When you are looking to build a healthier lifestyle, sometimes you come face to face with a temptation that could undermine your efforts and you have to invoke willpower.
Could clenching a muscle help? A 2010 study in the Journal of Consumer Research looked at the effects of muscle tightening on self-control. The research saw participants confront various situations where they had to make decisions involving short-term pain for long-term gain. Some of the participants were told to clench a muscle. So what did they find?
“Participants who were instructed to tighten their muscles, regardless of which muscles they tightened—hand, finger, calf, or biceps—while trying to exert self-control demonstrated greater ability to withstand the pain, consume the unpleasant medicine, attend to the immediately disturbing but essential information, or overcome tempting foods,” write the authors.
You can read a release about the study here. Meanwhile, try giving it some muscle next time you face a tempting situation and see if it helps your self-control.