I recently read about an experiment in which individuals were split into two groups and told to hold a pen in their mouths in one of two ways: people in the first group held the pens sideways between their teeth, forming a sort of smile, while those in the second group held the pen lengthwise between their lips, forming a sort of frown.
At the end of the experiment, people from the first group reported greater feelings of happiness than did those from the second group. Ultimately, the researchers concluded that feelings can both elicit behaviors and be caused by them, even if the behaviors were unknowingly performed (like being “forced” to smile or frown).
Your mindset matters
A few weeks ago, I wrote about why each of us needs to exercise if we want to increase the probability of leading a long, healthy life. Prior to that, I also explained some differences between exercising and training.
If you decide to follow the training route—which I recommend since it produces even greater results than simply exercising—you’ll occasionally need to test yourself in order to determine the effectiveness of your training program. Similar to the pen experiment, the words you use to describe these tests can affect your feelings about both the tests themselves and the results, your attitude going into the next program, and, subsequently, your future results.
Perceiving these tests as a means of evaluating your progress—which seems to be most people’s natural viewpoint—sets you up for a 50:50 shot at either success or failure because progress is implied. If it did actually occur, you’re likely to feel a variety of positive emotions and see your past efforts in a successful light. That’s obviously a good thing.
But if you instead experience no change or a regression—which can occur due to factors both within your control (e.g. adherence to the program, suboptimal nutrition choices) or somewhat outside of it (e.g. excessive stress, lack of sleep)—you’re likely to feel the opposite and see your past efforts as wasted time and energy. If you’re early in your training journey, that can affect your interest in continuing to train. And no matter where you are in your training journey, it can create a negative mood that affects other areas of your life for a day or three. (It’s a more common occurrence than you might imagine.)
On the other hand, perceiving these tests as a means of evaluating your body’s adaptation sets you up purely for learning—and future success, if not current—because curiosity is implied. With that sense of curiosity on your mind, it becomes far easier to see progress, no change, or regression as purely a data point. (i.e. “I wonder how my body adapted to this program considering that I stuck to it but have been stressed out because of work and have had minimal sleep because of Junior’s six weeks of repeated ear infections and midnight crying fits.”)
Sure, you’ll still experience some positive emotions if the test results show progress. But if the test results are less than awesome, you’ll be buffered from many of the ill effects of the negative emotions which naturally follow. In fact, instead of experiencing a negative mood or losing interest in training, you’re much more likely to experience renewed feelings of both determination and agency—that is, the ability to affect change—during your next program. And that can make a huge difference in the effort you put in and the results you get out.
Putting it into practice
This week at the gym we’re doing adaptation evaluations for the three-month program we just completed as well as setting baselines for the upcoming three-month program (TSC prep). If you currently train at TNT, remember to mentally use that terminology throughout this week’s tests.
If you don’t currently train at TNT, consider the last time you did an intentional and objective adaptation evaluation (which you likely called a “progress test”). Then get one scheduled if it’s been awhile, and make sure you head into that day’s session with curiosity on your mind.