Atul Gawande
On Socialness
Why We Sweat Together
In the latest New Yorker, Atul Gawande writes about the horrors of solitary confinement. His piece begins:
Human beings are social creatures. We are social not just in the trivial sense that we like company, and not just in the obvious sense that we each depend on others. We are social in a more elemental way: simply to exist as a normal human being requires interaction with other people.
Deprived of human contact, we come apart at the seams. When measured by EEG, apparently, the trauma inflicted to brain by isolation appears not much different than that inflicted by physical injury.
It's an inappropriate leap, no doubt, but the thought occurs that this explains why we choose to pay good money to cram ourselves into overlit gyms and stuffy yoga studios to work out together. There are other, more practical explanations, of course: Larger spaces, machinery, the advantages of not sweating on your living room carpet. But the need to be with other people is not to be ignored.
After hours of staring at the screen, with instant message alerts echoing in my brain, I too begin to come apart at the seams. Often, I find, when my schedule is out of whack, I'll check myself into any group class: Give me retro aerobics, or kickboxing, or slow flow yoga, it doesn't matter. It's the getting out of my head that I crave. And there's some potential for human communion in those classes, often missed, or just glanced, that draws me.
I think for many of us living in the big city, working late, and returning to small spaces, the trip to gym or studio or dojo is about more than calories burned. It's about being near other people. And apparently that's just as important to our health as the actual exercise.