5 reasons to postpone posting selfies when you sweat
May 8, 2018 Ashley 0 Comments
We’ve already mentioned the benefits of selfies after going HAM at the gym.
(Or even just logging your progress online. I mean who *doesn’t* wanna share an 800+ cal workout?)
On your weight loss or general wellness path, it can help keep you accountable, boost your mood by seeing your progress, and even be a great reminder of how far you’ve come (when Zuck’s “recap of this month” montage greets you on your feed thirty days from now). Social media can be a fab life hack in that way. Just when you’re ready to slack, it’s like some anthropomorphic album, opening itself and reminding you of all the accomplished hard work you don’t wanna waste. So, big ups for documenting how you dominated at the gym today. That said, we may all wanna save our selfies for after owning our workouts. And here’s five reasons why.
1. You’re making yourself tense instead’ve a ten.
Whether you’re taking a pic of your mug or machine numbers, neither’s good. When we’re pausing to take a pic, we’re so worried about acquiring the most aesthetic capture (or at least one that’s not blurry), that we tend to tense up. Turn the camera on yourself and that’s even worse – ’cause we don’t just want a clear picture, do we? We want something that makes us look like a glistening gym angel. Messy but magnificent. The treadmill equivalent of “I woke up like this”. Our shoulder and neck muscles tighten up as a result, we stop sucking in oxygen properly, and the quality of our cardio and lifting alike suffers. So, just save it for after. The perspiration’ll be proof of your workout just as well as a photo on the cardio conveyor belt itself will.
2. Death by selfie
Ever seen someone faceplant on the treadmill while focusing on their phone? You don’t wanna laugh but it just comes out. Like a sneeze. (Right before you – hopefully – go help the person ‘n see if they’re alright.) This is an obvi reason to not take pics mid workout. However, even if you’re elegant and next level coordinated and would never fall, there’s still the fate of a pace that’s so slow, it’ll steal from your calorie blasting benefits you would get had you just held out ’til the end.
3. Don’t press pause either
Sure, it’s safer to press pause on your machine so you can capture your reflection. That’s true. But you know what else is true? By interrupting your workout, you’re not burning as much as you would have had you kept consistent body movin’ the whole time. Your body goes through different phases just to get to the quality fat burning one. And that takes time. That means that taking a break to take a pic for a few minutes (factoring in the time it takes to choose an appropriate facial transmogrifaction setting) also means having to go through all’ve those phases all over again to get the benefits.
(Given the lack’ve salty body water on him, let’s hope this isn’t a pause *or* a post cardio photo…)
4. You’re undermining your muscles
When you quit directing your attention to the flesh you’re moving around (and focus it on photos), you don’t just breathe badly. You do everything badly. Normally, form is your focus when you workout. The only true distraction is usually music. But even that’s typically catered to keeping the rate’ve our hearts nice and high and our minds on our movement. In a focused state, we link our thinkers up with how our tush is pushing away or toward the floor during squats, keeping our posture proper as we hit the elliptical, ensuring our shoulders are back as we retract into a row. Music usually enhances that. Try to multitask with a camera, however, and we abandon our alignment. We start recruiting the wrong muscles. And not only can that make everything from cardio to curls cruddy, it can be just as unsafe as the faceplanting treadmill chick.
5. Wasting time waiting on validation
You know what else steals from your workout? Even if you can level rabbit rapidly snap and share your quasi accomplishments? The reason you probably posted in the first place. Social media’s digital dollar. Validation. If you’re checking in for the rest’ve your treadmill spell to see who’s adoring your mug (flooded with sweat under the deftly selected, big eyed bunny filter that puts the “fur” in furtive), then that sucks for you. Not only are you missing out on the full benefits of your workout. You’re also missing out on the fulfillment of it. You’re missing the thing that keeps you wanting to come back later – that makes a near-daily workout routine sustainable. Really attached to that validation? Then make checking in on it your reward for later – after you finish strong, eat healthy, and avoid poor lifestyle choices in general. (Like being so linked to your cell, that it eventually melds with your metacarpals.)
So, unless it’s pumping out some high BPM tunes, stow those cells and save the selfies for later, loves.
And when you do, that pic’ll be of someone far fitter.