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🗣️ What are your social reps looking like these days?⁠ ⁠ We spend a lot of time thinking about training volume, sleep quality, recovery, nutrition, mobility, cold plunges, sunlight, protein intake… all the things we know influence health and longevity.⁠ ⁠ Social connection deserves to be in that conversation as well.⁠ ⁠ Research from Julianne Holt-Lunstad found that social isolation carries a mortality risk comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. ⁠ ⁠ Part of that may come from the fact that loneliness drives measurable physiologic stress responses, including increased inflammatory markers linked to heart disease, cognitive decline, and poorer long-term health outcomes.⁠ ⁠ That’s a big deal… and honestly, this has become harder for a lot of people.⁠ ⁠ Remote work, busy schedules, endless digital distraction, the lingering effects of the pandemic… it’s surprisingly easy to go long stretches without real connection and community.⁠ ⁠ Just being around people isn’t necessarily the same thing as belonging somewhere.⁠ ⁠ One of the things we’ve seen inside The Starrett System is that even virtual communities can create real accountability, support, consistency, and connection.⁠ ⁠ People need places where they feel seen, encouraged, challenged, and part of something bigger than themselves.⁠ ⁠ So maybe we should think about social connection a little more like training.⁠ ⁠ You don’t wait to “feel motivated” to move your body. You schedule it, prioritize it, and build the habit.⁠ ⁠ Dinner with friends, a standing walk-and-talk, training with a partner, calling your parents, showing up consistently somewhere ➡️those are social reps and they matter more than most people realize.⁠ ⁠ Comment AMBUSH if you want more of the research and ideas I’m paying attention to lately.