Beyond The Physical: Your Body Language and How It Relates To Fitness
Working out is not just about being physical attractive. It trickles into other aspects in your life. One that you may not of considered is your BODY LANGUAGE. It is all cyclical. You improve your body, your mind gets stronger and your perspective may shift, you feel you can do more and in turn your posture improves as well. The way you move may change entirely. You are aligned better, your core is strong and your concentration improves!
These are all wonderful things about fitness! Many people don't understand the direct link between your hormones and your body language. When you workout, you have an opportunity to increase your testosterone levels. When you do workouts like yoga, you lower your cortisol levels. All of this in turn has a direct impact on how you carry yourself. Carrying yourself with confidence is important when you want to make the right impressions. It also can help you not only with gaining more energy, but possibly the job opportunity or relationship you have been searching for.
Positive body language includes things like appropriate eye contact, active engagement/listening, and targeted gestures that accentuate the message you’re trying to convey.
Brainpower, while helpful, is not the means to an end when it comes to succeeding. Amy Cuddy, a Harvard psychologist, attests to this concept. When she was 19 years old, Cuddy was in a car accident that resulted in brain damage that took 30 points from her IQ . This caused Cuddy to loose a significant amount of confidence in herself. This experience lead her to study the impact body language has on confidence, influence, and, ultimately, success. You can read about Cuddy’s full experience Click Here.
People who use positive body language are more likable, competent, persuasive, and emotionally intelligent. Changing your body language can positively change your relationships with others and build self-confidence.
8 POWERFUL THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT BODY LANGUAGE:
- Positive body language changes your attitude – Consciously adjusting your body language to make it more positive improves your attitude because it has a powerful impact on your hormones.
- It increases testosterone – Testosterone improves your confidence and causes other people to see you as more trustworthy and positive. positive body language increases your testosterone levels by 20%.
- It decreases cortisol – Cortisol is a stress hormone that minimizes performance.
- It creates a powerful combination – The combination of cortisol and testerone builds confidence and clarity of mind that are ideal for dealing with tight deadlines, tough decisions, and massive volumes of work. People who are naturally high in testosterone and low in cortisol are known to thrive under pressure.
- It makes you more likeable – Maintaining a positive body language creates trust.
- It conveys confidence – In a study conducted at Princeton, researchers found that a one-second clip of candidates for senator or governor was enough for people to accurately predict which candidate was elected. While this may not increase your faith in the voting process, it does show that perception of competence has a strong foundation in body language.
- It’s a powerful tool in negotiation (even virtually) – Positive body language is an important factor in your ability to persuade others to your way of thinking.
- It improves your emotional intelligence – People whose body language is negative have a destructive, contagious effect on those around them. Displaying confident body language will positively influence those around you.
Don't you want to be more than just physically attractive?
How about likable, competent, persuasive, and emotionally intelligent? If so, just know that little shift and changes in your health and physical body can give you an opportunity to create and change not just your shape, but how you carry yourself and make impressions. Your body language can positively change your relationships with others and build self-confidence. By eating properly and continuing to workout with a balance of strength, cardio and flexibility, you now have an opportunity to use your body correctly and communicate the way you desire.
Source: Pisani Recruiting Oct. Newsletter