If keeping up with the news cycle is leaving you frazzled, you're not the only one. That's why one gym is celebrating National Stress Awareness Month by completely taking news off of its screens. Starting Monday, Blink Fitness is launching its "Tune Out While You Work Out" initiative, aimed at helping its members de-stress.
The news, of course, is a big factor of stress for many of us. Earlier this year, the American Psychological Association found that we're more stressed than ever — and the election was to blame for a large part of that. To combat that, Blink Fitness is taking National Stress Awareness Month to switch its television programming to mood-lifting, news-free content. So if you're a Blink member, you might be spending the month of April jogging to something a little lighter than CNN. According to a press release, the content will include "comedy, entertainment, music and educational programming."
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The step, Blink says, is a way to encourage members to minimize everyday stress — because, after all, your mental health is just as important as your physical health.
"We always want Blink to be a place our members turn to when they need a mood boost," Ellen Roggemann, vice president of Marketing for Blink Fitness, said in a press statement. "After seeing the results of this survey, we wanted to do something that would serve as a reminder that exercise is just as important for our members' mental well-being as it is for their physical health. We are removing stressors from our gyms like news content from our TV screens and are encouraging members to go social media-free during their workouts so they can tune out while they work out."
Just last month, a YMCA gym in Scranton, Pennsylvania, had to stop showing news programs on its TVs after a fight broke out between members over politics.
This initiative may last only a month, but if the political climate keeps going the way it is now, maybe other gyms will follow suit. Exercise, after all, has some great mood-boosting benefits — why let it be tarnished by something that leaves us feeling burned out? Of course, if the news cycle gives you something to get worked up about, do your thing — just don't start any fights, please.