It has been just over a year since Dad died, and and now I’m the one dealing with multiple health diagnoses. The heart is on the mend, following surgery for a condition that I had no idea about until my doctor caught it while checking for bronchitis. I’m on a waitlist to see someone about the concerning lumps on my thyroid, discovered when I went for a pre-operative CT scan. I’m finally getting around to being tested for sleep apnea after the nurses in hospital asked whether I had it.
In all three cases, there were signs I should have been paying attention to, but ignored. Dad ignored or downplayed his symptoms until nothing could be done. I’m trying really hard (now) to break that pattern of behaviour.
I think of these things as mostly being lessons from Dad, but some come from Mom too. Was it a generational thing? Or just my family dynamics? Thankfully it doesn’t seem to have been passed on to my kids so hopefully they have learned the lessons already.
Listen to your body;
Consider that what you are telling yourself is normal for your body may actually just mean you are stubborn;
Admit when things hurt or feel wrong;
Ask for help;
If you can’t ask, at least accept help when it’s offered;
Read up on what is considered “normal” so at least you have some sort of baseline for assessing whether you should be worried, or feel free to carry on with whatever gives you joy.
A smiling woman wearing dark clothes rides a blue bicycle with an orange basket on the front. She has both her feet off the pedals, stretched forward. Having done this just last week, I am pretty sure she is saying “wheeeee!”
Conventional advice from convention health sources says that at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise per week is important to maintain health. The CDC (the good-old-fashioned one, based on real health studies) says so here.
And it turns out almost half of adults in the US get that amount. Which is better than previous studies showed.
But wait– there’s new research out there telling us in no uncertain terms that we were wrong.
Yeah, stick figure and I are equally flummoxed by this news.
I know. I mean, we’ve written so many blog posts about how small intervals of physical activity, whether in short bursts or in longer increments, are a huge boost to health and well-being.
But all those things I said, all the things we said… this is not enough.
The researchers analyzed data from 17,088 participants in the UK Biobank, a large biomedical dataset and research resource, between 2013 and 2015. Study participants, with an average age of 57, wore an activity tracker on their wrist for seven consecutive days to record their normal activity levels.
During a follow-up of the participants after nearly eight years, 1,233 cardiovascular events (heart attack and stroke) were recorded. People, regardless of fitness level, who got 150 minutes of exercise each week had a nine percent reduction in cardiovascular event risk.
But to achieve substantial protection from cardiovascular events—defined as more than a 30 percent reduction in risk—the participants needed to log between 560 and 610 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise a week. This works out to about nine to ten hours of weekly exercise. Just 12 percent of people in the study hit those numbers.
Right. So, if we don’t measure up, are we just doomed? One of the researchers hastily responds no, every type and amount of movement counts.
[Senior researcher on the study] Ziheng Ning also says it’s important to avoid looking at exercise as a pass/fail threshold. “Instead, think of it as a continuum: more movement generally produces greater protection, and fitness level matters,” he says.
What are we to make of this? There have already been a bunch of criticisms and responses to the published study. Among the objections are these:
the study collected data for only one week for participants, potentially not accounting for variation in exercise patterns
the participant group was largely white and able-bodied, so not applicable to the general population
this was an observational study, so no causation could be concluded
But the bigger objections were from health and fitness professionals who argued that the notion of “optimun” is relative to a baseline, and these vary for a lot of reasons and at different times in one’s life. Also, other studies show modest but significant health benefits for all sorts of physical activities, in all sorts of amounts and durations.
For my money, I don’t think activity or fitness is a continuum, where we slide forwards and backwards. Instead, I think we dip in and out, try on something for size, take a new sport out for a spin, chill out, loll about, dance around, and feel the occasional spring in our step. It’s about finding a cadence that works with the playlist our lives are running at the moment.
What’s your cadence this week/this month/this year/this decade/this life? I’d love to hear what you’re up to.
My hips are very cranky lately and instead of just being annoyed most of the time and stretching when I think of it, I have decided to actually try to make them happier by doing some targeted exercises and stretches and the like.
Yes, I know that a problem with my hips is not an isolated thing – I probably have a whole series of cranky muscles that need some kind attention – but I also know that my brain loves falling into the trap of ‘if I can’t do everything, I won’t do anything’ so I have decided to start by focusing on my hips.
And since I also know that my brain gets easily bored exercise routines, I have decided that ‘focusing on my hips’ means ‘trying all kinds of different videos to see which ones my hips like best.
So, here is my ‘happier hips’ experiment:
Try each of these videos once over the next two weeks and see which ones we (me and my hips) like best.
Updates will follow as events warrant.
A video called ‘7 Tight Hip Stretches’ from the Ask Dr Jo YouTube channel. The still image shows Dr. Jo, a woman with light skin whose brown hair is pulled back in a bun, sitting on a mat on the floor with her hands on the mat behind her. Her right leg is bent at the knee with her foot on the floor and her left leg is bent with her knee facing the camera and her left foot on her right knee. She is facing the camera and she is mid-sentence.
a short YouTube video called ‘Tight Hips? You’re not alone’ from the Yoga with DJ channel. In the still image a person in a grey tank top and black shorts. with black framed glasses with their hair in a bun on top of their head sits on a black yoga mat with the soles of their feet touching each other and their knees pointed to the sides of the mat (butterfly pose), and they are using their hands to push downwards on their knees. There are shelves of plants behind them and their yoga mat is on light-coloured parquet flooring.
a video called ‘Gentle Yoga for Tight Hips’ from Yoga with Adriene. In the still image, Adriene, a woman with long dark hair and a happy expression is wearing back leggings and a black tshirt as she sits on a yoga mat that is divided long ways into two shades of green. Her hands are resting behind her on the mat and she is leaned back slightly. Her left foot is on the floor and her left knee is bent (pointed toward the ceiling) Her right leg is bent, her right foot is resting on her left leg, and her right knee is pointing away from the viewer. Her dog Benji is sleeping in front of her but near the back wall and a table with a plant and a decorative item on it is behind her to her right.
a video called ‘Hip CARs//For IT Band Syndrom, Piriformis Syndrome etc’ from Tom Morrison. The left hand side of the image is red with text reading ‘What is The Best Hip Mobility Drill Ever!?and the right shows Tom Morrison, a man with long hair wearing a black shirt and dark pants and a woman in a black shirt and grey capri leggings with her blonde hair in a high ponytail standing next to the frame of a machine at the gym. She is holding on to the frame and tipping her leg to one side to stretch her hips.
another Yoga with Adriene video. This one is called ‘Hip Mobility – Open Your Hips – 13 Minute Yoga practice and there’s still image shows her lying on her back on a light green yoga mat and she is wearing a one piece exercise suit that is both a tank top and leggings. She is making the figure 4 position with her legs. Her right leg is bent with the knee pointing away from the viewer and her right ankle is resting on her left thigh as she pulls her left thigh toward her with her hands .
This video from Oscar Moves is called ‘Give Me 4 Minutes. I’ll Fix Your Tight Hips.’ Still image is divided into halves. On the left, he is wearing a dark shirt and shorts and he is pushing down on his right leg near the knee with both hands. On the right side, he is wearing a green shirt and dark shorts and he is sitting with the souls of his feet together and his knees pointing out to either side in butterfly position and he looks relaxed.
“After having proudly supported Zwift-owned Pride On campaigns every June in recent years, Pride On on Zwift is now fully owned and hosted by LGBTQ Zwifters. This is what to expect this June: entertaining group rides, exciting races, runs, a new Pride On kit, legacy unlocks and – most of all – a lot of fun on a daily basis!”
It’s also cold and rainy this weekend in Ontario, and I’m feeling pretty grumpy about not riding my bike. Two weekends ago we went car camping with Mallory and Cheddar, and we couldn’t bring our bikes because Sarah’s car, the one with the bike rack hitch, was broken. Last weekend, Sarah got to ride her bike at the farm, but I was sick. There was also a heat alert. And then this weekend, I’m better, and I have a bike ride marked on our weekend to-do list. It’s cold and miserable. Grrr.
So instead, I got up Sunday morning and joined the 730 am Pride Ride, before church.
Well, that was a very eventful ride. Wowsa.
Zwift has lots of gamified features and I feel like on that ride, I hit all of them. So many medals and prizes.
First, I won every sprint, segment, whatever because they are given out to men and women separately and I think I was the only woman in the ride, hence the fastest woman on all the segments.
Second, I met my weekly distance goal during the ride. That required a small animated digital celebration.
Third, I completed a new route and got a route badge for Scotland Smash.
Fourth, for completing the Pride Ride I got new socks and new kit.
Fifth, during the course of the ride I levelled up to Level 53. Cue more streamers and confetti. Read about Zwift levels here.
And here’s my playlist for the ride from Spotify.
I don’t think I’ve had a much fun on a Zwift ride since I got my flaming socks and my pocket Scottie.
If your social media newsfeed is all fitness, all the time–welcome to my world–you’ve likely seen this post and many of the responses to it. Most of the women’s strength groups I follow have shared it, with rebuttals in favour of deadlifts and functional strength, and against aesthetic thinness goals.
And yes, I’m also on Team Strong over Team Skinny, though, truth be told, skinny was never on the menu for me. Strength is, and I delight in it, and in the way I feel when I’m strong, Muscles!
Here’s some of my thoughts about the image and this issue.
🏋️ First, lots of thin women might also care about beating their deadlift PR. There is no reason to think the woman in this picture doesn’t care about strength.
🏋️ Also not everyone who “fits” into a bandeau at 76, worked for it or had it as a goal. Some people just are thin, just like others are fat.
🏋️ What do you mean “fits into a bandeau” anyway? Doesn’t that matter what size the bandeau is? We would all fit into bandeaus if they were large enough, right?
🏋️ Ah, what they really mean is “fits into a bandeau’ and looks a certain way. What way? Skinny.
🏋️ Skinny is having a moment right now. I didn’t blog about Demi Moore and the debate over her “toned” arms, but that certainly fits into the same context. See my post from a last spring, Thin being in again and the rise of authoritarianism.
🏋️ There is something to the idea that at 76, if we care about not breaking bones when we fall, we ought to be strength training. It’s not necessary to care about your weight-lifting PRs though, but it is necessary, if you care about retaining muscle, to train for strength some of the time.
As usual, there’s a lot more nuance here than Team Skinny versus Team Strong.
Where do you land? Does framing this as “different goals” let the original post off the hook too easily, or is that the right response?
As I write this post on Sunday May 24, it’s 53F/11.5 C and raining in New England. This is not the May weather I grew up with, having been born and raised in South Carolina. However, after several decades of calling the Boston area home, I know that late spring doesn’t let go of its fickle grip on northern regions without some pushback. However, it does eventually become summer, and with summer comes… yes, sweating.
We at Fit is a Feminist Issue have written about sweating. Here are a few posts to check out:
Basically, Samantha is accepting of sweating, Mia is a sort of a sweat advocate, and I sweat a lot and complain about it. Until now.
A local mental health clinic in my area put up this public service list of things that are good about sweaing. I took this in, and am working on being more sweat-positive this summer.
Sweat positivity list– memorize this before the weather really turns hot and humid.
Okay, I can see that sweat is another occasion for appreciating my body. And it signals that I’ve done something (mostly; although I can sweat copiously while not moving an inch). Yes, sweat is a sensational experience (in one sense of the word). And it keeps me cool without having to start panting all the time.
Fine, sweating is good for us. Happy now?
I will be once I find myself in proper sweating weather. Which I hope will be this week. Will post a perspiration update (or not) later…
I love the term “exercise snacks.” It sounds fun, it’s easy to remember, and it reframes movement in a way that feels less intimidating than “you need to work out more.”
I mean on the one hand, there are gruelling ultramarathons of longer and longer distances, and on the other, there are snack-sized bites of exercise.
What’s not to love? Who doesn’t love a good snack?
Two new meta-analyses just came out with some solid findings on exercise snacks, and I followed up after they floated by repeatedly on my social media newsfeed, which is heavily fitness-oriented.
Here’s what I found, including what the research actually supports and what it doesn’t.
First, what counts as an exercise snack?
We’re talking genuinely short — 2–5 minutes of movement, repeated throughout the day
Activities using large muscle groups work best: stair climbing, brisk walking, bodyweight moves such as squats
The sweet spot in the research: moving for 2–5 minutes every 30–60 minutes of sitting
So basically: get up, move, sit back down, repeat
What the research supports
Exercise snacks improved cardiorespiratory fitness in physically inactive adults — and this finding had moderate-certainty evidence behind it, which in research terms is genuinely meaningful, not a hedge
Breaking up sitting improved blood flow and caused a small but real drop in systolic blood pressure — and these effects showed up acutely, meaning during a sitting session, not just over months of training
I find this part kind of amazing: your blood vessels respond to movement pretty quickly. You’re not just banking future health credits. Something is actually happening right now, while you climb those stairs.
What the research doesn’t support (yet)
There isn’t strong evidence yet that exercise snacks improve other cardiometabolic markers like blood sugar or cholesterol. The hype sometimes gets ahead of the data on this one
Muscular endurance benefits in older adults were limited in the evidence
These studies focused on physically inactive people — if you’re already active, the cardiorespiratory gains are less likely to be dramatic for you, though the sitting-break findings apply to pretty much everyone
One nuance I think is really worth flagging
Reducing total sedentary time and avoiding long uninterrupted sitting may matter independently of whether you’re doing structured exercise snacks
In other words: taking three short walks doesn’t entirely cancel out eight hours in a chair
The duration of uninterrupted sitting itself seems to affect vascular function — these are related but genuinely separate things
I know that’s not the most cheerful finding if, like me, you have a desk job, but hey, sometimes the truth hurts
The bottom line
If you’re not currently exercising, exercise snacks are a genuinely evidence-supported place to start — especially for your cardiovascular fitness
If you sit for long stretches (hi, fellow desk workers), building in movement breaks every 30–60 minutes has real short-term benefits for your circulation, even if you’re otherwise active
Use the stairs when you can — it keeps showing up in the research as a particularly good option, and now I feel vindicated every time I take them, now that I can post knee surgeries!
And as always: I trust research that tells me what it doesn’t know, not just what it does
Rodríguez MÁ, Quintana-Cepedal M, Cheval B, et al, Effect of exercise snacks on fitness and cardiometabolic health in physically inactive individuals: systematic review and meta-analysis, British Journal of Sports Medicine 2026;60:133-141.
“Moderate certainty of evidence indicated that exercise snacks improved cardiorespiratory fitness in physically inactive adults. However, evidence for benefits on muscular endurance in older adults was limited, and the current data do not support their effectiveness for improving other cardiometabolic health markers.”
Wang, H., Chang, Y., Wang, H. et al. Acute effects of “exercise snacks” during prolonged sitting on hemodynamics and peripheral vascular function: a three-level meta-analysis. Nutr Metab (Lond) (2026). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12986-026-01120-5
“Breaking up prolonged sitting with short bouts of physical activity (“exercise snacks”) acutely improves flow-mediated dilation and peripheral blood flow, and is associated with a small but statistically significant reduction in systolic blood pressure. Mean arterial pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and peripheral arterial diameter did not show consistent significant changes. Findings for shear rate and heart rate were sensitive to bias correction and should therefore be interpreted cautiously. Activity breaks involving large muscle groups (e.g., stair climbing), performed for 2–5 min every 30–60 min, may be particularly beneficial for vascular protection. Where feasible, reducing total sedentary time and avoiding prolonged uninterrupted sitting may also be important.”
This week flipped that upside down and lit it on fire.
I started on the holiday Monday with a list of things that needed to be done before fence replacement work would start on Wednesday.
My youngest kid, Jean, came over. We dug up plants to move them out of danger. We moved and flipped the contents of two composters.
Michel cleaned out our garage and mowed.
Dividing and conquering we got lots done.
Tuesday was even more frenetic gardening.
Wednesday my contractor arrived and I puttered around outside and kept myself available.
Thursday I gardened at my place for three hours before flitting over to Heather’s for some visiting, snacking and, oh yes, two solid rounds of weeding. Then back home for more outdoor work.
Nat grimacing at the camera. Her face says “not so little but very often”
Friday, more work on my gardens in the morning and time with my friend Phyllis in the afternoon. I brought her scant amount of transplants and in return she filled my car with plants.
I got home, had a light dinner then quickly set to work planting all my new plants so that Saturday’s rain will help them adapt to their new home.
This has been a boon to my average step count. I’ve been averaging 9,500 a day over the past year. This week I averaged over 13,000.
A bar graph showing values for each day of the last week ranging from 8,000 to 18,000 steps on a given day.
Somewhere in there I had physiotherapy and a massage. I’m taking care not to aggravate my lower back and stick to daily physio exercises.
It is pretty typical that I put a lot of effort into my gardens in the spring. This year I feel like I’m making fast progress. I want my gardens to be lush and full of life without looking unkempt. It’s tricky because my garden is informal and uses a lot of native plants, folks sometimes think it’s merely overgrown.
Here’s to my efforts reducing a bit over the coming weeks as I focus more on writing and crafting.
In the Azores, on the volcanic island of Faial, 5 friends and I rented ebikes for what we thought would be a scenic and leisurely ride through part of the countryside.
But after a few hours, following stops for an ocean swim and a lunch, the wet and foggy weather started closing in. We had few route options and limited ebike battery life. The guy at the rental shop had warned us: use the pedal assist too much and we’d be pedalling our heavy ebikes home entirely on our own steam.
The team posing: we had cycle, rain, and swim gear all ready for this trip that day!
I am, by instinct, a middle-of-the-pack person. I’ve never been confident or experienced enough to lead a physical group adventure, though I’m not usually slow enough to need too much bringing along. Most of my athletic life has involved participating but mostly being accountable just to myself.
But after two years of riding with my local cycling club, I’d learned enough about how group rides work to provide some safety and support strategies. One person sets the direction and pace. They carry the authority and stress of being first. Another person holds the rear and watches for gaps. They make sure no one gets left behind and communicates trouble forward.
I didn’t know those roles had names until I talked to a friend who, as an avid hiker, described similar roles for groups on multi-day hikes: scouts and sweeps.
I had just happened to take a photo of the ride routes map beforehand at the rental store, and I’m glad I did because my RidewithGPS app wasn’t awesome in the Faial backcountry.
I was so eager to ride that day, I ended up at the front. It turned out that my first day as a group cycling scout was somewhat stressful: the weather was not improving and the road on those volcanic hills seemed to head ever-upwards.
A break in the hills and the fog allowed me to snap a picture of the road and town ahead.
By the time we got to the exact opposite part of the island from where we started, we had to make a choice: follow the shorter mid-island route the bike store guy had suggested…or take the longer, traffic-busy road near the water. Given the hills we had already faced, we chose the latter.
There were other experienced riders in my group, so we rotated scouts and sweeps as we made our way towards Horta. By finally hitting some downhill and conserving our energy and our bikes’!), we ended up returning to the rental shop with time and battery to spare. Our apps told us we had made speeds of over 50km and reached an elevation of 330m, a gain of nearly 1000m overall. Not bad for recreational cyclists!
Elevation and weather made this recreational ride a good challenge, even on e-bikes.
Our final ride around the island and back to Horta….the long way.
Thanks to the Scouts and the Sweeps
Since our Faial ride, I’ve been thinking about the contributions that scout and sweep roles play in group activities. Not just the formal leaders who are trained and hired to lead groups on trails and tracks, but the regular folks who volunteer their expertise to help move groups of people along together. Scouts and sweeps aren’t just coaches on the sidelines. They are part of the group too, and their labour can be invisible until you’re the one doing it (or you are the one being helped).
Me (Elan) on a scout break eating a Nutella sandwich.
This holiday group ride, which was longer and more difficult than anticipated, made me grateful to have had so many great scouts and sweeps in my life, taking care of me and the rest of the group when I didn’t even notice it. And this time out, I appreciated being able to serve my friend group in that same way.
I’m writing this on my way to the Ottawa-Montreal hockey game. It has been an exciting season and series, and I can only hope that there will be one final game after tonight.
The Ottawa Charge celebrates a win at centre ice. Note the painted logo. It’s a big deal – really!
I didn’t expect to become such a big fan. I had watched Hockey Night in Canada as a kid because that was the only option in my two-channel, one TV household. A girls team was formed when I was in high school, but I wasn’t allowed to join. Later, I became a hockey mom for my son’s sake; but that wasn’t about the brilliant hockey – sorry kiddo!
As a feminist and a Canadian, I celebrated the achievements of Canadian women at the Olympics and other international tournaments. I was proud to see the achievements of some of those stars after their playing days ended.
I should have cheered even more for the dedication of those women who played for years with minimal sponsorship and no salaries, and only the occasional tournament to hone their skills.
But suddenly, women’s professional sports are having a moment.
The atmosphere at games over the three years of the PWHL’s existence has been phenomenal. It’s almost as much fun to watch the excitement of young girls dreaming of playing professionally as it is to watch the pros themselves. Attendance is skyrocketing (I expect a new playoff attendance record will have been set by the time you read this).
When the season ends, there will be options for the first time in my life: I can go to professional soccer games here in Ottawa, or follow the new basketball team in Toronto. New mixed team configurations in both traditional and para-sports are drawing my attention to things like curling, speed skating and athletics too.
Of course the women earn a pittance compared to their male counterparts, but there have been some modest moves towards parity in certain sports, and there is definitely a sense that the PWHL Players Association will be negotiating aggressively for more lucrative contracts now that they are a proven commodity.
Maybe that’s part of the reason so many of us older women are such fervent fans. We fought so hard for equality in our careers that we want to do what we can to help advance the careers of others.
I know for a fact that many of us are there celebrating a future our fourteen-year-old selves couldn’t have imagined.
