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Women
Who Exercise With Mirrors Feel Worse
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mirrors are as common as paint on the walls of health clubs,
but what is so inspiring about watching yourself gasping and drenched in sweat? For exercise novices, not much, according to one study,
which found that women who exercised in front of a mirror felt worse than women
who exercised without them.
"Placing mirrors in exercise centers may need to be reconsidered,
especially in centers that are trying to attract exercise initiates," said
the study in the American Psychological Association journal Health Psychology. The researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton,
Ontario, looked at 58 sedentary women with an average age of almost 21. The
women first answered questions about how they felt their bodies looked, how
confident they were in their ability to ride an exercise bike, and what their
mood was - whether, for instance, they felt "calm" or
"worn-out." The women rode the exercise bike twice, at a moderate
intensity, for 20 minutes, one week apart. In one ride, they were in a mirrored
room; in the other, the mirrors were covered by curtains.
After each ride, the women answered again the same sort of questions they had
answered in the beginning. When women rode while they could watch themselves in
the mirror, they wound up feeling worse than they did when they could not look
at themselves, the study found. For example, the mirrored rides left women
feeling less calm and more fatigued. This can't be simply a case in which women who watch
themselves exercise come away with a worse opinion of their own bodies, said
researcher Kathleen Martin Ginis, an associate professor of health and exercise
psychology at McMaster. These women on average were not overweight, and even
women with high body-image scores felt worse after exercising in front of a
mirror, she said.
Other studies had found that gazing into a mirror tends to make a person feel
worse, Ginis said. It's not just the body, either. Even without exercise,
periods of staring into a mirror make people start to think about their other
flaws as well. "We tend to be quite critical," she said. Exercise, on the other hand, tends to make people leave
feeling better about themselves, and the study was designed to see if the
exercise effect outweighed the mirror effect.
It did not, and the psychological tests picked that up. "This is the kind
of thing where people come away thinking, 'I don't feel that great,'" she
said. Women who hadn't exercised before typically have low
expectations of how well they would be able to exercise, and the women in this
study probably felt the mirrors proved them right, the researchers said. Although the study did not look at men, Ginis suspects
men might have some of the same reactions, although less strongly, because men
tend to be less self-critical than women.
The findings, published in June, indicate that health club operators should
start changing their decor, the researchers said. "If a bout of exercise
leaves a sedentary woman feeling worse than before she worked out, it will be
difficult to persuade her to establish a regular exercise program," they
said. This fits the experiences of Curves International, a
fast-growing chain that focuses on women, especially those who are not
competitive. Members don't want mirrors, said founder Gary Heavin. "When we
didn't put them in, they could concentrate on having fun," he said. However, the bad experience with mirrors may not be
true of more advanced exercisers, the study said. Other researchers have found
that highly active women who exercised in front of a mirror felt better for it,
possibly because they got to show themselves how good they did.
And Ginis is not about to bring upon herself the amount of bad luck that would
develop if every health club in North America trashed its mirrors on her say-so.
Mirrors are necessary equipment that help people such as weight trainers confirm
they are doing their moves properly, she said. She suggested that clubs create
mirror-free zones for women who are getting started. |