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For those people who enjoy exercise or being active by moving all the time or getting involved in fun runs and obstacle courses. It’s probably a very exciting time when the topic of exercise appears in conversation. At times though it can be quite consuming and others may not share the same enthusiasm that you have about movement and exercise, especially male friends of yours. These men may not be inclined to talk about what you’re currently doing in regards to exercise. And in turn your conversation might be stopping pretty much there. Or your friendships might be slowly dwindling off a little bit because you’re talking about exercise all the time.

Maybe you can try to hone in on these points when you are talking about exercise with male mates.

 

1) Locations

Whilst in conversation try using the locations that you’ve visited or the areas that you go, walk, ride and swim. Use these areas as topical points in your conversation as a shared experience that you can both communicate over. You may find that once you start talking about the beach. Your mates might start to say, “oh yeah, I love the beach, I like going out and taking my kids out for a swim”. This mutual experience that you both have allows you to connect with your friend. It still allows you to show your energy and excitement that you’ve been out about and doing something different.

 

2) Technology or Equipment used

Try talking about the equipment and the gear that you use whilst doing your activities. I’m sure that your friend probably has some experiences with using similar or the same equipment or technology. The gear they’ve used in their time may lead them to share with you or ask questions. Lines like “Oh, I’ve always wanted to surf, tell me a little bit more about that surfing trip”. In this way you get to talk a little about what you’ve been doing. Yet you hone in on the equipment more so and learn about what they like and don’t like.

 

3) Children’s activities

If you’re a parent or you have children in your life. Rather than talking about what you’re currently doing with exercise or activities. You could talk about your children’s activities and their sporting achievements. Many Fathers enjoy speaking about their children’s athletics carnivals, this opens the conversation to movement in general. They might of seen their kid do the 100 m dash and you in turn can reflect with how your enjoyed time doing the same as a kid. Swapping stories about both yourselves & your kids activities can be a fun conversation to share. By sharing these stories about kid’s activities you get to connect over the events you both have experienced. It takes the topic of your own activities and you get to see a bit more liveliness about movement from your mate.

 

The common thread with all of these three points is when you’re communicating this with your mates. Try to show your enjoyment that you have for activity and movement, but not necessarily the your achievements. Particularly if it comes across as bragging about them. The competitive nature of some of these events can be off putting if your mate isn’t keen on exercise themselves. They may not really understand exercise or connect with it at the same level that you do. By showing your excitement around movement in general they will more than likely relate similar aspects of movement.