Great article in the Star Tribune today entitled “Building a stronger self“.  The article is written about Harvard social psychologist Amy Cuddy.  In 2012 she gave a TED talk on what she calls “power poses”.  You can tell a lot about a person by how they carry themselves.  Those that feel powerful stand tall, with shoulders back.  Those who feel insecure or powerless curl in on themselves, slouching, crossing their legs and arms.  The message she wants everyone to know is that when it comes to being and feeling powerful, how you carry yourself can change not only how others perceive you, but how you perceive yourself.  She has studied these changes in her research and has discovered that just two minutes of standing or sitting in a power pose raised testosterone 20% in both men and women and lowered cortisol 25%.  In other words, these poses left people feeling more powerful and less stress reactive — a great combination!  One simple power pose is to stand like Wonder Woman, arms akimbo, as my daughter likes to say.  So before your next presentation, test, social outing, spend two minutes (in a bathroom stall if need be) standing in a power pose.  Even if you don’t feel powerful, her mantra is “Fake it ’til you become it”.

Why am I writing about this?  For one thing, if you haven’t watched Ms Cuddy’s TED talk, I highly recommend you do so.  The other reason is that I see a parallel between her power poses and Original Strength resets we do in class.  Resets can leave you feeling powerful in the same way.  I bet research would show that the resets also raise testosterone and lower cortisol.  So why do you need resets instead of just the 2 minute power pose?  Because OS resets can physically make you stronger helping those power poses to feel completely natural.  I don’t think you’d have to “fake it” if you’ve been doing resets.  Not only will you feel stronger, you will be stronger!