Fitness DOES NOT Equal Health

In this week's edition of What do you think Wednesday?

If the pandemic showed the fitness industry anything it is that public health does not
consider them a serious player in public health. And really why should they? The
fitness industry continues to grow year over year (minus the pandemic years) while
population health indicators continue to decline.

Why is this happening? Well for one, something we often say at Seven Movements is
that fitness does not equal health. This is John, my co-founder, talking about it here.

How many unhealthy fit people do you know? I was surrounded by them when
working in gyms. Pills, powders, and a culture that would wear down anyone's mental
health existed and still persist within the industry today. A no pain no gain attitude
combined with a splash of narcissism and it is no wonder people who aren't into
"fitness" don't want to get involved in "fitness".

And the programming is certainly not about health. How many of you are working with
clients that are completely burnt out going to HIIT classes every day of the week? If
we want to be taken seriously as health professionals we need to start educating our
clients better. Let's teach them about health, balance, and recovery. Let's provide
more programming that invites people into exercise and doesn't overwhelm them, let's
 teach that most movement needs to take place outside our gyms and studios and not
be intimidated by that message.

I think it sucked that gyms, studios, and others were shut down during the pandemic.
It was unfair in my opinion to be singled out. And many people do use these places as
part of their well-being routine. They could be part of the solution. But it is also a
wake-up call. How do we in fitness begin to focus on health and more importantly start
promoting health? How do we begin to invite more people into our space who feel like
they do not belong?

What do you think? Am I off my rocker here? What can the fitness industry do better
to start being taken more seriously by public health?

02
Navigating the Growing Toxicity of Gym Culture

Going to the gym has become part of my daily routine, as it is for many others. More
and more we see people wanting to get involved with the gym and find what works for
them, but what a lot of avid gym goers tend to overlook is how hard it can be for
people who have never touched a weight to go in there and learn what to do. Gym
culture is taking over social media, and the consequences of unrealistic workout
plans, health advice, and diets are causing many to feel unwanted in the fitness world.
Whether it is counting calories or intense weight lifting schedules, many find
themselves stuck in toxic gym culture.

Getting yourself into the gym and trying to copy what you just saw someone else
doing is one of the best ways to injure yourself. Exercises that are promoted on social
media don’t talk about the negative effects of it and why not every exercise is for
everyone. Let’s take the deadlift for example. Possibly the most ineffective lift in the
book, deadlifts create an extremely high risk for injury while delivering almost no
rewards in terms of muscle growth. While it is preached as an effective “full-body
exercise,” studies show that more effective workouts exist for developing both back
and leg muscles. What deadlift is effective at is causing injuries for inexperienced
lifters. Just the slightest error in form can lead to back injuries such as slipped discs or
back sprains. Even with good technique, deadlifting leaves lifters sore for days after,
sacrificing the effectiveness of subsequent workouts to perform a lift that does virtually
nothing for long-term muscle development.

Gym culture also changed the reason why so many of us workout. Instead of focusing
on bettering our health and challenging ourselves, gym culture turns fitness into a
competition and a way to judge others. Every person deserves the opportunity to feel
safe, accepted and appreciated in the gym. Gym culture hurts many people on their
way to feeling better by focusing on insecurities, creating a judgmental atmosphere
and excluding anyone who doesn’t look the part. Let’s look at what I like to call gym
anxiety: that self-conscious, confidence-vanishing feeling one experiences when
faced with an intimidating, embarrassing, or awkward situation at the gym. It involves
feelings of fear of being judged based on one’s fitness level and/or uncertainty
involving equipment or classes. You’re not alone. Gym anxiety is universally
experienced by many exercisers. It does not discriminate between gender, size,
strength, or how fit you are.
Overcoming this can take time and reset your mentality, but when you’re working
hard, you won’t have time to compare yourself to others, or to look around and catch
them watching you work your butt off. Concentrate on you, and consistently remind
yourself of how great you’re doing. If you are in need of a distraction, plug in those
headphones and listen to some motivating music, or catch up on the latest episode of
your favorite show. When gym anxiety gets the best of you, invite someone you know
and trust to work out with you. When you’re with a friend, you feel more relaxed and
are able to have fun. Believe in yourself! You are your only competition; comparing
yourself to others isn’t going to get you anywhere. Even if people are looking at you,
convince yourself that it’s because they admire your motivation and dedication toward
reaching your goals. The people that judge others at the gym are the people with the
biggest insecurities. It’s important to keep in mind that everyone has started out in
 your shoes at some point or another, so don’t give in to those feelings of insecurity!
Keep your goals in mind, and stick with your fitness plans. Wake up and walk into the
gym a few more times, and before you know it, you’ll be just as confident as the
people in the front row.

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03
This Book Reveals Some Shocking Truths About the History of
Fitness Culture

Let's-Get-Physical-Q-A

Courtesy of Author

Fitness has made women a societal force to be reckoned with, says Danielle
Friedman, author of Let's Get Physical: How Women Discovered Exercise and
Reshaped the World. It has also changed lives on almost every level: The physical
empowerment it brings can lead to more happiness, confidence, and fulfillment. Here,
Friedman talks about harnessing that power. (More: Black Trainers and Fitness Pros
to Follow and Support)

Shape: Your book establishes a fact most don't realize — that exercise is a relatively
new phenomenon for women. Why did it take so long to catch on?

Friedman: Until fairly recently, women didn't have the freedom to exercise. We
transformed from a culture where sweating was unladylike, women were afraid of
muscle, and girls grew up believing vigorous exercise would cause their uterus to fall
out, to the world we live in today, where women's fitness is ubiquitous. I wanted to
explore how we got here. What I found was that there was a perfect storm of social
and cultural shifts that contributed to women being more active: The rise of the
women's movement, a growing body of research suggesting that everyone could
benefit from exercise, including women, and women entering the workplace in greater
numbers than ever before, which, for many, meant they had money to spend on
exercise classes.

Shape: How did getting physically stronger make women feel more powerful?

Friedman: What I heard, again and again, is that as they developed physical strength
and trust in their bodies, women suddenly felt more capable of navigating life's
challenges. For instance, fitness icon Kathy Smith told me about students who would
come up to her after aerobics classes and say, "I finally asked my boss for a raise," or
"I told my husband I want to go back to work." And so many women reported the
same thing. The benefits of feeling physically strong can extend to mental and
emotional health, too. (Related: Your Guide to Strength Training for Beginners)

Story continues

Think about this: In mid-20th century America, men were told from a very early age to
be physical and become strong, and women were told to fear their bodies. As that
began to change, which I believe was largely thanks to the rise of women's fitness,
the social balance started to shift. The scope and impact of women learning to
connect with their bodies has been huge.

Shape: The women you spoke to said working out made them feel young. Has
exercise changed the way age is perceived?

Friedman: There's a lot of focus on exercise for longevity from a clinical medical
standpoint. But perhaps the real secret lies in the ways that exercise helps women
feel fully present and able to use their bodies and live their lives the way they want to
into their seventies, and eighties, and beyond. There's the idea that 50 is the new 30,
and so on. I think age has a very different connotation now because of our activity
level. (More: How to Stay Young and Increase Your Longevity)

Shape: So then, how can we motivate even more women to embrace exercise?
Friedman: In our culture, fitness has been sold as this all-consuming lifestyle that
requires a fancy wardrobe and significant amounts of money and time. I experienced
this myself — I didn't feel like I had enough time to run, even though I love running.
But now, on a day where I don't have the 45 minutes to go out for a run, instead of
just sitting at my desk and doing nothing, I go for a 30-minute walk. Maybe that's not
exercise in the way I was conditioned to believe in because it's not rigorous, but I feel
so much better afterward. I think we need to expand our understanding of what fitness
is. If we start focusing on moving in ways that feel good, that's one way to get more
people involved.

Shape: What was the most surprising thing you learned while writing the book?

Friedman: That the sports bra wasn't invented until the 1970s. And like many
innovations in women's fitness, necessity was the mother of invention. For the first
time, women were moving in numbers that were great enough to inspire the idea and
turn it into a wardrobe staple. Before that, some women would wear two bras, and
others would wear no bra at all. The inventors of the sports bra — three women, of
course — were very savvy about marketing it. The lingerie market was notoriously
difficult to break into, so they sold it through sporting goods stores. But they had to
package it in a way that was socially acceptable and discreet. They came up with the
idea of categorizing it as a piece of athletic equipment. (More: The 12 Best Sports
Bras for Running, According to Customer Reviews)

And then there's the story behind Lycra. It was invented to create girdles, but as
women started ditching their girdles, it became used to make leotards. Lycra
completely transformed from being a fiber of repression to one of liberation. That just
blew my mind.

Danielle Friedman-author-photo credit Lindsay May for Classic Kids Photography

Courtesy of Lindsay May for Classic Kids Photography Danielle Friedman is an

award-winning journalist whose writing has appeared in such publications as The New
York Times and Vogue.

Danielle Friedman is an award-winning journalist whose writing has appeared in such

publications as The New York Times and Vogue.