Fitness is not sexy

It’s consistency.

It’s showing up when you are a little tired.

It’s cheering each other on – even when you are not at a personal best.

It’s not posing.

It’s not a certain outfit.

It’s not a certain size.

It’s not certain results.

Fitness is moving.

Fitness is lifting what you can – whether your own body (full or torso only) or a barbell.

It’s not a certain age.

It’s not an insurance plan for 20 years from now.

It’s an understanding of what is possible in the moment. Not necessarily that afternoon or the next day.

Sometimes it’s a community and sometimes i:s a solo practice.

Fitness can be many things – cardio or strength or stretching.

Fitness does not have to be optimal. It does not have to be what’s “best” for you.

Fitness can be what you like, whether walking the dog, going to the gym, the pool or a studio or a forest. It can be your living room with the kids playing in the next room.

Fitness does not need AI to tell you what you would look like a certain way.

Fitness doesn’t try to make you what you were in the 90s or what you were last summer. It works with what you have that day.

Fitness doesn’t have to be selfish. Even when working out on your own, it doesn’t have to slight what others are doing or be disrespectful of others’ space.

Fitness is not a punishment for a good meal or an allowance for the next one.

Fitness can make you feel sexy, for a moment, but its goal is not to create a “sexy” moment.

Fitness provides your body with sustenance to be where you are at the time. Celebrating or grieving. Energetic or tired. Calm or anxious. Big or mall. Young or old. Sad or joyful

I am not sure about many things in life but one thing I feel most certain about is that if the messages about fitness changed, people would reap its benefits in a more sustainable way.

Just as we often learn in our later years that true love is so many more things than fleeting, sexy moments, fitness should be enjoyed for its deep, lasting, impact more than it’s brief endorphin-powered goals. With the current intoxication with moments of sexiness, I am just putting it out there that fitness is not sexy. It is so much more than that.

Nicole P. Taking a moment to do impromptu side-step-ups in Quebec City in August, to counteract all the uphill walking.