Month: October 2015

Guest Post · rugby · team sports

University + Sport = Excellence in Women (Guest Post)

Sam B

by Marie Helene Laforest

Why?

In my experience at McGill University 3 things happened:

1- Women usually go to school for a good academic programme that will lead to a good job. And then they look at what sport they might play.

2- The lack of funding in women’s sports and the lack of professional jobs in women’s sports means that there are strong incentives to spend all one’s time in the classroom rather than training for any kind of sports.

3- Girls and guys have to fight the same battle. At McGill the men’s volleyball team was cut because there was a lack of funding, performance and general interest. Same battle, different circumstances.

What everyone needs to do, regardless of gender, is to stop whining and start acting. Period.

This is why after 4 years of whining I decided that it didn’t work and I should start acting.

Here is my solution: An award that will honour the social justice fights of my grand parents (both McGill alumni) and will help my rugby team.

https://www.mcgill.ca/seedsofchange/project/don-alice-heap-rugby-all-athletic-award

Please donate. Merci beaucoup!!!

Marie-Helene Laforest received her BEd from McGill University, is now a PE Teacher, and played rugby for SABRFC and McGill.

Sat with Nat

The Return of Raynaud’s

natalieh (she/her)3 Comments

Last fall I had discovered that one side effect of the blood pressure medication I’m taking is I developed Raynaud’s Syndrome. I had noticed my middle toe would go numb just standing in the house but especially out on the bike. It was a weird change for me. I was the person in the military that had such sweaty feet my boots were always encrusted with salt. My training Sargent helped me get an extra pair of boots so I’d stop failing inspection. Until last fall I rarely wore socks in the house and would wear open toed footwear until the snow flew. So, in some ways, I had forgotten that Raynaud’s applied to me because once the weather warmed up in the spring the symptoms went away.

I was walking to work couple weeks ago, the weather was cool but forecast to warm up so I had sandals on. As soon as I got out the door my one toe went numb. My walk is about twenty five minutes so I thought flexing my toes and ramping up the pace would help the circulation. I was wrong and by the time I got to work both feet had several toes that had gone white and completely numb. It’s not painful at that point, it feels like dental freezing, weird but not painful. Once inside the circulation returned and my toes turns very red, swelled up and it was really uncomfortable, painful even. Right. RAYNAUD’S!

It reminded me that anytime the temperature is below 10 C I have to be careful and that this winter I need to focus on my foot care. Thinking back on some of the challenges of the very cold triathlon in September I was incredibly foolish to not be more careful about being ready for the cold.

I have noticed that the soft tissue in my hands and feet ache when it’s cold, the joints feel stiff. I now walk to work with socks, closed toe shoes, gloves and a toque while others saunter about in only a light jacket. It’s annoying but necessary and I’m trying to think of how I can keep moving my body outside while not being ridiculously bundled up.

 

Guest Post · yoga

What has happened to my Yoga class? (Guest post)

cravethecookbook17 Comments

‘Do not kill the instinct of the body for the glory of the pose.’
Vanda Scaravelli 

 

When I first thought of writing this article, I struggled as to how to get my point across without sounding like I was whining about how things have changed.  Change can be a good thing.  Some of the changes I have seen over the years have made Yoga more accessible to those who would have never attempted it in the past, which is of course, a good thing. So then, if the changes have brought good things then what is the point of bringing up the things that aren’t so good about what I like to call the “Lululemonization of Yoga”?  Well, I think bringing the not so good things to the forefront can also be a good thing and that hopefully we can be made aware of and will, hopefully change our views and actions.

Now, I know there will be those who will not be happy with my title.  I am not blaming Lululemon on the demise of Yoga, but there is a correlation between the rise of Lululemon paralleling the rise the Yoga in Canada and the United States.

I began practicing Yoga in 1998.  I had been injured running and saw a poster on a local telephone pole for Yoga at the church in my neighbourhood in Hamilton.  At that point in time, I believe there were one or two Yoga studios in all of Hamilton and maybe a few classes at local recreation centres. After moving the chairs out of the way at St. Cuthbert’s, the ambiance was perfect for Yoga.   The teacher was fresh out of her teacher training and was warm and welcoming.  She doted on each and every one of us as if we were the only students in her class.  The class was filled with a diverse group of mainly women, although there were a couple of men in the class even at that time, and of varying size, shape, and athletic ability.  The hour and a half long Hatha class was anything but slow moving.  Although Hatha Yoga is labelled often as gentle, the class was challenging but non-harming, which I fear is missing from today’s typical repertoire in most Yoga classes, my own included.

At the time when I began my practice, Yoga was still a fringe activity that was not a ‘workout’ enough for most people.  Yoga was for the old throwbacks from when the first wave of Yoga made its way to the west in the 60’s or for those who were looking for some stress relief.  As the years went by I saw the classes become more popular, which is when I first noticed the other trend beginning; the rise of the Lululemon.  Admittedly, at first I thought the gear was cool.  Although it was expensive, I thought it was great that Yoga was growing in popularity and everything that I loved about it would spread like wild fire to the public.  My preaching about what I was getting out of my own classes would finally be understood.  When I said, ‘I do Yoga’, I wouldn’t be looked at with a questioning stare, but others would be able to comprehend where I was coming from when I talked about Yoga.  What was so wrong about Lululemon?

In 2006, I began teaching Yoga after receiving my teacher training certification from Sheridan College.  This was a two year, night school program that was very comprehensive and included 4 units of philosophy as well as asana work.  I started my teaching by instructing classes for many different offices on their lunch hours as part of employee health promotion initiatives.  The students were eager and very open to learn.  They were looking for stretching, strengthening, but mainly for stress relief.  They were surprised when they would find some of the poses challenging and we often talked afterwards about the different poses and what the benefits of each were.  The students were warm and welcoming, much like my first teacher was.  There was no Lululemon worn at any of these classes.  Coincidence? Maybe.

Then came the emergence of Hot Yoga.

About 5 years ago, I attended my first hot yoga class.  Now, this was not a traditional Bikram class, which yes, is supposed to be hot.  Bikram was developed to mimic the hot, humid, weather of India for those who were not able to practice there.  The heat, they also believe allows for the body to sweat out toxins.  Lululemon was fast to jump on this band wagon because it meant a whole new line up for sexy new Yoga clothes.  Soon after that, some studios stopped offering not hot classes as the popularity rose for the sweat filled, music thumping, Cirque De Soleil type classes.  In fact, if you didn’t offer hot Yoga, your studio was soon falling behind the times.  Now we see studios that offer no traditional Hatha Yoga at all and only offer their own brand of Yoga taught by teachers that are only trained by them.

Fast forward almost 10 years and if I allow myself to look back, I have mixed feelings about this Yoga evolution. Whether I am a student in a class at the local studio (one of at least 10 in my end of the city, not including the classes available the gym and rec centres), or teaching at a studio, Lululemon is present at each and every one of them.  As a student, I have had teachers who have minimal training taking us through poses with the exuberance of a drill sergeant, only to have people praise them for the great ‘workout’ they just had.   The feel of the class is dramatically different from the St.Cuthbert’s classes I once attended.  I feel that the warm and welcoming openness is lost in the sea of spandex and crop tops.  My own practice alters during these classes as I force my body into poses it has no right being in, ignoring old injuries all for the sake of fitting into the model Yoga student profile, complete with Lululemon ensemble.

As a teacher, my classes have changed as well, to a more Vinyasa (sequence) filled class to ensure that my students get what they are paying for; a workout.  I reflect on this evolution and feel disappointed with myself.  I have allowed the pressure to ‘perform’ cloud my judgement of how I would like my classes to be.  The Lululemonized class I teach now is not the same as it was when I first began.  When the guilt overwhelms me and I go back to my roots and how I was taught, more often than not, there is a student or two leaving never to return to my time slot.  The class was not fast enough.  The class was not challenging enough.  The class was not advanced enough; at least in their heads it wasn’t.  I can’t really blame them.  The Yoga they started with is not the same as the one I did but isn’t it my job to show them all Yoga can give them?  Am I just as guilty as Lululemon because I am forcing myself to fit in to not only their clothes, but their version of what Yoga is?

But from this evolution, can we learn anything?

I find that lately, perhaps because of this guilt, I make sure I instruct my students to attend many different classes.  I express all of their individual benefits, but encourage them to welcome Yoga of all types into their practices, just as Yoga is for all students. I reiterate to them that the mind must listen to the body, instead of the other way around. Most of all I try, and will continue to tell those who ask, that Yoga is just as much for the mind as it is for the body.  If we are moving mindlessly through sequence after sequence, then we are missing out on so much that Yoga can give us.

Sure Lululemon can’t be held responsible for the guilt in my own practice, nor can I point the finger at their clothing for what I see as a slide in the purity of Yoga, but I change the way I teach.  Change is good, after all.

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Nicole Jessome lives in Hamilton, Ontario where she can be found running in the trails or down at the waterfront. Nicole has completed many 5km and 10 km races along with 9 Around the Bay 30km road races. When she isn’t at work, she is teaching Hatha and Vinyasa Yoga, baking and writing for cravelife.org.

 

fitness

Playing devil’s advocate and defending Photoshop

Sam B1 Comment

Tracy recently complained about Photoshop that it sets unrealistic beauty standards for women. Tough enough to look like a super model but now the images are so perfect that not even super models look like the super models on the web and in magazines.

And I get it. I really do.

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But I’m also a philosopher. And philosophers love to play devil’s advocate, defending unlikely positions and views. Someone’s got to defend wildly indefensible things like Photoshop. I’m also a bit of an optimist, tending to see the silver lining in every cloud.

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So here I’m going to say a few things in favour of Photoshop. It might not be the case that all things considered, Photoshop is a good thing. I’m sure, in fact, that it’s not. But it’s not all bad either. That’s my only claim, it’s not all bad. So this is a pretty minimalist defence of Photoshop.

This is also minimalist in another sense. It’s not a fully grown up blog post. It’s more like a comment on Tracy’s post that got out of hand.

Oh, and to be clear, it’s a defence of Photoshop done well. I’ve got nothing good to say about the model with the missing butt cheek that Tracy was talking about.

Here are some things in favour of Photoshop:

First, when my son was taking a modelling course and hanging out with some models, I was surprised to hear them defend Photoshop but actually it made sense. “Yeah, I’ve gained a few pounds and lost my thigh gap but I’m not worried they’ll just fix it with Photoshop.” Huh. Photoshop means less pressure on actual teenage models to be perfect because flaws can be fixed. To a one, the aspiring models were fans.

Second, among the would be models at least there was no thought or expectation that these pictures matched reality. Of course, it’s all Photoshop. No pressure to look like that. No one does. Not even them. Maybe word could spread and we’d stop thinking of these images as attainable for anyone. They’d be more like computer art.

Third, and finally, and this is a wish and dream, if we’re going to be creative with Photoshop can’t we be really creative. Why stop at thigh gaps? I think models with wings would look great. How about wild, multicolored tentacles? Or scaled skin or hooved feet. I think I’ve made the same point about cosmetic surgery on this blog somewhere. I’d like it better if it were more imaginative and playful, less convergence on a single ideal of beauty.

So that’s my few words of defense. Not very long or very very strong. But I had to get it out of my system!

fitness

Haven’t Complained about Photoshop in Awhile, So…

Tracy I5 Comments

It’s almost getting old, the whole “let’s complain some more about Photoshop” thing. But really, there are so many photoshopped photos out there. It’s a miracle when any photo you see in the media or advertising isn’t touched up in some way.

The latest is this Victoria’s Secret model, who seems to have lost a butt cheek.  It’s outrageous.

Why do we bother to criticize something like this on a feminist fitness blog?  To understand that, you need to understand that body image is a huge topic of interest to us and lots of people who read the blog, and photoshopping is really connected to body image.

Sam wrote about body image and why we spend so much time on it in this great post, “why a fitness blog cares so much about body image. In her post she says:

Body image is connected to fitness in a variety of ways.It’s both the motivation for lots of women to pursue physical activity. I’ll solve my body image issues by improving my body!

Body image anxiety is also the reason lots of women don’t exercise. I can’t go to the gym. I’m too fat!

Both of these sets of motivations are problematic.

I worry about women who miss out on the health benefits and the joy that comes from physical activity either because they mistakenly think they’re thin and don’t need to exercise, or they think they are too fat to be seen out in public, or they start, and don’t lose weight, and so quit because they think getting thin is the sole point of exercise.

So while I’d like to separate out body image and self esteem from athletic performance and joyful movement, our culture makes that nearly impossible.

We wouldn’t be so plagued with photoshopped photos of women’s bodies if we didn’t have such ridiculous expectations of perfection. It used to be that we complained about being compared to super-models because most women don’t look like super-models.  And that’s a legitimate point.

But photoshop takes this to a new level. Because if you look at the way most images in advertising represent women’s bodies, even the models don’t look like that.  Going back to the huge Victoria’s Secret fail–surely the model has two butt cheeks and no doubt they’re both lovely.

Touch-up artists get so carried away with changing the reality that is represented in pictures that even when a picture is perfectly fine the way it is (meaning: even when the woman in the picture looks like she looks in real life), they need to fiddle with it, smooth it over, turn the representation into something that represents only an idealized version of reality.

And that messes with our expectations about how we’re supposed to look. Now, you may be thinking you’re immune to the influence of media. Maybe you make a conscious effort to reject those messages. I know I try. And I can tell you this — it takes work and it takes energy. Maybe almost as much work and energy as it takes to try to live up to the ideal conveyed in those messages in the first place.

Sam rejects this by celebrating the selfie as a way of taking control of her own image.  That’s not everyone’s approach (not mine, for example), but it’s one way of potentially presenting something less idealized. It’s not clear to me that the dominance of “selfie culture” is typically characterized by these noble motives.  Indeed, sometimes people even touch up their selfies or at least spend a lot of time trying to “get it right.” And though I love a good picture as much as the next person, I’ve always admired candid shots of people who aren’t posing for the camera.

In a nutshell: it’s the connection between body image, impossible ideals, and the media’s representations of women that make photoshop a feminist issue. And that’s why we need to complain about it every so often.

Here’s a gripping series of photoshop fails, not all but many involving women’s bodies.

 

body image

The stories our skin tells: Stretch marks, scars, and tattoos

Sam B16 Comments

image

As someone with tattoos, scars, and stretch marks I’m fascinated with the phenomenology of bodily changes, of what we accept, what becomes part of us, and why. (There are also changes that are temporary and they’re interesting too. I’ve written about bruises, for example, in an earlier post and you can read that here.)

For the non philosophers reading the blog, and that would be most of you, phenomenology is about the way things from feel from the inside. The usual dictionary defines it as the study of consciousness and the objects of direct experience. The Stanford Encyclopedia defines the term this way, “Phenomenology is the study of structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view. The central structure of an experience is its intentionality, its being directed toward something, as it is an experience of or about some object.”

I decided to get my first tattoo in my forties. Why then? Well, for years I’d thought, what if I don’t like it when I’m old? And then it dawned on me, I’m pretty much old now! That was a weirdly liberating thought. I also had a few friends my age die and started to realize that if this was gong to happen now was the time.

I was nervous getting my first tattoo that I’d hate it and spend the rest of my life wishing I hadn’t done it. I knew that was irrational since I spend a lot of time admiring ink on other people. But still, that worry shaped my choice of my first tattoo.

I chose an abstract pattern for a wrist band and it had it inked on my left wrist. I love bracelets but unless they can just stay on, I tend to lose them. I like the idea of tattoos as permanent jewelry. Also, I’d recently stopped wearing a wristwatch and kept looking at my left wrist. And I figured, if I hated it, I could start wearing a watch again. Ever reasonable and practical, that’s me.

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The second tattoo was my bike tattoo. You can read about it that here.

bikeink2

And my third is the one I like best, bright green and blue, a celebration of nature. I’ve been looking for a good photo of it, searching all my social media posts, but you can sort of see it here.

ink

And here,

bikeink

I’ve got an appointment with Anthony Veilleux at True Love later this month for more. Yay! One of the things that fascinates me about them is how very quickly I adjusted to them. I look at old, pre-ink pictures and something seems to be missing. Within days/weeks, I’d look at the new tattoo with this very strong sense of recognition. They became me very quickly. I kind of wish I had more to say about it. I would have liked to have a paper in this anthology

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What are other permanent bodily changes I’ve undergone?

There’s also the scars, the medical ones are the most obvious. A friend thought I’d wear scarves forever after my thyroid surgery but again, very quickly, the scar seemed to be part of me. I wore scarves while it was healing but now it’s part of me, part of my story.

I’ve got others. Teeny tiny ones from my laparoscopic gall bladder removal. I can’t believe that they removed a whole organ with day surgery and I came home with just a band-aid over the incision. It’s not a very impressive scar. Also amazing to me that we don’t need our gall bladders. I’m also missing bits such as tonsils and adenoids and some days I joke that I’ll just gradually disappear as pieces get taken away. Oh, there are also little holes where moles used to be.

And then there’s the scars from accidents, a missed box jump at CrossFit where you can still see the dent on my shin and gravel removal from my arm after a bike crash where there’s still flesh missing underneath. Another bike crash left a dent above my eyebrow. Other scars tell different stories. There was a sad break up and an exacto knife that ran through the cardboard and sliced my the joint at the bottom of my thumb as I was packing boxes to leave her apartment for the last time. That incision took almost a year to heal.

Stretch marks are different again.  And interestingly, oddly (since I’m almost entirely happy with the body I’ve got) they’re the only bodily change I’d erase if I could. My lower abdomen is the only place where I’ve never really adjusted to the change. I’ve wondered lots about that. I think partly it’s because I survived two pregnancies with nary a mark. I think I figured I was immune to stretch marks. I was cocky about it. My third pregnancy  did me in. (The babies were different sizes: number one was 6 lbs and 5 weeks early, number two was 7 lbs and three weeks early, and number three was 9.5 lbs and only a week early. We spotted a trend and stopped there.) I even remember waking up one day and feeling that my lower abdominal skin had changed.

stretch marks

But they’re here for good and generally speaking don’t get in the way of me enjoying and appreciating the body I’ve got and the stories it tells.

How do you feel about marks on your body that tell a story, whether they’re self-imposed like ink, or from an injury or surgery? How quickly did they become you?  Would you change anything back if you could?

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competition · race report · racing · running

Race Report: Boston Half Marathon (Guest post)

Betty

For many runners, the Boston Marathon is the “holy grail” of marathons. Those of us for whom qualifying for Boston is a pipe dream must settle for something else. In my case, that something else was the Boston Half Marathon, which took place on Sunday, October 11.

While there is no qualifying time for the Boston Half Marathon, registering for the race was not a straightforward process. There were only 5,000 spots available through online registration—the first 2,000 participants were accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis and the remaining 3,000 were selected by a random lottery. I had noted the registration date in my calendar months ahead of time. By 10:00 a.m. on the day of registration, both my husband and I were sitting at our computers, fingers and credit cards ready. He completed his registration in four minutes and secured a spot in the first 2,000. The three extra minutes it took me to complete my registration landed me in the random selection pool with the rest of the slow-typers and double-checkers. But as luck would have it, my name was drawn in the lottery and we were off to the races!

Going into the race, we knew that it would be a hilly course so we incorporated a lot of hills into our training. The Boston Athletic Association, which organizes both the Boston Marathon and the Boston Half Marathon, provides a 12-week training program on their website with different versions for beginner, intermediate and advanced runners. We didn’t follow their program exactly but we did use it to set the distance for our weekly long runs and decide whether we should do hill or speed training (or both) that week.

For our runcation in Boston, we used AirBnB to find a place that was within walking distance to Franklin Park where the race starts and ends. After arriving on Saturday morning, we set out to the park to figure out where we would need to go for the race the next day. The walk from our AirBnB to the starting area turned out to be much shorter than expected! After lunch, we headed downtown to the Boston Marathon Adidas RunBase store to pick up our bibs and race shirts. The pick-up process went smoothly but I was disappointed that the shirts were unisex and a rather boring shade of grey. I had initially wanted to take it easy on Saturday by minimizing the amount of walking and maximizing our hydration and food intake. After an afternoon of exploring and shopping, we had covered almost 15 kilometers—so much for “taking it easy”!

The morning of the race we woke up, ate breakfast and got ready in time to make it to the starting area half an hour before the race began. The line up for gear check was long and chaotic so we didn’t have a lot of spare time to get to the start line and find our corrals. Unlike most races I’ve run in Canada, the Boston Half Marathon does not pre-assign runners to a start corral. Instead there were markers at the starting line indicating different paces (for example, 7:00–7:59 minutes/mile, 8:00–8:59 minutes/mile, etc…) and runners were expected to line up in the right corral according to their expected pace. That shouldn’t have been a problem except I always calculate my pace in minutes per kilometer. So I frantically tried to do some math in my head and slotted myself in with the 7:00–7:59 min/mile runners. It turns out that I’m not so good at doing math under pressure. With my normal pace of roughly 5:40/km, I should have actually been way in the 9:00–9:59 min/mile group. Oops.

Standing there waiting for the gun to go off, I reminded myself of my goals for this race: have fun and not get injured. I had been experiencing some pain in my left knee in the weeks prior to the race so I took a break from running in the week right before we came to Boston. Even so, I was nervous about how my knee would hold up with all the up- and downhill parts. Having accidentally surrounded myself with really fast runners and knowing there would be a big downhill in the first mile, I knew I would have to hold back to avoid going out too fast in the first part. I needed to save some energy for the second half of the race, which would be a slow, steady climb all the way to the finish line.

The course itself was very scenic, looping through the Emerald Necklace park system. The route took us through picturesque neighbourhoods, parks, ponds, a golf course, an arboretum and even a zoo! I also loved all the beautiful fall colours in the trees lining the route. There was a marker at every mile with a clock so I was able to check in on my pace regularly. There were also hydration stations roughly every two miles and a Clif Shot Energy Zone at mile six where volunteers handed out energy gels. Instead of downing my energy gel in one go, I held on to it and took a gulp every one and a half miles. That really helped me maintain consistent energy levels and a constant pace throughout the second half of the race.

Maybe it was the adrenaline or maybe it was all the hill training we did but the hills on the course were not actually all that bad. Sure, there were a lot of them but for the most part, they were short and not as steep as I had imagined them to be. About eight or nine miles into the race I suddenly realized that I hadn’t experienced any pain or discomfort in my knee, which was a huge confidence boost. At that point, I started thinking more about speed and beating my previous half marathon time. During the last two miles of the race, there were some downhill portions where I felt my toes jam against the front of my shoe. Thankfully, it wasn’t serious and I was able to ignore it and keep going.

The final kilometer of the race was a long downhill leading to the entrance of White Stadium where spectators were waiting and cheering in the stands. Heading into the final stretch, I knew that I was really close to matching or beating my previous time so I went full balls to the wall and sprinted all the way to the finish line. I finished in 1 hour, 58 minutes and 7 seconds, beating my previous time by 1 minute and 24 seconds and setting a new personal best.

Overall, both my husband and I had a great time at the Boston Half Marathon. Everything in the lead up to the race and during the race was fantastic. The post-race refreshments made up one of the best spreads we have ever seen at a race. In addition to the standard bagels and bananas, there were full-sized Clif Bars, chips, pears and dried cranberries. There were even mini burgers and smoothies! Our only complaint was that gear check was too disorganized and not well staffed. There was a huge bottleneck at the start of the race with everyone trying to get a bag and tag from a volunteer. After the race, runners had to dig through a large pile of bags to find their gear because there were no volunteers to help retrieve your belongings. Even though everyone was trying to be really careful and tiptoe through the piles, we saw bags being stepped on and tossed around.

Has this race satisfied my desire to “run the Boston”? For now.

As elusive as it is, I would still love to run the Boston Marathon one day. Assuming that the qualification times don’t change and I can maintain my current pace for the next 22 years, I should be able to qualify for the Boston when I’m 50—something to look forward to!

betty

Betty is a science communicator living in Toronto. Her two proudest accomplishments are completing a full marathon without barfing and obtaining her Ph.D. She has an unhealthy obsession with pancakes and good deals. Luckily, her husband is very good at eating pancakes and finding creative storage solutions. In her spare time, Betty blogs at Eat, Read, Science where she writes about the latest and coolest science papers in a way that won’t make you fall asleep. You can follow her on Twitter at @BisousZou.

fitness

Do You Have to Be Active to Wear “Active-wear”?

Tracy I18 Comments

I can’t even believe I’m asking this question. The answer is obviously “no.” We can wear what we want. But this NY Times article, “When Active Wear Has No Activity” and a popular YouTube video that makes fun of women wearing “active wear” while going about their daily business, appear to take a different attitude.

The video is admittedly a very funny parody.  But I have to take issue with the article’s author, Guy Trebay, when he says the trend is “lamentable.” What’s so lamentable about it?  I mean, says who that there is something wrong with being comfortable? And a lot of the clothing isn’t just comfy, it’s actually attractive–great colours, soft fabrics, flattering design and style.

Above all else, “athleisure” clothing feels good. Why should something that comfy be reserved only for working out or going to yoga class? Isn’t it really just another style of casual clothing?

Now, lest you think I’m trying to defend a style of dress because it’s mine, that’s not quite right. I’m much more of a jeans person. But as someone who is partial to jeans in my down-time, I’m really happy about the melding of casual clothing and “active wear” because it’s produced jeans that feel as comfortable as leggings or tights.

For years it’s been okay to wear running shoes when you’re not running. I’m sure almost everyone has worn an athletic shoe of some kind without working out.  And why not? They’re comfortable and they give you good foot support.

Same with active/leisure wear.  Is it the body-hugging element that is objectionable? My only question to that point would be: why? And notice how the focus is entirely on women. Rather than get down on us for wearing athletic clothing when, as the video says, “there is no finish line,” I think we should all be rejoicing at the increasing social acceptability of comfortable clothing and shoes, for things like grocery shopping or doing laundry. I fail to grasp the problem.

Or do people think of today’s styles the way we used to think of baggy sweat pants? Is there some suggestion that if you’re dressing like that, you’re not making an effort to be presentable, you’ve given up? That this stuff is only appropriate for working out?

I don’t think it’s a fair comparison. Those thick grey sweat suits like the one Rocky wore were never what you would call stylish. They served a utilitarian function and yes, though comfortable, maybe they are just one step away from going out in your flannel pajamas. But the athletic wear of today is nothing like that.

The NY Times article outlines one problem with the active wear trend like this:

A gulf is ever widening between the days when proper grown-ups dressed in clothes requiring the dexterity to zip a zipper and an increasingly unsightly present, when an awful lot of adult garments are designed along the same overall principle as Pull-Ups.

Here I think the suggestion is that they’re too easy to put on. Like real grown-ups do up their shoelaces, not their velcro. Similarly, real grown-ups wear pants with zips and buttons, not elastic waists.  It’s not clear to me why clothing that doesn’t require a lot of dexterity to put on is for that reason childish or offensive.

Nope. I’m not on board with the criticism. We don’t have to be active to have a right to wear “active wear.” And even if we are active, we can wear it at other times.

I must be missing something.

What about you? Do you find yoga pants or running jackets to be objectionable choices for leisure wear? If so, what’s the problem?

If you haven’t seen the video, here it is:

Aikido · rugby

Cyclocross, Aikido, and other athletic bruises

Sam B3 Comments

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I think my family doctor must have a note in my file about the violent, contact sports in my life. I often arrive there with bruises and I’m nervous about reassuring her that I’m not a victim of domestic violence. It’s the Aikido bruises that are the worst in this respect because they look like signs of resisting struggle, thumb and finger grip marks on my hands, wrists, and forearms. But she’s good at remembering how active I am and we often chat a bit about martial arts.

Indeed, I can identify which pin or which control caused with bruise.

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Today's Aikido bruise

In Aikido there’s no kicking and even the striking is primarily a distraction. It goes like this: I strike. You put up your arms to block my strike and I say thank you for the gift of your wrist and elbow. I now have an elbow to lock and a wrist to which I can do very mean things.

Aikido strikes aren’t actually meant to hurt. They are really all shock and awe designed to take your attention away from your joints. There are lots of  locks and pins, and often they leave marks.

Lately there are new sporty bruises from riding my cyclocross bike. I’ve come off on the grass a few times but it’s the running mounts and dismounts that are the worst for bruises.

When I was playing soccer it was my shins that were pretty much permanently bruised, despite shin pads.

I think about bruises as part of my identity as an active person, involved in contact sports. See my post on aikido and non sexual physical intimacy. But certainly the contrast between bruises and the norms of ladylike behavior are part of what put some women off sports, especially those that involve contact. Clearly not me, since I list rugby and roller derby as the two sports I would have played if I’d discovered them earlier.

How about you? Do play a sport that involves lots of bruises? Love it, hate it, or just live with it? 

 

First thoughts on cycling down under, over there on the left side of the road
Weekends with Womack

First thoughts on cycling down under, over there on the left side of the road

catherine w3 Comments

Some of you blog readers may know that I’m spending a few months in Australia while on sabbatical from my academic job in the Boston area. And of course I brought my road bike with me. But I just started riding this weekend, about 2 weeks after I arrived. Part of the delay was that I was recovering from jet lag and then getting oriented at work (I’m visiting at the University of Sydney, and gave a talk on Thursday).

But really, the reason why I hadn’t started cycling was fear. I was terrified at switching to riding on the left side of the road. Okay, I feel a little better now that’s out there.

In my partial defense, just about everyone I talked to in Sydney thought that cycling in the city was dangerous. Of course people in Boston think the same thing, and they’re not completely wrong. And I don’t let that stop me from riding all over the place at home.

More defense claims: I haven’t seen many bike commuters around in my part of Sydney (inner west for you Aussies). Nor have I seen many in the downtown area, either—not on the main roads anyhow. So I was thinking, hmmm— maybe they know something I don’t.

But then there was my bike, sitting in my landlord’s garage, all alone in a new country, not getting any attention from me. That’s just wrong. I owe it to myself and the bike to get out there and develop some new skills and have some new adventures. Right? Uh, ok.

So I did just that this weekend.

Part of my motivation was a combination of necessity and laziness. I had brought a hand pump with me (a floor pump was too heavy to transport), but forgot the connector hose (oops). So I needed to get a new pump and some CO2 for keeping my tires in shape. The nearest bike shop was only a 12-minute ride (according to google), but a 40-minute bus trip. Clearly I’m getting on the bike.

So I made my way to the shop, going up and down (Sydney is hillier than I had expected), making right and left turns, which are reversed in order of difficulty. And I didn’t even end up on the wrong side of the road while turning. Yay! Whew…

Having obtained my new pump and some cartridges for my inflator (and basking in the glow of praise for my bike from the shop guys—love when that happens!), I headed back out there to explore a little. I found some lovely mixed-use paths by the water and rode around. There were a bunch of cyclists, including road cyclists—finally I found some of my people! Sydney is so beautiful, with water everywhere you look, and I enjoying winding my way around, taking some quiet side streets and paths.  Here’s a shot from near the water. IMG_5322

Here’s another one.

IMG_5318Who wouldn’t want to see that all the time?

My next step is to do some proper road rides. Samantha has been very nice and given me some contacts, and I’ll be talking with them and others about getting out on the road at speed. But one revolution at a time….

In the meantime, here are a few parting observations I made based on this weekend’s experience:

  1. Traffic is traffic, and many commuter cycling traffic skills translate nicely.

Riding on a busy city street, I encountered buses, cars passing me (on the right), pedestrians popping out everywhere—business as usual on a bike. I found that paying attention worked the same way. Of course this is unsurprising, but I was really gratified, and it helped build confidence.

  1. Old instincts die hard when encountering other cyclists.

Riding on a mixed-use path around Sydney, I saw a guy on a lovely vintage Bianchi coming toward me around a narrow corner. I immediately swerved a bit to right. Of course, so did he. Oops! Actually, this was what I said out loud, followed by “sorry about that”.   We were going slowly, so all was well, but it reminded me to be more aware, as my instincts were not always going to lead me in the correct direction (quite literally).

  1. Cycling totally rocks, no matter where you are.

Getting back on the bike really made Sydney feel more like home. I’ve got my mode of transportation, I’ve got another way to meet people and make new friends, and I’ve got a passport to new adventures. Yes, that’s a little cheesy, but when it comes to me and my bike, I’m a sentimental soul. And I’m really glad it’s here with me.

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