Praise for fitness for the elderly

The compliments that most impress the fitness seniors are never standardized polite words such as "old and strong" or "spiritual", but expressions that show their specific efforts and meet their real needs - there is no universal template, and the most effective compliments are always "tailor-made".

I have been a volunteer at a community fitness center for almost two years. The most common scene I have seen is this: Someone said to the aunt who had been dancing for half an hour, "You are in great shape." "You can dance the whole show in just two months? This is a perseverance that our young people can't match." The aunt's eyes lit up immediately, and she told people how she practiced quadriceps with the rehabilitation teacher, how long she squatted against the wall at home every day, and even took out the training notebook she had memorized to show others.

Our volunteer group had debates about this matter before. Some people said that when praising an old person, you have to rely on "looking younger". Saying "You look ten years younger than your actual age" is more effective than anything else. Some people think this statement is too false, especially many old people who bother others to guess their age. If they guess a younger person, they will think you are polite, and if they guess an older person, they will be even more unhappy. Instead of praising the actual benefits of fitness in a real way—— For example, he said to Uncle Li who practiced Baduanjin every day, "You had to rest after you had a stroke and you had to take two steps before you were discharged from the hospital. It's only been a year since you were able to ride a bicycle to the market to buy groceries? This persistence has really helped me a lot, and it has also saved my aunt a lot of worry." Uncle Li laughed from ear to ear every time he heard this. He could talk to people for half an hour that he got up at 5:30 every day to practice his movements, and how he worked out the details of each posture on the video.

Really, different elderly people have completely different concerns. After retirement, some old people like to compete with their old friends to see who has made greater progress. You praise him, "Your grip strength is almost ten kilograms higher than that of Lao Zhang of the same age." They are happier than praising him for anything else; "I can't catch my breath even after two bags of rice. This exercise is really worth it." His heart is sweeter than eating honey; some old people are looking forward to traveling. If you say "You walk five thousand steps every day, you won't have to take the cableway to climb Mount Huangshan, how cool it will be", he will be able to talk to you about his travel plans for next month on the spot.

Oh, by the way, there is another pitfall that is easy to fall into. Many people praise fitness old people and always like to say, "You will definitely live to be a hundred years old in this state." Don't say it nonsense. I have seen old people's faces immediately become cold after hearing this several times. Some people have relatives in the family who died young and are taboo about mentioning life span. Some people feel that "I am not working out just to live longer." Instead, they feel that you don't understand them. It would be better to say, "You practice so well every day and you can go wherever you want. How comfortable your life is." It can speak more deeply to their hearts.

To put it bluntly, the reason why these compliments are effective is not to praise the "fitness" itself, but because you really see their energy to fight aging and want to live a comfortable life. Those empty clichés are like mass-produced plastic flowers, which look good but have no warmth. Compliments that can poke out specific details are like a thermos cup that fits your hand just right in winter. The moment you hand it over, the other person will know that you are really paying attention to him, and it is not just a polite formality.