There’s a feminist resistance to the language of should in the world of fitness. I get that.
There’s a lot of ‘should talk’ around. 5 Exercises Everyone Over 50 Should Do. Why We Should All Strength Train. Stretches every runner should know. And so on.
I confess I find myself sometimes using the language of should too. I’m not writing here on the blog to bully anyone around. I’m very much a “you do you” person.
The shoulds I use are conditional. If you care about x, you should do y. But you don’t need to care about x. That’s up to you. I’ve talked before about people who reasonably value other things above their health and above fitness.
But at the same time, I worry that women have been told a set of lies about fitness. There’s the focus on weight loss and appearance. There’s a tension between sports performance and the norms of femininity. Women are supposed to glow, not sweat.
For older women, we’re told to slow down and take it easy. Relax.
At the same time, there’s a whole other normative discourse around healthy aging. I associate it with images of trim, white-haired seniors with hiking poles. Maybe they’re doing yoga classes or breaststroke in the pool. Almost always, they’re white, thin, and able bodied.
It’s not sweaty or particularly sporty or competitive.
I worry that some of the joy of physical activity is kept away from women, especially older women. And that’s why I especially appreciated Savita’s recent post about older women and strength.
These are my reasons for doing the things that I do. They’re a mix of instrumental reasons and intrinsic reasons.
1. Mental and emotional health now. Better sleep, better mood, less stress. ❤️
2. To live the life now and in the future I want to live and that includes active, outdoor adventures. That’s bike packing, bike touring, hiking, and canoe tripping right now. 🚴
3. Functional fitness in terms of living my life. Lifting bags of gear out to the car. Putting winter tires away. Getting the Snipe in and out of the water. ⛵
4. Mental sharpness. My brain matters a lot to me, and there’s lots of evidence to show that intense exercise makes a big difference to mental sharpness and memory. 🧠
5. General health and longevity. 🧑⚕️
6. JOY! 😂
As long as there are some intrinsic reasons in there–like JOY–the exercise pill won’t be enough for me . But as long as some of the reasons are instrumental, an exercise pill might be a nice add on.
I’m with you on the “shoulds” and on the exercise pill. But I am also seeking balance compared to what I was doing ten years ago. It all feels much less intense and is bringing me a good quantity of joy as I’ve lowered (or it it adjusted) the stakes. I’m also really tired of the whole “you’re doing it wrong” narrative that seems to have sprung up in the past five or so years. I used to fall for it and now I just roll my eyes.