what makes you stressed and how to mitigate or remove it.
Cold water immersion
I know it sounds dumb but I'm not saying cold showers are going to turn you into true Adam, I'm just saying that it helps with cortisol.
It was found that cortisol stays stable during exposure and levels decrease after cold water Immersion. But it also negatively gains from the gym which is why I won't use it.
Drugs
There are plenty the one I'm considering is Phosphatidylserine.

 

[Youㅤ]

i dont know if cortisol is necessarily bad, but stressful things usually are which is why they stress u. i dont get the thread -- things like intense exercise and intense cold will increase cortisol, although im not saying they are bad as i just explained, and maybe they will reduce cortisol afterward. fasting increases cortisol maybe cortisol is anti ageing in this context.

 

[Youㅤ]

my HR is under 60 usually even if i feel stressed. my tip for reducing cortisol is go outside daily + ASMR

 

[goofygoober]

i dont know if cortisol is necessarily bad, but stressful things usually are which is why they stress u. i dont get the thread -- things like intense exercise and intense cold will increase cortisol, although im not saying they are bad as i just explained, and maybe they will reduce cortisol afterward. fasting increases cortisol maybe cortisol is anti ageing in this context.

It's not that cortisol is bad it's just a lot of the time there is to much it reduces production of androgens and in social interactions lots of people tend to get unnecessary cortisol increases and their heart rates go up. The guide is to prevent cortisol from building up when it doesn't need to. Being calm in lots of scenarios just helps with doing the task required.