PUSH YOURSELF (IN A GOOD WAY)

Making your body a little uncomfortable can be great for you-if you do it right.

- JESSICA MIGALA

FOR MOST OF US, the word "stress" brings to mind the teeth-grinding agita that overtakes us in a traffic jam or during a panicky day at the office. We consider it our health enemy, right along with smoking, sitting, and sugar. But stress can be positive, say some wellness-minded types who embrace hormetic stress.

Hor-what? It's basically a way to push yourself out of your comfort zone in order to get stronger, biologically speaking. (Hormesis, from the Greek word for "excite," refers to a process in which a small dose of something harmful may have a beneficial effect.) By gently subjecting the body to mild discomfort-cold, heat, spurts of intense activity, limited fasting-followed by recovery, we can promote resilience, metabolic health, and longevity. The idea has been gaining popularity, which is why you may have seen Harry Styles sitting in an ice bath on Instagram a few years ago.

Though the practice might sound a bit out there, the science seems promising, says Ryo Sanabria, PhD, an assistant professor of gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, who studies the link between stress and aging. "Researchers have started to see that low-grade stress that's not damaging to the body can be beneficial," he says. "It causes an adaptive response of cells and organisms."

How it works: Encountering stressors activates the secretion of cortisol and adrenaline, which leads to increased heart rate and blood pressure. In cases of chronic stress (the kind that simmers inside us long term), a prolonged bodily response can be harmful. With hormetic stress, however, we rest and recover quickly, leaving us potentially more resilient to future stress and at less risk of disease. Think of what happens when you lift weights: You get tiny tears in your muscles that might not feel so good the next day, but when they eventually heal, you're ready for heavier dumbbells.