What Can Soldiers Teach Us About Strengthening Our Social Muscles?

At Social Skills London, we view social fitness as critical to your overall health. Loneliness and social isolation can have profound effects, comparable to obesity or smoking, on both individuals and organizations. The good news? Just like physical fitness, social resilience can be strengthened through practice and intentionality.

What We Can Learn from the Army:

A study with the U.S. Army showed how social fitness training can significantly reduce loneliness and improve overall well-being. Soldiers engaged in social exercises, such as doing favors, learning to initiate conversations, and recognizing the importance of small social moments.

This helped them build stronger relationships, better cope with loneliness, and improve resilience. The soldiers’ experiences highlight the power of social training: just as muscles grow stronger through physical exercise, social muscles can be strengthened through deliberate actions.

At Social Skills London, we’ve adapted some of these principles to help you build your own social strength, whether in personal or professional settings.

Practical Steps to Build Your Social Muscles:

1. Unplug and Engage

Our instinct often drives us toward screens when we feel lonely, but putting devices aside and initiating a conversation can make all the difference. Choose moments to engage with others—whether a simple hello, a smile, or striking up a conversation. Social connection is like a workout: the more you engage, the stronger your connections become.

2. Small Acts of Kindness Build Trust

Small favors—like helping a colleague, sharing information, or offering support—create a sense of reciprocity. Doing something kind encourages the other person to respond in kind, fostering stronger, deeper connections. These small acts may seem trivial, but they stimulate mutual respect and build a sense of community.

3. Collaborate Over Solo Efforts

Instead of dividing tasks or working solo, find moments to work together. At home, it could be tackling household chores side by side. In the workplace, consider ways to collaborate, even if it may seem less efficient at first. Sharing tasks helps create opportunities for conversation, strengthens relationships, and fosters new ideas that can improve overall productivity and connection.

4. Diversify Your Interactions

Challenge yourself to go beyond routine conversations. Don’t stick to the same topics or familiar ideas—push the boundaries of your interactions by exploring different perspectives. Engaging with varied viewpoints not only enriches your understanding but also deepens your relationships. Diverse interactions promote growth and make social fitness more dynamic.

5. Just Say Hello

Sometimes, the smallest gesture can have the biggest impact. Take a page from Oprah’s “Just Say Hello” campaign, which encourages us to greet friends, acquaintances, and strangers alike. It’s simple, but acknowledging someone’s presence is an easy way to open the door to connection and fight isolation.

How Social Fitness Impacts Organizations

Loneliness doesn’t just affect individuals—it has profound effects on productivity and innovation within organizations. Building social fitness at work can help reverse these effects. Managers should focus less on forced social activities and more on fostering natural opportunities for connection. By encouraging small acts of engagement and promoting collaborative work, workplaces can become more resilient, innovative, and cohesive. Remember, social fitness isn’t just contagious in its negative form—positive interactions spread, too.

Final Thoughts: Strengthen Your Social Muscle

Social isolation is a major issue across societies, but it’s one we have the power to combat. Our ability to reason, connect, and collaborate is one of the greatest traits humans possess, yet it’s easy to let those skills atrophy without practice. At Social Skills London, we provide you with the tools and exercises to strengthen your social muscles and create meaningful, lasting connections.

Building social fitness is much like physical fitness: it requires consistent effort, small steps, and the willingness to push beyond your comfort zone. Whether it’s a smile, a shared task, or a simple hello, every action contributes to stronger social health. The more we all engage, the better we’ll feel and the stronger our communities will become.