Murphy’s Lore

Sam finds a midrun smile does wonders, even if you don’t mean it

It was mile 10 of a half marathon and although I was still on target, it was getting tougher. My anxiety about whether I could maintain my pace was written all over my face.

And then I smiled. My brow unfurrowed and the tension between my shoulder blades disappeared. I high-fived a kid’s outstretched hand and waved to the people who’d come out to cheer us on. I felt better. And my final mile was my fastest.

I don’t know what made me smile that day – a sudden appreciation of having a good run or an inkling that it might help me relax – but whatever it was that got me flexing my zygomaticus major (the ‘smiling’ muscle), I’m glad of it because it made the rest of the race feel like a breeze. In the weeks since, I’ve been flashing my pearly whites whenever the going gets tough on a run.

I’m not the only one who’s cottoned on to the benefits of swapping a midrace grimace for a grin. After his blistering 2:00:25 marathon last year, Eliud Kipchoge explained that his periodic smiles during the run were a deliberate ploy to relax and work through the pain.

It’s all to do with something called the ‘facial feedback hypothesis’, which posits that our facial expressions are not merely reflective of our moods, but can influence them, too. This was first shown in an experiment 30 years ago, in which people’s expressions were manipulated using a pen. When they gripped the pen lengthwise between their teeth, forcing their facial muscles to create a ‘smile’, they rated cartoons as funnier than when they were told to hold the pen with their lips only, forming a frown. (Try it.)

When Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh said, ‘Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy,’ he was talking about facial feedback.

Recent research has focused on facial feedback during exercise. It seems smiling doesn’t just promote a better mood, helping you enjoy your workout more, it can actually make it feel easier. In 2012, Dutch researchers got volunteers to frown or smile while taking part in a cycling exercise test. Their rating of perceived exertion was lower when they smiled. The thinking is that smiling triggers a relaxation response – the opposite of the stress response, with knock-on effects on breathing rate, heart rate and muscular tension.

A more recent study at Ulster University took the idea a step further, investigating whether manipulating facial expression affected running economy. Runners performed four six-minute runs on a treadmill while their oxygen consumption was measured. They were instructed to either smile or frown during each run. The results showed smiling improved running economy by 2.8 per cent compared with frowning, and by 2.2 per cent compared with a ‘control’ condition, in which facial expressions were neutral.

Enforced frowning also elicited a higher rating of perceived effort during the run, tying in neatly with modern theories on fatigue, which suggest that it’s the brain, not the body, that has ultimate control over whether you slow down (or stop). The brain bases its decision on the feedback it receives from the body – so while gritted teeth would be a signal you are under stress, a smile reassures the brain that your body is having a good time, encouraging it to relax its health and safety rules. The result? You clock a faster run.

It’s great to know a simple smile can have such a powerful effect on running. You may want to spread the joy when you’re out there, but don’t be offended if your cheery shouts of, ‘Smile! It’s good for you!’ to runners sporting frowns are met with a rude hand gesture. They just haven’t heard the good news yet…

I would like to respond to the letter headed Am I a proper runner? [ RW, April] and encourage Sarah Patterson to give her local running club a go! I certainly wouldn’t class myself as a fast runner and was only running perhaps once a week when I decided to join my local(ish) running club, Edinburgh Running Network, last year. I love it! The club has been so supportive and friendly, and has really pushed me to becoming a better runner. And the best part? There are people faster than I am or who can run further than I can, but I’ve realised that as long as I’m challenging myself, that is fine! Sarah should definitely not feel that she is any less of a runner, in my view. Helen Whiteley-mcphee,

Edinburgh