Smile more at the gym
Why so serious?
One thing I’ve observed exercising around more people the past few months, moving from a small rural village to a bustling suburban metropolis, is that other people exercising aren’t smiling at all!
There’s something a bit wrong with this picture.
Look, I get it, exercise is hard. Who has time to smile when they are busting their butt, sweating, struggling, enduring, pushing, and going for broke?
But there should be elation, joy, healthy pride, passion, emotion, and gratitude in the process as well.
I think this all has to do with the misunderstanding of play I talked about last week on my podcast, check out the episode if you’d like to listen (Spotify / Apple / YouTube).
Don’t Exercise as Punishment To Yourself
They way most adults approach exercise and sports isn’t from a playful attitude, it’s from a punishment paradigm.
“I’ve been eating too much crap, better run it off like a prisoner”
“Too many years of not moving, means I need to hurt myself in the gym to make up for lost time”
“Doctor says I need to do it, so here I am doing it, but I aint happy about it, and I’ll let everyone know what’s truly on my mind”
I can see it on your faces. From hotel gyms, to beach runs in paradise, to biking along million dollar mansion boulevards, and heading into $500 monthly gyms. No smiles. No joy. No passion. NO LIFE.
Now you can surely get some physical results from punishment. Afterall, if I punish my kids by taking away their toys when they don’t listen they’ll get the message.
But it’s not teaching them anything of value, it teaches them that a bigger person will take their stuff if you make that bigger person angry enough, so just don’t make that person angry and you can keep your stuff.
I’d much rather empower their hearts to recognize the GOOD in their actions rather than always alert them to the BAD of what they need to fess up to.
Listen, if it’s always about punishing yourself for past health transgressions exercise will only ever be a physical prison. No wonder nobody smiles.
Smile power is REAL power
I’ve declared a bunch of themes to this year, to help me transition to living a suburban life without embodying a suburban attitude. The idea of ‘hoisting the black flag’ and living like a type of suburban pirate has helped me keep my aim true.
The biggest way I fight back against the dehumanizing ennui of strip malls, traffic lights, and ‘always rushing by the clock’ is to simply slow down and SMILE.
Whether I’m running through the streets, on trails, walking in the grocery store, or picking my kids up from school, I’m smiling at everyone I see. The people don’t smile back.
That won’t stop me and it’s alerting me to the power of smiles.
When I’m deep in the pave cave of a long trail run, I have two go to strategies to get myself energized.
The first is to simply remember how lucky I am to be where I am, alone in the forest, pushing myself hard, demanding a higher standard through my action, engaging in an activity I love, and that I should stop the pity party that the physical hurt is providing me the opportunity to attend. I smile at the pain. And I feel better.
The second is to let out a giant WARCRY.
I yell at the top of my lungs as if I’m about to lay waste to whatever might be around the next windy bend in the forest trail. It’s a good way to get some energy but it has an indirect affect I’m after, it makes me smile. How often do you just get to WAIL as loud and as viciously as your heart desires, I can tell you you’d get more than smiles in suburbia (likely a police car visit after a neighbour interprets your action).
Smiles have the power to turn a seemingly negative situation into a positive by reframing the experience in real time.
Integrating the Smile into your fitness routine
I want to challenge you to bring the power of smiles directly into your sport and exercise.
When you’re at the gym, smile at EVERYONE. Go give fist bumps to the people you see doing it with passion. Share a word of encouragement or appreciation for someone’s effort. Lift them up with your spirit.
If you’re out on a run, smile at EVERYONE you pass. High five the other runners and pump each other up as your go by. Throw up fist bumps, peace signs, or any other signal to bikers or people you can’t slap hands with.
This will have two powerful affects
1.No more punishment vibes
You’re not prisoners atoning for bad health, you are individuals striving towards excellence together at differing rates. The sacrifice of physical effort now comes with the internal reward of accomplishment instead of the negative pressure to ‘pay up’ for what you’ve done or haven’t done.
2.You increase everyone’s performance
Pro athletes know that the crowd is a true PED. Remember all those empty and lifeless stadiums from the pandemic? It’s incredible how much a little extra support can go towards your physical and mental performance in sport.
But when it comes to spiritual willpower, the encouraging words of a friendly face are the TRUE elixirs. If you give it out to another, you end up returning the energy to yourself.
Try it out next time you exercise.
Even if you don’t hit a PR, all the extra smiles will make it feel like playing instead of being punished
Happy Training Friends