Letters from Iceland/Can Smiling Make You a Better Runner
LETTERS FROM ICELAND: Helga Dögg
I spent much of childhood in the offices of the Icelandic Women’s Rights Association because my mother was the chairwoman between 1980 and 1985. She always worked full time, jugeling three daughters, a husband, and a concer. She was the manager of a large rescue association and a busineswoman. Seeing her busy all the time was normal for me but my friends with “at–home mum‘ found it a bit strange
My father was always supportive. They shared roles within the home; for example, my father, who worked
as a dentist, would take care of the evening meals three days a week and was always home when she was at work. A lot has changed since then in leeland; now we have a good daycare system and so most women, work outside the home.
Iceland is probably one of the best places to grow up or rabe a child in the world, especially in my time. In winter we played with snow We built snow houses and snowinięt und went skiing and skating on the pond. Icelandic nature is beautiful, but harsh. You can drink fresh water from the mountain springs but you have to be careful not to fall off the mountainside. It’s often windy.
When I left home, 1 studied comparative literature and then a master’s degree in business, I met my husband on vacation in Spain
when I was age 22. We had grown up in the same neighbourhood, jast a couple of blocks away, but hadn’t met each other until that day in Spain. A year later, we moved to England. He was studying for his master’s degree so I enrolled in a one year exchange program at the University College London.
I loved London because in so many ways it’s similar to Iceland English people have a sense of humour similar to our own, but in other ways life is vastly different. There is a class system in England the working closinhabits a different universe to the middle class it secos. Before this I’d only seen such class divide in movies. Most of our friends were not local but international students. I remember a situation once a friend of oun from Canada started chit–chatting to a girl who worked in the campus kitchen. When be returned to our table, a preppy English guy who was linching with us was appalled that the guy was talking to “the help“. I never imagined anything like this happening in leeland, but it showed me how some of the upper class in: England rice to the lower class
We got married lite, after nine years of being together. I was age 31. By that time we’d already had a second child. But this is not unusual. in Iceland, Couples don’t necessarily
get married before having children. My eldest son is age 16, my daughter
13, and my youngest boy is 7. When I first became a mother I thought I understood what life was all about. I thought I knew it all – but I was wrong. Motherhood is a visceral experience. I learned to be more patient and to forgive and to acquire the humility to put my ego side. Having a second child was planned; we wanted our firstborn to have a sibling, but the third was a bit of a surprise.
I have been an executive board member of the leelandic Women’s Rights Association for probably four years now. My day job is in the male–dominated information technology sector. Older men just don’t understand what the fuss in all about, what we are fighting for “Don’t you have a home, don’t you have it all they ask. Older Icelandic men still think that boy should be boys and girls should be housewives. I would be if I claimed there is no patriarchy in Iceland.
When the financial crisis hit in 2008, I discovered that those roponsible for the banking cross were mostly men. Women govern in different ways to men. Women take less risks. Therefore, both men and women should be at the table finding solutions. The world needs both penpectives.
Interview: Stav Dimitropoulos
Helga Dogg
LETTERS FROM ICELAND: Guðrún Jónsdóttir
On October 24, 1975, we did not go to work. We did not do any housework. We did not cook. We did not look after children. I was 21 years old.
I was standing in a sea of wome en at the biggest demonstration in Iceland’s history. We went on to the streets to protest wage discrepancy and unfair employment practices We demonstrated how important women were for the economy and society. Honestly, we had no idea how this whole thing had set off,
And it felt normal. I thought, “Wow, I’m not alone, we all feel this way, I realised that we could find ways to channel this power. And I realised that I would nev- er return to feeling like I was the problem. I discovered that it was society that had to change
My husband took our one year–old daughter to work with him and his employer scolded him. My partner, of course, stood by my side, explaining to his boss that it was either our daughter and him at work that day or nobody.
The 1975 loelandic women’s strike put my life on another tra jectory. It was my wake–up call For many years I had this tension building inside me. I was inite at how few opportunities women had in Iceland and how they suffocated in the confines of the home.
I remember stening to one of the major speakers at the protest “one of my mother’s best friends. She didn’t have any formal education but was standing firm like a pillar. ready to fight, an ordinary working woman performing an imprompr speech. It then dawned on me that everything is possible in life..
Before 1975 the political agen da did not include women’s rights and women in the medu were ob jectified or invisible, all these things drove me up the wall. And, if I spoke our, I got a puzzled store, “Is this res ally necessary!
I was born in 1954 and raised by my mother, a working–class house wife with six children. I wanted to become a biologut but in 1990 1 went to Norway with my family to do further studies in biology and it was here the activist in me surfaced and 1 became a social worker instead. We stayed for six years. I became the executive director of the wom en’s movement in Norway. My col leagues were often surprised when I candidly talked to Parliamentarians about what needed to be done. But I’d learnt from the small leelandic microcosm that no one could intim- idate me. And this, I think, is not unique to me. All leelandic women are like this.
For six years I worked as a cour dinator for the Icelandic Women’s
Alliance, lobbying to change pol icies and legislation. I also raised awareness against prostitution and trafficking, and we’ve managed to implement the so–called “Swedish, model” where it is forbidden to “buy” prostitute in Iceland but the wom en are not criminalised and we’ve managed to close down strip clubs, which are nothing other than dens of prostitution in disguise. We de- fine prostitution as “violence against women“, and therefore men who buy prostitutes should be held responsi ble; it’s as simple as that. There is nothing more demeaning to a wom- an than selling her body. The myth of the “happy prostitute‘ is ridiculous,
Over many years of working with victims of trafficking, abused wom- en, and women in prostitution, not once have I encountered a “happy prostitute. For example, one wom an came to us as a prostitute, seek ing help. Her background was tragier she was raped by family members us a child. She became a drug addict and fell into prostitution. She told us horrendous tales of torture by her buyers that will stay with me forever. She managed to get out of drugs, and just when we thought we’d helped her get back on track, she took her own life. Her loss has been heavy.on my conscience ever since. I feel that because she lost her voice I have to be twice as loud as before.
Interview: Stav Dimitropoulos
LETTERS FROM ICELAND: Nanna Gunnarsdóttir
In Icelandic we have the saying “Visor við elt
er homma head“, which more or less translates to “Those who remain homebound are bound to remain ignorant. I think this outlook on travel is rich in kelandic culture We are isolated, sometimes only 50 people can populate a tiny fjord village, and we want to know what lies beyond.
I grew up in Reykjavik but I too wanted to learn what hes beyond. I have been to every continent of the world except Antarctica, At
18 I went to Barcelona and met musicians. In Buenos Aires, I leamt to dance the tango. In Hemsedal, I worked at a ski resort and spent my free time snowboarding. In Tallinn. I attended seminars at a drama school. In London, I studied and worked. In São Paulo I lived with a Brazilian. host family.
Lcome from a long line of large families. My mother had five sibling My dad had five too. I grew up in the centre of Reykjavik where there was a strong sense of community. It was a peaceful childhood – playing on the streets, returning home by a certain time because there were no cell phones back then. Traffic was minimal and crime was zero. As a typical leelandic kid, I developed a strong connection to the weather. I kamt how dependent we are
on its moods, because you know, weather in Iceland is kind of crazy. One morning it can be sunny and beautiful and by afternoon it’s frecting cold. In winter it’s nearly impossible to make place to drive somewhere, even a week in advance. suddenly a snowstorm strikes and all the rods are closed.
In England, I started learning physical theatre. Physical theatre is about being present and learning to inhabit your body more consciously It is much more spontaneous than just having a script and reciting words. I also love immersive theatre. and in Reykjavik I have established a poetry brothel. It resembles the Ent poetry brothel, which is located in New York. It’s a Moulin Rouge type of bohemian bordello whore artists come together, poets, actors, musicians and so forth, to crea world of escapism and to sell their poetry. Mind you, the poetry brothel has nothing to do with prostitution. I am against prostitution. When someone has paid access to your body they can do homble thing both to it and to your soul.
Since 2012, I have been in
a relationship with my English boyfriend, Owen. We set at a Eurovision party. But I don’t plan on getting married. I mean, I am. not religious, so marriage doesn’t have any religion meaning for me.
Nor am I sure it has any meaning at all. A wedding to me is just a great big party where you invite all your friends and family to come and have a great time. If I want to, I can always throw a big party without the getting married bit. I also don’t plan on having kid. My viewpoint is kind of unusual, because, you know,
in leeland most people have kids. And most people are married or have been married a couple of times. There are a lot of single parents or combined families, where both have children from former relationships But I simply don’t have the desire to have children. I lack the maternal instinct. Since was age 16, I’ve had people telling me I will change my mind when I meet the right one. Well, I’m age 32, have met the right one, and still don’t want kids. Our world is already overpopulated. Do I need to bring another child into this world? If I want to have a child in the future, I can sidestep pregnancy and adopt one that needs a home. To be honest pregnancy also creeps
me out in a way.
So, my next plan is to go to India for the first time on an adventure tour, the rickshaw nice. I will be travelling from the north part of India to the south in a rickshaw. I suppose life for me is a grand adventure, a big, fat journey, and the freer I am, the better
Interview: Stav Dimitropoulos
Nanna Gunnarsdóttir
Can Smiling Make You a Better Runner?
THE SCIENCE BEHIND HOW TRAINING YOUR FACIAL
MUSCLES CAN IMPACT YOUR RESULTS
BY STAV DIMITROPOULOS
LAST YEAR, TOP–RANKED marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge ran 26,2 miles in just two hours and 25 seconds in Monza, Italy, as part of Nike’s Breaking2 project. His time, although not record–eligible, is the fastest marathon time ever recorded, and the effort required to clock it was undoubtedly grueling. Yet Kipchoge never let it show on his face. In fact, it appeared as if he was actually grinning at times: No, he was not trying to mock his competitors. Kipchoge was smiling–he later told reporters–in order to relax and work through the pain, employing a strategy some runners have long believed to be true: that smiling while running can help you run more efficiently.
Considering the time and effort we ded- icate to training and focusing on form, it’s hard to believe that something as simple as a smirk could have that much of an effect on our performance, but science backs it up. Studies have shown that when we enrich our workout with a smile, we feel that the effort we put out–our perceived effort–is far less than the effort we exert when we frown while exercising. But no research had seriously looked into the effects of manip- ulating our facial expressions by smiling
ILLUSTRATION BY JEAN-LUC BONIFAY
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or frowning on our running economy or perceived effort while running–that is, until now.
Researchers at Ulster University in Northern Ireland and Swansea University in Wales asked a group of 24 runners to wear a breathing mask to measure oxygen consumption and then complete four six- minute running blocks on a treadmill while smiling and while frowning. The study, which was recently published in Psychology of Sport and Exercise, found that runners who smiled used less oxygen, ran more economically, and had a lower perceived rate of exertion than those who frowned and those in the control group.
“They were 2.8 percent more econom- ical when smiling than when frowning.” says Noel Brick, Ph.D., lecturer in sport and exercise psychology at the University of Ulster and coauthor of the study. The reason has to do with facial feedback. “When we make a facial expression, we may experience the emotional state we associate with the expression,” Brick says. “We associate smiling with happiness or enjoyment, states that make us more relaxed, so when we smile, we are con- sciously trying to relax. By adopting the facial expression of frowning, though, we are experiencing an emotional state of feeling tense or less relaxed.”
Other No–Brainer Boosts
SCIENCE SHOWS THESE
SIMPLE ALTERNATIVE TRICKO
CAN ALSO HELP YOU ACHIEVE PEAK PERFORMANCE,
Reframe your Inner dialogue by swapping out “I” for “You,” since first–person phrases can stress you out.
When you start to fatigue, say your go–to mantra out loud to give it extra power.
Cheer for other runners around you to improve your own spirits and results.
THINK OF IT LIKE THROWING YOUR BRAIN AN ENDORPHIN PARTY WHEN IT NEEDS IT.”
While a 2.8 percent improvement may sound inconsequential, it can translate to a roughly 2 percent improvement in perfor- mance time, says Brick. That means if you run a marathon in 4:20 or 4:45 (the aver- age marathon times for men and women, respectively), you’ll cross the finish line about five minutes faster, whereas if you run a 10K in 55 to 64 minutes, you can shave a full minute off your race time. And if you’re clocking under 25 minutes in a 5K, just smiling can help you cover the same distance 30 seconds faster, a meaningful result for very little effort. “Improvements in your running economy will be initially small, but a relaxed runner is an efficient runner,” Brick adds..
This little trick becomes especially useful for runners who need to conserve as much energy as possible over the course of a long–distance run. “Runners tend to tense up when holding higher paces specifically by tightening their jaw, which in turn can prevent the runner from benefiting from a nice, relaxed, and open airway,” says Meghan Takacs, a Road Runners Club of America–certified coach. “But when a runner is super–stiff, they will tire out a lot quicker.” Takacs says her experience has shown her that smiling is key because it brings on a positive mentality, and run- ning is as much a mental game as it is a physical one.
How genuine that smile is, it turns out, doesn’t even matter. Omar Sultan Haque, M.D., Ph.D., a psychiatrist and social scien- tist at Harvard Medical School who studies how biological, psychological, and social forces interact in health and healing, sug- gests you can fake it till you make it. “The concern about ‘faking it has within it the assumption that emotions always occur before facial expressions. But if the mus
cular expression of smiling can influence or even cause the feeling of relaxation, then planning to smile so that one feels relaxed is no more fake than smiling as a result of first feeling relaxed.”
Takacs reminds runners she works with to chill out: keep the muscles in their faces relaxed, quit gritting their teeth, and smile. “Think of it like throwing your brain an endorphin party when it needs it,” she says. “A smile instantly boosts positivity, relaxes the body, and in turn, makes you more self–aware. And when it comes to running, mentality and self–awareness take you a long way–literally.”
Although this study is small, previously conducted research also supports smiling to make efforts seem easier. A study by the School of Sport, Health and Exercise Sci- ences at Bangor University in Wales found that the activation of smiling or frowning is a good predictor of how hard an effort is. So if a hard effort makes you frown, then the opposite is also true; Frowning makes an effort feel harder, but smiling makes the effort feel easier.
In the end, mustering up a smile even when you don’t feel like it is just a matter of training, like cultivating any other habit, and could even be easier than pushing your legs to run through a cramp, Haque says. He suggests simply reconsidering our assumptions about the one–way relation- ship between feeling and smiling. Instead of believing we need to channel an emotion like happiness before smiling, remember that smiling itself can cause an emotion or feeling, so no channeling is needed, as the facial feedback hypothesis holds.
Besides, there’s not much to lose by giving grinning a shot. If nothing else, at least you’ll end up with better race. photos, f
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