Month: February 2014

Aikido · athletes · competition · cycling · martial arts · racing · running · skiing · swimming · training · weight lifting

Weight training only?

Sam B16 Comments

I’ve written before about mono exercisers, advocating instead for an account of fitness that includes multiple components. See Is there life after running? and Fitness, yes but fit for what?

It used to be that I spent time with runners who only ran, cyclists who only rode bikes, and triathletes who wildly mixed it up a bit on the endurance exercise front. But none of them, or almost none of them, lifted weights. Maybe on the off season, maybe. But even then only reluctantly in service of their chosen sport.

These days I’m hanging with some weight lifters who eschew cardio. See comics above and below!

Is it really true that the efforts of one work against the other? (Tracy is going to post later about endurance exercise and the goal of fat loss.)

It seems obviously true that at the outer limits it’s true that these goals can compete. Marathon and ultra-marathoners are small people usually. Extra weight, even in the form of muscle, just makes the job harder. Upper body muscles have no place on the bodies of cyclists who specialize in hill climbing.

Here’s an excerpt from a New York Times piece on size and athletic performance. Note though that a fair amount of this is self-selection. It’s true that elite runners are small but not necessarily true that running made them small.

“The rules of physics say that distance cycling and distance running are for small people. Rowing and swimming are for people who are big. The physics is so exact that when Dr. Secher tried to predict how fast competitive rowers could go, based only on their sizes and the weights of their boats, he was accurate to within 1 percent.

At first glance, a big rower (and elite male rowers can weigh as much as 250 pounds) may seem to be at a disadvantage trying to row hard enough to push a boat through the water. But because water buoys the boat, weight becomes less of an issue compared with the enormous benefits of having strong muscles.”

The same reasoning explains why elite swimmers are big. Great male swimmers often are 6 feet 4 inches tall, and muscular. And because of the advantage that large muscles give for sprints over short distances, the shorter the distance an athlete must swim, the greater the advantage it is to be big.

Tall swimmers also have another advantage: because swimmers are horizontal in the water, their long bodies give them an automatic edge. “It’s the difference between long canoes and short canoes,” Dr. Joyner said.

Distance running is different. Tall people naturally have longer strides, but stride length, it turns out, does not determine speed. Running requires that you lift your body off the ground with each step, propelling yourself forward. The more you weigh, the harder you have to work to lift your body and the slower you will be.

The best runners are small and light, with slim legs. “If you have large legs, you have to move a big load,” Dr. Secher said. “The smaller you are, the better you are.”

See Bigger is better, except when it’s not

Here’s Fit and Feminist blogging about regretfully losing muscle while marathon training:

I will also cop to feeling frustrated that I’ve lost some of my upper body muscle, even though I made a point to lift at least twice a week and to increase my caloric intake to compensate for the calories burned off by my runs.  In fact, I ended up actually losing weight, which is basically unheard of during marathon training. The fact that this happened has led me to another realization, which is that while I really love and admire well-developed upper bodies and would love to have one of my own, I have come to the realization that I am not one of those people whose bodies can accommodate a lot of running AND have big, beautiful muscles.  So I am still focused on lifting, but it’s also with the understanding that I might not have gorgeous muscles to go along with the strength I build.  *sad trombone*

And for people interested in growing muscle, whether for strength training for body building, it’s true that running, biking, swimming marathon type distances can work against your newly built muscle.

But happily most of us aren’t performance oriented ultra-runners or only interested in the size of our muscles. Most of us are middle of the pack athletes, running middle distances and lifting weights for strength and health reasons. For us, it’s a mistake to be distracted about what’s true for those with single minded fitness goals.

I’m a  Jill of all sports and I’m okay with that even if it means I don’t do as well in any one as I would do if I did only that thing.

See you in the weight room, on the soccer field, out running, biking, or rowing, in the dojo, or on the cross country ski trails!

yoga

Penguin yoga galore

Sam B4 Comments

About two or three people a day find this blog by searching for “nude yoga” or “naked yoga.” (Here is the post they get.)

But this week a new yoga phrase cropped up: “penguin yoga!” Penguin yoga? What on earth could that be? I searched too, couldn’t resist, and now I have to share. Enjoy.

 

Turns out you can take any goofy animal, add yoga, and get lots of cute images. Sloth yoga? Check. Panda bear yoga? Check. Here’s 10 animal yoga poses…by animals.

You all know rule 34? If it exists, there’s a porn of it. See database here and xkcd cartoon here. There’s a new version, if a cute animal exists, there’s a yoga of it.

Uncategorized

Come play with us in our other sandboxes!

Sam B5 Comments

We’ve got a great community on Facebook where we share links and chat with other like minded feminist fitness friends. You can like us there and join in the conversation, https://www.facebook.com/feministfitness.

You can follow us on Twitter too, FitFeminist Almost50 (50FitFeminist) on Twitter.

We’ve also got a Pinterest board, http://www.pinterest.com/samjabre/fit-feminist-and-almost-fifty/.

See you around!

body image

The unexpected advantages of growing up chubby

Sam B6 Comments

 

I have a fairly robust self image despite being significantly overweight. How did I come by this? It’s puzzled me a bit so I thought I’d share some of my thoughts.

It’s not that I think my body is perfect, far from it. I see the flaws: footballer knees, a soft lower belly from pregnancy, wide calves, short legs/long torso… What I mean is that when I look in the mirror, I usually smile. I see my stretch marks even (hard to be pregnant three times without getting some) with affection.

I used to think that body acceptance would be easier if you were closer to society’s ideals for women. Now I see that isn’t so. Doing the Lean Eating program I got to know some very small women with some serious body image issues. I found some of the self-loathing pretty difficult to be around and in the end I chose a smaller subset of that community as allies and friends.

I realized that I’ve had some big advantages in the people with whom I’ve chosen to surround myself. I’ve speculated before about queer community, diversity, and body positivity. It helps too that there are people who I find attractive in spite of, or even because of, their physical “flaws.” And I’ve always had people in my life who think I’m attractive, because of who I am, not in spite of it too. I laughed when I read I’m Fat, Forty And Single And I’m Having No Problems Getting Laid on xojane. You should go read it. Funny, sexy, and true.

So sex and sexual attractiveness can’t be the whole story. I suspect that some of these nearly perfect women suffer more because they’ve been inside the beauty norms for so long, it hurts to feel out. When you’re off the radar as a kid it’s easier to cope. Being mainstream thin and beautiful mostly felt ‘off the menu’ for me. I wasn’t a fat kid but I think I was always chubby. Okay, there was a brief patch in high school when I was a smaller size. I also smoked and drank lots of coffee and got winded walking up a flight of stairs so it’s hard to idealize those days.

I suspect it makes a difference too that while I was chubby enough to be off perfection’s radar, I wasn’t fat as a kid, just chubby. I’ve always struggled with these terms. I still do. See Fat or big: What’s in a name? . What I mean is that I wasn’t bullied for my size and escaping with my self-esteem still intact is probably connected to that too.

Come midlife though pretty much everyone’s body changes and mostly in ways people don’t like. In my post on middle-age, bellies, and body acceptance, I noted that changing shapes and weight gain around the waist seems to take a harder toll on the formerly thin.

We all know that the changes in hormones associated with menopause leads to change in fat distribution. Lower estrogen levels post menopause move fat storage from hips and thighs to the midsection. And it’s the chubby bellies that bug people who’ve been on the thin side for most of their adult lives.

To get a sense of what I’m saying about those who were chubby through youth, read Math Babe’s wonderful post I’m already fat so I may as well be smart.

I just wanted to mention something positive about the experience of being fat all my life, but especially as a school kid. Because just to be clear, this isn’t a phase. I’ve been pudgy since I was 2 weeks old. And overall it kind of works for me, and I’ll say why.

Namely, being a fat school kid meant that I was so uncool, so outside of normal social activity with boys and the like, that I was freed up to be as smart and as nerdy as I wanted, with very little stress about how that would “look”. You’re already fat, so why not be smart too? You’re not doing anything else, nobody’s paying attention to you, and there’s nothing to gossip about, so might as well join the math team.

Queer people sing a similar song about what makes fellow queers so interesting. Once you learn that society is wrong about expectations around sexual orientation, you begin to question society’s norms and expectations across the board. What else might my teachers and parents and all the other kids be wrong about? What other received truths won’t survive the light of day? What do I like really?

 

The circumstances of growing up as an outsider–whether one is outside beauty norms or sexual orientation norms–can have interesting positive effects.

Slate columnist Mark Stern explores the question, Are gay people smarter than straight people? here. he looks at the best explanation for gay exceptionalism and finds them not in biology but in context and circumstances.

Gay people might just work harder than their heterosexual counterparts. Starting in childhood, most gay people are acutely aware of the challenges they’ll face, the roadblocks they’ll encounter, the discrimination they’ll battle. Gays born into small towns—which tend toward homophobia—understand early on that they must escape in order to find acceptance. For LGBT youths, escape usually hinges on two all-important factors: good grades and money. When excelling in school and making money are the only escape hatch to happiness, hitting the books and working overtime have a lot more appeal.

 

Similar points can be made about growing up outside mainstream beauty norms. Well, I’m not going to be a supermodel. Cross that off my to-do list, or as awful well-meaning relatives sometimes say, “You’re not going to earn your living off your looks.” Then you better find something else on which to base your self-esteem. Make peace with it and move on.

It’s not that I’ve never cared that people find me attractive. Rather, I’ve never cared that most people people find me attractive. I’ve always thought of myself as a ‘niche taste’ appealing to certain people but not others. And that’s just fine with me.

 

eating · fitness

Teeny Tiny Habits, One at a Time

Tracy I7 Comments

HabitsWe’ve blogged about habits before (Sam’s post here and another here and here), and about doing less (my post here).  I’ve known about small changes leading to big things for quite a long while now.  But since starting the Precision Nutrition Lean Eating Program last month, I’ve really made the link between habits and doing less.

It’s the tiny habit that wins the day. Why? Because it’s more likely to stick.  That’s why the Pomodoro Technique has always worked so well for me when it comes to tackling projects that I procrastinate on.  I can get into the habit of spending just 25 minutes on an important project.  I am so grateful to Daphne Gray-Grant, the Publication Coach, for pointing me in the direction of that technique and for her wise emphasis on small, do-able changes.

The PN Lean Eating program, as Sam described so well in her review post, focuses on healthy habits, one at a time.  Last month, for the first two weeks of the program, we were encouraged to come up with our own “5 minute action.”  This is any positive change that would take no more than five minutes. If it only takes five minutes, it’s easy to accomplish because, face it, who doesn’t have five minutes?

My five minute action that first two weeks was to meditate for at least five minutes after I arrived at work each day, before I started working. When I get to the office, I plug in the kettle for my tea, turn off the overhead light, set my Insight Timer for 5-10 minutes, and meditate.  Going into silence before I get down to my daily tasks has created a buffer between my commute and my workday that grounds me.

Now, we are working on the habit of slow eating.  I have never been a slow eater. In fact, if I eat with people, I’m almost always one of the first to finish.  Even though I’ve had the slow eating advice zillions of times through my various diets and eating plans, I’ve never done it for a sustained period of time. I think the reason is that it always came along with a suite of other changes, not on its own.

But this time, it’s literally the ONLY habit that I need to work on for this two week period. And you know what?  Since I started practicing this habit last week, I’ve been the last one to finish every single time I’ve had a meal with people. And when I eat by myself, I’ve added at least 5-10 minutes to each meal.  What felt odd and unnatural at first is now, after just 9 days, becoming my default way of eating.  Scarfing down my food is no longer appealing to me.

It’s a small change, and right now it’s the only change. I can handle it because I can focus on it without the distraction of having to juggle a raft of other changes at the same time.

Leo Babauta has a wonderful website called Zen Habits.  He has an excellent post about “The Four Habits that Form Habits.” Number one on the list is to “start exceedingly small.” As he puts it, “make it so easy that you can’t say no.” Instead of starting a whole new workout program, commit to doing three push-ups.  Instead of overhauling your entire diet, practice eating slowly.

Whether you want to follow Sark in calling these small steps “micro-movements”(download overview available here) or PN in calling them “5 minute actions,” whether they seem like changes that are too small to make a difference, the fact is, this approach to change works.

Doing less than you think you should and working on establishing just one habit at a time is a winning combo. It’s taken me from fast eater to slow eater in less than two weeks.

If you have any stories or experience with teeny tiny habits, one at a time, please share them in the comments. Now—time for my five minute meditation!

advertising · athletes · body image · Crossfit

What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander? On Monday morning fitspo…

Sam B20 Comments

Last Monday morning was cold and grey. It needed something. Yes, coffee. But more than that. Turns out it needed  topless men in kilts. Who knew?

A friend posted the photo collection on Facebook and tagged me. Yes, muscular chests and kilts, a winning combo that works for me. I smiled and reposted to spread the cheer.

Many friends liked it. But within a few minutes a straight male friend commented, “I was going to post some hot workout woman but thought “Nah; I’ll be called a sexist. Then I see this….”

Oops!

Here’s his “oops!” offering:

What’s the difference? My sense is that images of incredibly fit beautiful people affect people differently and that gender plays a role. If fitspo babe makes me insecure and self conscious (which actually she doesn’t but she doesn’t inspire or attract me much either), maybe the hunky kilted dudes do that to my male friends? (Also, who boxes in denim cut off booty shorts?)

Do these images constitute sexual objectification? Is that always a bad thing?

I’ve wondered about this before. There is a great poster up at CrossFit of very beefy, burly guys sprinting shirtless. I like the poster. It makes me smile. But I’ve noticed there’s no comparable photo of CrossFit women. There too I think there is a real worry that a poster of fit, beautiful CrossFit women would have a negative effect on the women who workout there. See Tracy’s post The Inspirational Dis-Value of “Fitspo”.

What do you think? Is there a difference between pictures of buff half naked women versus buff half naked men? What is it?

I’m still mulling.

aging · Guest Post

Guest Post: On Ageism, Taking Control and New Movement Cultures

Moira4 Comments

On a trip to the Alps twenty years ago, I got on the train at Chamonix at the same time as a mountaineer. Replete with climbing gear, the mountaineer had the taut muscularity typical of those who spend years climbing in extreme conditions. And she was probably over 70 years old. I was surprised by her, which indicated that I still had unconscious biases in my thinking about women, aging and adventurous activity. A Reinhold Messner-type, smiling broadly through an icy beard, lived in my mind and was not going to make room for others without encouragement.

I remember this woman not only because she gave me an opportunity to examine my biases (yet again), but also because she presented an option for the future I had not considered. People of exemplary character often transform others in just this tacit sort of way. The lack of opportunity for these kinds of tacit encounters is just another of the many harms of ageism.

One way people have tried to address this problem in sport is to “add women and stir.” The idea is that if more women participate in non-traditional sports and more young girls and women have good role models, we will eventually achieve equity. And if more older women participate in sport, we will be able to overcome biases associated with aging and activity.

But the “add women and stir” method will only get us so far. In Canada, many think the goal of exercise for the elderly is to delay physical decline, disability and dementia, even though old people themselves often cite other reasons like fun, sociability, excitement and challenge. And many think that what the elderly do for exercise – whether recreational or competitive at the masters level – merely amounts to lesser, easier versions of exercise for young people. Why should this these be the dominant ways of conceptualizing the physical activity of older people?

An article by the sociologist and historian Henning Eichberg first drew this problem to my critical attention. Drawing upon shamanistic traditions that involve dancing and other forms of activity, Eichberg argues that there are radically different ways to understand aging and physical activity. He says that in these traditions, elders offer

‘something that the young people cannot …They create their own movement culture, from out of their own premises – and as a gift to the rest of society. They do not do sport ‘for’ the elderly, but they dance for the community.’

The problem, he argues, is not so much aging in sports as it is ‘social organization that conceals the resources and the otherness of aging.’ And because aging is viewed in very different ways cross-culturally, many different resources for movement cultures exist. But this is typically hidden in mono-cultural perspectives of sport.

Another option for understanding aging and activity stems from Simone Fullagar’s ‘slow, social and sensuous’ view of sport. Her approach challenges the dominance of ideals related to strength, speed, and ‘winning’ in sport and re-values diverse forms of physical activity. The slow, social and sensuous aspects of sport are on par with other aspects of sport and do not just apply to activities like yoga and dance. These experiences are also a part of sprinting and skiing and all else. And we can learn a lot about these other dimensions of sport from older, more experienced athletes.

This is not because they are slower athletes. Often they are faster and train smarter. Rather, older active people have often developed wisdom through experience and are better able to integrate wisdom in living with sport and recreation. When I think of Barbara Hillary’s expeditions to the north and south poles at ages 75 and 79 respectively, and read what she has to say about adventure and life, I see wisdom and integrity. Her virtues in living and physical activity are fully integrated and this is inspiring and empowering. And tremendously reassuring: when older women take control of situations, blaze trails, and share their knowledge and experience they build conceptual structures for other women to climb. Women like Hillary are wise in ways that most young people simply are not. Thus, out of her ‘own premises,’ she offers a great and unique gift to society.

I don’t know what radically new movement cultures created by people older than me might look like in my own community, but the possibilities are exciting. Drawing attention to them – and finding ones that exist but are hidden by prejudice – is perhaps one of the most important projects ahead for women in sporting contexts. I’m sure the mountaineer in the Alps had a lot to teach me about movement in the world and I’m delighted that she and Barbara have joined the Messners of my mind. What I need now is to learn more from people like them and find ways to help others take control of movement cultures, the ways in which they are defined, and the values that they promote in sport in recreation.

Moira Howes, B.Sc., M.A., Ph.D., is a philosophy professor at Trent University. She philosophizes about lots of things, but mainly about argumentation, biology, feminism, intellectual virtue, and objectivity. Most recently she has been writing about mindfulness, virtue, and adventure sport. Her favorite activities include trail running, skiing, snowshoeing, canoeing, and hiking.