my17thcents worth book report: The Joy Of Movement by Kelly McGonigal, PhD How exercise helps us find happiness, hope, connection and courage
Saturday, July 06, 2024
my17thcents book report: The Joy Of Movement by Kelly McGonigal, PhD. How exercise helps us find happiness, hope, connection and courage.
I’m going to quote some passages from the book and add my17cents to them. I may have a personal story, a happy thought or even I don’t believe it. But they are all my17cents for what it’s worth to you. This was a four month long project as I would listen to a chapter and go back after and highlight parts that sparked something in me. I wouldn’t go on to the next chapter until I had highlighted the previous chapter. I would do about a chapter a week as I only have one day in the car with time to get through a chapter. I’d skip a week here and there so it took me a bit to get through the book. As you’ll see some chapters spoke more to me at the time which could just be that I was going through something while listening to this book.
I highly recommend the book for anyone interested on why we move through life with exercise.
Chapter 1: The Persistence High
When adults are randomly assigned to reduce theri daily step count, 88 percent become more depressed. Within one week of becoming more sedentary, they report at 31 percent decline in life satisfaction. The average daily step count required to induce feelings of anxiety and depression and decrease satisfaction with life is 5,649. The typical American takes 4,774 steps per day. Across the globe, the average is 4,961.
Maybe Fitbit and all those trackers were on to something. Maybe Fitbit made us all happier? It seemed that in the mid-2010's myself and my friends posted our weekly Fitbit Steps on social media and that was a good thing. It was a little friendly competition to make us all happier. Now we may not need 10,000 steps a day but we should be aiming for about that 5,649.
Chapter 2: Getting Hooked
Scientists have identified several strands of DNA, on multiple genes, that are linked to the antidepressant and anxiety effects of exercise. Individuals with any of these genetic variations seem to be more sensitive to the psychological benefits of regular exercise. For example, they are especially likely to show a reduced risk of depression and suicidal thinking if they exercise at least twenty minutes a day.
Twenty minutes a day is the happy pill? As a person who has suffered depression during various parts of my life I do feel happier and more Joy when I'm exercising regularly. There is something to that saying "Don't Miss Monday" or any day at the gym.
In a laboratory experiment at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, researchers set out to capture what happens in the brains of mice who love wheel-running but are denied the opportunity. Just before their nightly run, the researchers blocked each mouse’s access to the running wheel. The mice were ready to exercise but couldn’t - as if you had shown up at the gym excited to work out, only to find the doors locked and the lights off. In that moment of thwarted desire, each mouse was sacrificed. The researchers scooped out its brain, slicing and staining the gray matter for examination. Under a microscope, they observed chemical evidence that the mouse has been in a state of heightened longing when it died.
We have all been there at one time or another when you get to a gym or pool early in the morning only to find out the staff slept in and didn't open or the instructor didn't show up. Over the years I've showed up to a pool that had been closed for maintenance and then my whole day was ruined. Read more about "Brain study shows some animals crave exercise" at https://news.wisc.edu/brain-study-shows-some-animals-crave-exercise/
Chapter 3: Collective Joy
In 1912, French sociologist Emile Durkheim coined the term collective effervescence to describe the euphoric self-transcendence individuals feel when they move together in ritual, prayer, or work. Durkheim believes that these activities help individuals feel connected to one another and to something bigger than themselves
In 1912 Emile Durkheim wrote about collective effervescence when folks move together in ritual, power or work and that holds true for group exercise. #joyofmovement pic.twitter.com/78wKNMproO
— Joel McKenna (@the17thman) July 7, 2024
Over the years I've been on a few swim teams and have ran with a few run clubs. There is something about being around others to push you. For years I taught Group Exercise classes from Spinning to Yoga and Body Pump and it's always Better In Groups. From Wikipedia Collective effervescence is the basis for Émile Durkheim's theory of religion as laid out in his 1912 volume Elementary Forms of Religious Life at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_effervescence#:~:text=Collective%20effervescence%20(CE)%20is%20a,participate%20in%20the%20same%20action.
The Joy of Movement - Collective Effervescence: Sports, recreation act as popular ministries https://t.co/WnnZV7Brlj via @vdailysun
— Joel McKenna (@the17thman) July 8, 2024The joy of collective effervescence helps explain why fitness friendships and sports teams feel like family; why social movement that includes physical movement inspire greater solidarity and hope; and why individuals feel empowered when they join others to walk, run, or ride for a cure.
…Exertion Games Lab that built the world’s first robotic jogging comapnion. Joggobot, the world’s first robotic jogging companion. Joggobot is essentially a surveillance drone. You tell the robot in advance what parth you plan to run, and it uses GPS to follow that route. You wear a T-shirt with a target on your chest so that the quadocpter’s camera can detect you. Joggobot watches you run and flies ten feet ahead to keep you company.
The Joggobot was real! https://exertiongameslab.org/projects/joggobot
Even people who enjoy bonding over technology need close-to-home connection. I couldn’t help but smile when Peloton enthusiast Jennifer Weiss told me that she bought a second bike so that her husband can ride alongside her. Some of her favorite rides are when their three young kids join the two of them in the garage and dance to keep them company.
Did you know that happy sweat has a different odor than ordinary sweat, and that when you smell someone else’s happy swear, it can elevate your mood, too?
Slate published The Joy of Scents Smelling a happy person may make you happy. https://slate.com/technology/2015/04/happy-sweat-scent-study-the-smell-of-happiness-may-be-contagious.html
Whenever a new group exercise program takes off, it’s often because it added synchrony to a typical unsynchronized physical activity, like boxing (Tae Bo), weight lifting (Body Pump), or cycling (Soul Cycle). Remove the trappings of any fitness program at its cultural apex, and you’ll find the same ingredients, the same collective joy. As long as our DNA compels us to connect with others, we will continue to seek out places where we can move and sweat together.
Chapter 4: Let Yourself Be Moved
In 1998, Ethiopian athlete Haile Gebrselassie managed to convince event organizers to play the pop song “Scatman” over the sound system during the indoor 2,000-meter race. He had practiced to that song and knew it was th perfect track to synchronize his stride to. He ended up breaking the world record.
The University of Groningen published Running to music Sport scientist Harjo de Poel explains how music can help runners https://www.rug.nl/about-ug/latest-news/news/newsletters/international/2015/running-to-music?lang=en
…Brunel University sports psychologist Costas Karageorghis is one of the worlds’ leading suppliers. He works with Olympic, national and collegiate athletes to create custom playlists for training and competitions. He’s helped create the soundtracks from O2Touch, a mixed gender touch rugby program played to music.
Watch on Youtube The Science Behind O2 Touch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tieA0vlIoU
If you look at popular workout playlists, you’ll see song after song with lyrics that emphasize qualities like perseverance and determination. This is one reason Eninem’s “Till I Collapse” remains the most popular workout song of all time. Effective power songs often have lyrics that relate to physical activity itself, with words like work, go, or run.
As someone who has taught Spin Classes and other Group Exercise classes over the years music really keeps people hooked. Even when I'm working out on my own I listed to FitRadio for great music. I still teach spin to the beat of music but these days use Les Mills or Mossa releases for my classes depending on where I'm teaching. Both companies do a tremendous job of finding the right songs for the movements. https://mossa.net/ https://www.lesmills.com/us/
Chapter 5: Overcoming Obstacles
…DPI Adaptive Fitness in Fairfax, Virginia, is the Wall of Greatness…“When new members join, we let them know, if you’re willing to work hard, we’ll set something very challenging, something you won’t be able to do in one or two sessions. If you destroy that goal, you can put up your name and a motivational quote to inspire others in the gym.”
Check DPI out at https://www.dpiadaptivefitness.co/
In 1825, poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote, “Hope without an object cannot live.” C.R. Snyder, who conducted the most rigorous
scientific analyses of hope, found that this state of mind — so crucial to our ability to persist in the face of life’s obstacles requires three things. The first is a defined goal, that object on which hope lives. The second is a pathway to reach your goal. There must be steps you can take that lead to progress. The third is trusting that you are capable of pursuing that path. You must believe that you have the inner resources and the necessary support to take each step.
In The Anatomy of Hope, physician Jerome Groopman defines hope as “the elevating feeling we experience when we see - in the mind’s eye - a path to a better future.”
Amazon link to The Anatomy of Hope https://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Hope-People-Prevail-Illness/dp/0375757759
One of my favorite television shows is American Ninja Warrior, a competition in which contestants from all walks of life run an obstacle course that requires tremendous strength and skill. Something odd happens when I watch the show. My body instinctively tries to lend a hand to the contestants. If they are struggling to maintain their balance or grip, my core braces, as if to help them hold on. If they're preparing to make a big dismount, I’ll lean into the side of the sofa, as if throwing my weight to support their landing.
It's true. I move when I was watching the Olympic Swim Time Trails the other week. I don't watch much TV so that is all I got.
Movement has a potent ability to trigger a sympathetic response in an observer.
When you watch others move, you don’t just perceive their actions. You proprioceive it. You receive it into yourself. That is what empathy does, It creates, in your mind, a felt sense of what you are observing.
Our bodies learn what is possible by seeing and sensing the strength, the speed the garce and the courage of others.
At the CrossFit box where Reverend Katie Norris coaches, the gym has a personal record board. Every time someone gets a faster time, lifts a heavier weight, or masters a movement they could not do before, that person gets to write on the board and ring a bell. When the bell rings, the whole gym stops what they’re doing to cheer…at Norris’s gym, members sometime show up just to witness what others are accomplishing.
That is true. I did for a very short time go to a Crossfit box and people would come to cheer on others.
Chapter 6: Embrace Life
One study tracked the daily movements and mood of over 20,000 adults, using GPS on their smartphones. After collecting over a million data points, the researchers concluded that people are happier in natural environments. And yet typical Americans spend 93 percent of their time indoors, creating what some call a nature deficit.
Green Gym’s…“Rather than go to the gym to lift things that don’t need to be lifted, give us three hours of the week. At the end of each session, you can stand back, and as a group, you’ve achieved things.”
Check out Green Gym at https://www.tcv.org.uk/greengym/ I'm not an "outdoorsy" person I'll stick to Soul Cycle and Group Exercise. Although I will admit I'm doing more weight training on my own but still inside the gym!
In 2017, researchers at the University of Westminster examined how volunteering at Green Gym affects a physiological index of purpose in life, the cortisol awakening response.
The cortisol awakening response - measured by the amount of cortisol in your saliva first thing in the morning - helps your body mobilize energy. A sunrise jolt of cortisol brings you out of hibernation and tells you to rejoin the world. People who are depressed or who feel hopeless about the future commonly have a low cortisol awakening response, as if their bodies don’t see the point in getting up. Green Gym changes this. After eight weeks of volunteering, a Green Gym participants showed a 20 percent increase in their cortisol awakening response, along with reduction in anxiety and depression.
I do believe exercise as a role in reducing anxiety and depression. I've battled depression for the last 26 years of my life and I'm always feeling better when I'm consistently working out. I don't know if it's related but looking back now I quit swimming in high school and after that had severe bouts of depression and two suicide attempts that caused me to be hospitalized and institutionalized. After that drugs and alcohol were my go to's until I started swimming again in my thirties. Even today now that I'm lifting heavier weights and teaching spin classes I'm the happiest I've been.
Chapter 7: How We Endure
In The Lure of Long Distance, Robin Harive notes that the word athlete derives from the Greek word for “I struggle, I suffer.” Ultra-endurance athletes have a relationsihp to suffering that separates them from most recreational exercisers and that often resembles the wisdom of spiritual traditions. For many, the motivation is not just to complete fantastic feats, but to explore what it means, as one athlete I spoke with put it, to “suffer well”. Their experience paint a portrait of how humans maintain hope and momentum in the darkest moments. We endure by taking it one step at a time, by making space for suffering and joy to coexist, and with the help of others.
In 2015, scientists from the Center for Space Medicine and Extreme Environments in Berlin followed athletes competing in the Yukon Artic Ultra. They wanted to know: How does the human body cope in such a brutal context? When researchers analyzed the hormones in the bloodstreams of the athletes, one hormone, irisin, was widely elevated. Irisin is best known for its role in metabolism - it helps the body burn fat for fuel. But irisin also has powerful effects on the brain. Irisin stimulates the brain’s reward system, and the hormone may be a natural antidepressant.
Read the study SERUM MYOKINE LEVELS DURING THE 430 MILE YUKON ARCTIC ULTRA https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ijesab/vol8/iss4/30/
Irisin is not the only beneficial myokine your muscles dispatch into your bloodstream when you exercise. A 2018 scientific paper identified thirty-five proteins released by your quadriceps during a single hour of bicycling Some of the myokines help your muscles grow stronger, while others regulate blood sugar, reduce inflammation, or even kill cancer cells. Scientists now believe that many of the long-term health benefits of exercise are due to the beneficial myokines released during muscle contraction
One of the first scientific papers to write about exercise-induced myokines labeled them “hope molecules.”
FHE HEALTH published “Hope Molecules”? The New Science Behind Positivity https://fherehab.com/learning/hope-molecules
When I headed to Planet Granite, I knew that I wanted to make room for fear, courage and joy to coexist on the climb. It wasn’t until I was on the wall climbing, that I realized other people can hold the courage and joy for you until you can find your own. I didn’t have to generate every ounce of what I needed by myself. I could expand my idea of what a container of my experience was - make it big enough to include those who had gone before me and those who were sharing it with me, even on the periphery.
That when I found myself in a situation I didn’t know how to get through on my own, an assemblage of family, friends, and even strangers might rally around me.
One of the most celebrated moments of Olympic history took place at the 1992 games in Barcelona, when British runner and world-record holder Dereck Redmond finished the 400-meter semifinals dead last.
Olympics have the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2G8KVzTwfw
This Olympic moment touches us - people weep watching the video - not just because Redmond persisted, but because it demonstrates how much we depend on one another to keep going.
Anthropologists Harvey Whitehouse and Jonathan A. Lanman write that collective rituals that include pain bond us to others by “hijacking our kinship psychology” and “fusing us to fellow ritual participants.” In other words, you become family
When you pull the chapters together you really get a feeling that Movement Brings Joy that no matter what it is each person needs to find their Joy of Movement. Right now in social media it's almost cool to knock done some of the trendy exercises that people do like Bungee Fitness, Cardio Drumming or Trampoline Classes. Middle-aged white women will do anything but lift a weight or White Moms Will Di Anything But Workout. But we should be happy that they are finding their JOY IN MOVEMENT. Have you found yours?