I was speaking with a reader a while back and we were talking about bloggers and running. As you probably know, running is everywhere on the blogs and it seems like everyone is running out the door for their next 8 miler.
She was telling me that she felt a tremendous amount of pressure to not only run, but to keep increasing her mileage.
I asked her why she felt this way and she said she felt like bloggers set the bar so high. If they were running 7 miles, she felt like she had to as well.
She also saw that some were increasing their workouts more and more and she questioned whether they were doing it for the sake of training or whether it was purely because they felt pressure to do more.
She said that she was pushing herself too hard and she wasn’t happy with her workouts anymore. Each workout became more of a scheduled chore than something fun and healthy for her body. And eventually something has to give. She got quite sick because her body was begging for rest.
For me it was an injury. Sometimes the only way our bodies can get us to rest is if we incur pain and physically cannot keep the same routine. My injury was very difficult and I realized that I too, felt pressure to maintain my previous activity levels.
I actually felt so much pressure that I had to stop reading running blogs for a while. When I couldn’t exercise, it was painful for me to read about others going on long runs or hitting new PR’s for a 5k. I felt low and I had to distract myself from the desire to run.
Being injured made me realize how much pressure I actually put on myself. I wondered what my readers would find interest in without my daily workouts. This is a health blog primarily, I thought, so certainly they will find their healthy activities elsewhere.
But what it made me realize is that the pressure we sometimes feel to ‘keep up with the Jones’’ is not put on us by anyone else but ourselves.
What I realized is that no one really cared whether I was still logging my planned 6 mile run or my Tuesday speed run. From what I saw, my readers didn’t up and leave. Actually, what I noticed is that readers showed an increased interest in my experience.
Injuries happen to everyone at some point and showing that I was vulnerable too made others feel like they could relate to me. I wasn’t some superhuman that could run and run and run.
I think when we feel any sort of pressure with respect to exercise or healthy eating we need to ask ourselves why we feel this way. I think it is easy to say ‘well so-and-so runs 19 miles a week and so should I’ and that is why I feel pressure.
But I think it is deeper than that.
I always think about the saying ‘no one can make you feel inferior without your consent’.
Ultimately we chose whether we are putting pressure on ourselves or whether we feel negativity surrounding our health.
The social comparison game is a dangerous trap that we all fall into now and then.
It is important to listen to our bodies and decide for ourselves what a healthy lifestyle will be for us.
And running might never be a part of it.
What works for me or what works for someone else, may not be a good fit for your life. And that is ok.
The key is to do what you love and what makes you happy. You will know it when you find it because you will look forward to doing that activity each week!
Do you ever feel pressure when reading other blogs to maintain a certain activity level? Do you ever feel like you can’t keep up and aren’t doing enough? Why do you think this is? Or on the other hand, are you able to not feel pressure from others and decide what is right for you? Do you have any suggestions for those who are falling into the social comparison trap?
Have you ever had to re-evaluate your exercise goals in the past because of over-training, injury, or loss of motivation?
As always, I look forward to your thought provoking comments.
I never blame myself when I’m not hitting. I just blame the bat, and if it keeps up, I change bats. After all, if I know it isn’t my fault that I’m not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?
~Yogi Berra
PS- Sun and highs of 26C/78F today…what crazy spring weather we are having!
Angela, this is a wonderful post. I know I have sometimes read about a blogger doing a “short” 4 or 5 mile run, and I think “that is a LONG run for me!”. We’re all different, but I do think that some bloggers who have wildly popular running blogs need to be careful how they can carelessly brush off their 9-minute pace 4 mile run as a “light, easy” run for an “off” day.
A while back I reached a point where I had to ask myself I was running and such. I really did not like it. Truth be told, most days I hated it. I dreaded going for a run, and I disliked it so much while I was running that it made me not want to go running again even more than before. So I’ve started turning to alternative measures. Even walking – sometimes I get embarrassed to say on my blog that I’ll walk for miles every day, because it’s not running. But it’s still exercise since I keep a good pace, and most importantly I enjoy it!!
I have found the running blogs to be very motivating. I have never been a fast runner, but I don’t think I have really pushed myself to the limits yet. I’ve been inspired to attempt to run faster. I enjoy looking at other blogs where people have started where I am now and seen what they have accomplished.
very interesting post and by the looks of it you really hit the nail on the head–that people do feel compelled to run more/faster to “keep up with the joneses”. I have often wondered why so many bloggers seem so obsesed wtih running and/or cardio in general. And very few do any real strength training which is just as (or even more) important and beneficial for our bodies and health.
there also seems to be trends of food avoidances or eating habits. I read many food/health/fitness related blogs and many seem to be quite on the verge of disordered eating or eating disordered territory (coming from that background myself I am hyper-aware to some of the signs and signals)
Honestly after reading blogs I suddenly decided every once else was jogging so I needed to jog to. Truth is, while I LOVE walking, I HATE jogging. And I started to experience certain leg pain with jogging that I never felt with walking. I had to question myself as to why I was pushing myself to so something I hated when I already had an exercise I loved. So now while I might through in little jogging spurts to bump up the intensity of my walk there’s not jogging for me in the future. I’ve gone back to my first love, walking and I will not feel inferior because I hate jogging and am not good at it!!! :)
I dont think Ive ever felt pressure from reading running blogs or health blogs. As a matter of fact this is pretty much the only blog I read on a regular basis. I do run, however it is mainly a way to mix up my workouts and add some variety. I have tried so many times to “get into” running….but there are so many other things I enjoy doing (especially now that we can get outside)….biking, yoga kickboxing, hiking….So I guess Ive never wanted to spend the time going on a long run when I could do 30 minutes of cardio and go hikning or better yet, hit the beach. I love to work out and I love to feel healthy. I try to challenge myself and not try to compare my fitness to others, Some people have a passion for running…..while I DO enjoy running….I dont have the passion it takes to commit totally to it. I love reading your blog and have a nice day:)
…..oh and…I think some people feel that running is the end all and be all of fitness. Life is to be enjoyed and just like any addiction…..people should never feel like their day is ruined because they couldnt fit in their run. Pressure equals stress and exercise is supposed to releive stress.
I wish I’d read this eight months ago. Last year I was really struggling with disordered eating habits (I won’t call it an eating disorder because, well, it wasn’t, by medical standards), and I was OBSESSED with reading healthy living blogs and food blogs and everything was so confusing to me because there was so much conflicting information out there but regardless of what I was reading, it was always coming from someone who was so much “better” and “healthier” than I was and I really felt frustrated for a while, like I would never live up. I have literally never compared myself to people in real life but somehow I was really hung up on comparisons to these random people on the internet that I’ll probably never meet – strange, right?? I had to stop reading a lot of blogs for a while and stop focusing on what OTHER people were doing and start focusing on what *I* could do. I’ll probably never be a runner (shin splints ouch) but trust me in my early blog reading days I tried on that damn treadmill and was so miserable! I had to stop thinking of myself in comparison to these people and start thinking of myself, in comparison to myself! And it works – now when I look back at myself a year, or even six months, ago, I see how much real progress I’ve made. Blogs are great and can be awesome learning tools but if you don’t know how to filter the information properly, it can get so overwhelming. Anyway, again, great read, great post. Thank you!!