The Importance of Smiling and Laughing During Stressful Times While there are moments to be serious and focused on getting things done, there will be times when laughter and smiling can help you mitigate the hormonal effects of high physical and mental stress. Here is a video intro I did the other day prior to a LIVE QA session about the topic, as Hellweek was getting underway: CLICK VIDEO BELOW Could a Smile Be the Simplest Biohack for Feeling Better? It sounds almost too easy to be true, but science suggests that even a deliberate smile can give your brain and body a small boost. What if one of the fastest ways to shift your mood was already built into your face? Smiling may seem trivial, even cheesy, in a world obsessed with supplements, cold plunges, and high-performance wellness rituals. But this simple human reflex may be one of the most underrated mind-body tools we have. Research suggests that smiling, even when it’s intentional rather than spontaneous, can gently nudge the brain toward a more positive emotional state. The effect isn’t massive, and it’s not a cure-all, but it may be real enough to count as a legitimate micro-biohack. It may be the difference between quitting or keep on going when tired, stressed, and in a difficult situation. The idea is rooted in something scientists call the facial feedback hypothesis: the notion that facial expressions don’t just reflect how we feel, they can also help shape it. In other words, the act of smiling may send signals back to the brain that subtly reinforce happiness, reduce stress, or help the body recover more quickly from tension. Add laughter to the mix, and the effect may extend beyond mood into stress regulation, social bonding, and overall resilience. That doesn’t mean you should grin your way through burnout or pretend serious emotional pain can be fixed with a cheesy smile. But if you’re looking for a low-effort, no-cost way to support your mental and physical state, smiling may deserve more respect than it gets.

Learn the egg-beater with this combo drill of stretching and treading practice, but you can also do alternating scissorkick treading as well.

At 12-13 years old, with a concrete set of weights and a bench, I started on what became a life-changing journey into lifting weights and exercising with a goal. Previously, the early years of activity were seasons of recreational sports and pick-up games with neighborhood kids, and simply playing outside. What started out as basic workouts of 3 sets of 8 reps of a mix of isolation and compound lifts laid the foundation of fitness that has evolved just about every decade of my life. Here are some of the life-changing and best workouts of each of those eras from a new lifter, a high school athlete, a college athlete, into military training, special ops training, and my last twenty years of training: SEE LINK for full article: https://www.stewsmithfitness.com/blogs/news/a-list-of-life-changing-workouts-for-all-ages