6 Ways To Strategically Stress Your Body & Supercharge Longevity

If you're interested in strategically stressing your body, there are quite a few avenues to take (beyond cold showers, we promise!). Find the practice that best suits your lifestyle below: 

Brief yet intense cold exposures have been associated with a balanced inflammatory response1, improved sleep2, muscle and joint health3, and mood support4—it's why longevity experts love a good ice bath. And according to longevity expert and Harvard geneticist David Sinclair, Ph.D., a cold plunge also activates the production of brown fat5: "Brown fat is super healthy," he says on the mindbodygreen podcast. Brown fat burns energy to create heat and manage body temperature, which is why it's activated by colder temperatures. "I used to do cycles of 4 degrees Celsius, almost shivering cold water, up to my neck and stay in there for as long as I could bear—which was about five minutes," he adds. 

This face-focused plunge may have even more benefits for your mental health—and maintaining mental well-being is crucial for optimizing longevity. Just ask exercise physiologist, personal trainer, and New York Times bestselling author Ben Greenfield: "Cold water immersion for the face is one of the best ways to tone that vagus nerve and allow your nervous system to have that type of resilience," he says in another mindbodygreen podcast episode. "When your vagus nerve becomes toned, it's able to more effectively communicate with the rest of the organs—the heart, the lungs, the diaphragm, the brain—and it also is able to respond to stress in a far more refined way." 

That cold-to-heat experience can shock your body in a quick yet meaningful way. Sauna use, specifically, has been associated with reduced all-cause mortality risk6; and periodic heat exposure, in general, can boost the expression of "heat shock" proteins7 in the body, which may help strengthen the immune system and promote longevity. 

Not to mention, exercising outside in the cold adds a layer of healthy discomfort that your body and mind must overcome—and engaging in mentally stimulating and challenging activities can also kick-start hormesis. See, when you have to focus on the cold weather, it forces you to get out of your head in a way that promotes a degree of mental fitness. Plus, you have to keep tabs on your surrounding environment while you work out so you don't trip over a rock, tree, person, etc. "There are all sorts of things that happen outdoors that are unpredictable and are more stimulating to the mind," Greenfield notes, which can offer some healthy stress. 

Time-restricted eating isn't for everyone, and that's OK (there are more than a few ways to strategically stress your body, which is the entire point of this article), but if you think you might benefit from a fasting plan, check out our full guide here. 

Other xenohormetic nutrients include curcumin from turmeric, resveratrol from berries and wine, allicin from garlic, quercetin from a variety of fruits and vegetables, and even green tea, says integrative physician Robert Rountree, M.D. "Some of the same systems are turned on whether you're taking a cold plunge or eating broccoli sprouts," he adds, as the glucosinolates in broccoli sprouts are thought to activate beneficial detoxification enzymes. Neat, no? 

Essentially, this exercise reduces your carbon dioxide sensitivity, which is an important marker for respiratory strength. "What that can do is increase carbon dioxide in the blood, and it can help to reduce your sensitivity to the gas," McKeown adds. "That's something we use a lot with athletes, but it does more than that: It will open up the nose; it will open up the lungs; it will increase blood flow to the brain." What's more: Pair a breathwork practice with cryotherapy, a la Wim Hof, and research has shown the practice can help control the stress response and increase pain tolerance9. 

Just one quick, important caveat we should mention: Keep these stressors short and sweet (especially fasting and cold plunges). You need just enough of a nudge to kick-start beneficial cellular processes—if you overdo it, those stressors can actually backfire. But a little bit of stress, it seems, isn't such a bad thing.