If you're a young adult who lifts weights, feeling stressed over time might slow down your muscle recovery—and this seems to be true whether we measure stress by how you feel or by big life events you've been through.

If you're a young adult who lifts weights, being more stressed out might slow down how quickly your leg strength bounces back after a tough workout—even if you're fit and experienced.

If you're a young adult lifting heavy weights, being under a lot of long-term stress might slow down how fast your muscles bounce back—even if you're fit or experienced.

If you're under a lot of long-term stress, your muscles might not recover as well after a tough workout — and you might feel more sore or off for days afterward.

If you're a young adult lifting heavy weights, being under more long-term stress might slow down how quickly your muscles bounce back in the hour after your workout — even if you're fit and used to training hard.

If you're a young adult who lifts weights, being stressed out doesn't seem to slow down how quickly your leg power comes back after a tough workout — at least when it comes to exercises that aren't directly using the muscles you worked.