Stress

Stress is defined as "any demand on the body (physical, mental, emotional)."  When we workout, we stress the body.  We cause it to go through a physical demand that allows it to get better (stronger, more endurance, flexible, etc).  Training is designed to stress out the body.  When we lift weights, we stress our muscles and that stress is good.  Avoiding stress in workouts is cheating oneself and prevents improvement.  Slowing down and finding comfort zones when working out will prevent stress and it will prevent improvement.  When we undergo stress in our lives (often times an emotional or mental demand on the body) we tend to see it as a completely negative experience.  We tend to see stress as being 100% "bad".  Although mental and emotional stress is not fun and it can be detrimental, how we deal wish stress ultimately determines the positive or negative impact of that stress.  Stress is in fact, neutral.  Fire stresses out steal but it allows that steal to be bent and shaped into a sword for protection or a tool for building.  Protection from future negative experiences and tools to help us through our life are both useful and without stress, we are less equipped.  As we experience stress in the future, it is up to us to handle it appropriately and respond to it in a manner that doesn't automatically make us "stressed out".