Feminist reflections on fitness, sport, and health
Author: Sam B
Philosopher, feminist, parent, and cyclist! Co-founder of Fit Is a Feminist Issue, co-author of Fit at Mid-Life: A Feminist Fitness Journey, published by Greystone Books.
“Just last week, World Rugby announced plans to introduce smaller balls into the women’s game as part of a trial to enhance the sport. The idea is to make the ball easier to hold and reduce knock-ons, as well as explore the potential benefits that a smaller ball can make to the kicking game.” See Rugby Dump here.
The argument in favour of the smaller ball is that current ball was designed around the size of male players.
Should the standard size of a rugby ball be lowered for the women’s game? We took to the streets of Dublin to find out what YOU think 🤔 Could a smaller ball size help or hinder the women’s game? We’ve seen it in other sports like basketball, camogie and gaelic football – should it be changed for rugby too? And is this something we could see put in place for the next Guinness Women’s Six Nations tournament? 🏉 Let us know in the comments below! #GuinnessWomensSixNations#WomensSixNations
There’s more coverage of the controversy here in World Rugby.
“World Rugby is considering the use of a smaller ball in the women’s game and is collecting data on the size 4.5 ball which is about 3 per cent smaller and lighter than a size 5 ball. Lindsay Starling, science and medical manager at World Rugby, said: “The women’s playing community is quite divided. There’s a big proportion of individuals in this community that think and feel that retaining the use of the same equipment in the men’s game is important.”
Gender isn’t a great proxy for size. There are lots of small men out there and some of them play rugby. There are lots of large women and some of them play rugby.
Adding unnecessary gender differences in sports–women play three sets of tennis versus men’s five, or women, or in track cycling where the men’s individual pursuit is a 4 km race and women only race 3 km–is rarely justified.
As I said, it’s not my sport (though I was it had been). But I have a hard time imagining it’s ball size that’s discouraging girls and women from playing rugby.
What do you think?Let us know in the comments below.
It’s spring and Catherine is right, that does mean spring flowers.
However, in my fitness world it also means the seasonal changing of tires and moving of clothes.
Out of season tires live beside the house, in a semi-covered area along with canoes and the snowblower and lawn furniture.
Out of season clothes live in the basement in bins and need carrying up two flights of stairs, emptying, refilling and carrying back down.
There aren’t a lot of household chores that feel like fitness activities to me, but these do.
When I carry the tires from beside the house (carry and not roll because it’s less awkward and because I can and I feel badass doing it) to the car and drive them to the tire changing place, and then empty the car of the out of season tires and stack those, I think, “This is why I go to the gym.”
When you search for images of tires you see lots of pics of people using tires in the gym for fitness but I would feel a bit odd paying for tire-centric fitness activities in the gym and then not moving my own tires around at home.
I know lots of people who not only have someone else change their tires, they also have someone else store their tires, but I’m not there yet. Never say never. But not now.
To be clear, Sarah is the arranger of tires. She’s the Scandinavian architect of tires and their arranging. I’m the meth raccoon.
So far, we’re through the tires. Next up, spring and summer clothes.
(We’ve had this discussion a few times, the debate between those of us on the blog who swap out clothes seasonally and those who don’t. Mostly it comes down to living alone or living in a house full of people and/or storing their stuff.)
Blue and white boat on heap of tires. Photo by Aleksander Des on Scopio And yes we have dogs and boats and tires, but not that many tires, and they’re stacked neatly.
How about you? Do you have chores that feel more like fitness activities?
In Guelph tonight, at the Bullring, we’ll be gathering to honour the late great Cate Hundleby, feminist philosopher and occasional FIFI blogger, as well as her father, who died in the first year of the pandemic, with our stories, music, and dancing. It’s a Ceilidh and Dance Wake.
The Hundleby Ceilidh and Dance Wake
Hug your friends. Tell them you love them. Life is shorter than you think.
I’m occasionally amused by the search terms which lead people to the blog. Where do I find them? WordPress tracks them for us.
I’m not shocked at what people search for. I am sometimes shocked that they click through to a blog with “feminist” in the title. Below are search terms in bold and below my best guess at which blog post their search term pulled up.
I was a proud “Dickie Chick.” One of a threesome of sisters, with a dad named Dick, who participated relay-style in the 70.3 Ironman in Muskoka in 2017. One sister swam the 1.9k, the other sister biked the 90k, and I ran the 21.1k. (That’s me on the right.)
The Dickie Chicks. Janet is on the right.
I remember flying past runners who were doing the full slog, calling out “just doing the relay” so they wouldn’t feel bad. As beaten up as they looked, I was strangely envious of their extra sweat, grime and grit. Fleetingly.
Running prevailed and I started to get serious about it. I raced for personal bests and prizes and bought a Garmin. About a year ago, I noticed my runs were turning into countdowns: 9k to go, 6k, 5k, 4k, 3k, 2k, done.I was also getting unnecessarily anxious before races, even before speed workouts. (Ridiculous!)
A few months ago, my oldest son announced a goal to do the Muskoka 70.3 Ironman to mark his 40th birthday.
And there it was—that fleeting feeling from seven years ago. Me? An Ironman? The feeling started to linger. It started to grow.
I did some research, talked to a few experts. Before long, I’d gone way past doing the 70.3 in cottage country at age 64. I was fantasizing about being at the 2025 Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Spain on November 8, 2025, at age 65.
I kept things to myself. I was afraid that if the words came out of my mouth, I’d be committed.
Uncertainty swept in. I hadn’t swum lengths in four decades, not to mention my childhood trauma over cold water.
In a bold moment, I called a personal coach—Ryan Power, as good as they come. I was surprised he was keen to take on a 65-year-old female novice. You know what he said? He said that he’s currently working with seven athletes right now and two are over age 75.
Well then.
He said that an equivalent to qualifying for the world tri championships is qualifying for the Boston marathon, which I’ve done twice.
Well then.
It’s in the cards, I said to myself. I was ready to let it out of the bag. Now I’m committed.
What has gotten into me? I prefer simplicity. What can be more complicated than a triathlon watch, or a fuel plan to sustain 8 hours of work?
I don’t really like spending money. In the last 20 days, I have spent at least $2.5k, and according to Austrian triathlete, Clément, I can expect to spend another $3k to get myself geared up for competition, and then $2.9k in every year to follow. (Not including things like Spain.)
A bike covered in tri gear.
Worst of all, I can’t figure out the leg action to clip out of the pedals on my new road bike.
“You’ll want to clip out with your right leg,” said the bike specialist, “so you can lean away from the traffic.”
But my right leg wasn’t working. Forget the traffic, I thought, I’m using my left.
Last week was my first official week of training. Don’t tell Ryan, but after day one, I had a stiff back. After day three, I had a bruised elbow from banging the lane ropes. And on day five, I added a scraped knee to the old bod from tipping over on my bike. (I’d clipped out—yay—but forgot to use the brakes.)
It’s week two. I can hardly wait to get going again.
Will I make it to Spain? I have no idea. But I like picturing myself crossing the finish line. If that gives me joy and motivation and a good reason to hop out of bed every morning, then why not try. Anyway, I’m 64; I can do whatever I want.
Is that the point of this endeavour? That I’ve reached the age where I can do whatever I want? Let’s think about this.
I cannot get too excited and talk about my new hobby too much or people will think I’m bragging. No one likes a braggart. Humility is the much-preferred trait, especially in the family I married into.
I cannot let myself get too exhausted. Yawning through social gatherings is equally as unattractive as bragging. And I need energy to continue baking bread, concocting hummus, and creating grandkids’ birthday cakes (another source of joy).
A child expressing joy over a poop emoji cake.
I cannot let my new hobby negatively impact my 42-year marriage. I cannot consume our travel budget around races; I cannot get too obsessed because that’s hard to live with; I cannot cram the drying rack with any more workout clothes; I cannot let this interfere with happy family traditions; and I certainly cannot expect a cozy night on the couch livestreaming tri championships. It’s not golf, after all.
The cannots add up, and they’re hard; I think about them all the time. But I cannot not do this or I’d be short-changing myself on something my gut is telling me to go for. Who cares if I get a little excited, exhausted and obsessed? It’s nothing that a new drying rack can’t fix. Or a glass of wine in Spain.
Lots of athletic wear on a clothes drying rack.
Janet Tufts’ bio
With over 30 years of local, national and international experience in the non-profit and public sectors, Janet is currently enjoying semi-retirement, balancing a part-time role as Executive Director of Operation Walk Canada with her love of reading, writing, baking and moving. Previously, Janet served as the Executive Director of both Big Brothers Big Sisters of London and Area and the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
From 2016 to 2018, Janet spent two years in Malaysia as a member of a multi-cultural team that led the government’s implementation of their blueprint for public school transformation. Janet holds a Master’s in Business Administration, Bachelor of Education, Bachelor of Arts, and a Professional Certificate in Communications and Public Relations. She has served as a director on numerous boards, and is currently a board member of St. Joseph’s Health Care London. Janet embraces any opportunity to be part of a humanitarian mission and to date, has been to Southern Sudan, Peru and Ecuador.
But the next day at the gym, Sarah spotted the tick on my arm. It was hard to finish the workout so we could get home and remove it properly with tick tweezers.
There was a rash around it, so I went to the pharmacy to see what to do. The pharmacist recommended seeing my doctor who got me in the next day. She examined the bite to make sure no bits of the tick remained. I got a prescription for a one day prophylactic dose of antibiotics, and I promised to get back in touch if I had any symptoms. If I do, there is a three week course of antibiotics in my future.
Because of course it’s not ticks that are the problem. It’s that they transmit Lyme disease, which can be very serious.
What to do about preventing tick bites?
Tuck your pants into your socks, wear white or light colors so you can better see ticks, avoid hiking in tick zones.
Also, mostly all the places I live and travel are now in the tick zone, where there is a higher than usual risk of contracting Lyme disease through tick bites.
Public Health Ontario Lyme Disease Risk Map
For sure, you should invest in a pair of tick tweezers and keep them with you. They’re different than regular tweezers and better for getting all of the tick out.
You should also regularly check yourself for ticks if you’ve been out in the woods.
Stock photo from WordPress, two hikers, one examining the other’s leg to check for ticks, presumably
Lyme disease is pretty serious. I remember reading this account of Shania Twain’s twenty year battle with it.
“As it turns out, the chance of catching Lyme disease from an individual tick ranges from zero to roughly 50 percent, according to Mather. The exact probability depends on three factors: the tick species, where it came from and how long the tick was feeding.”
Around here, they’re almost all black legged ticks, and I think about half are carrying Lyme disease. But if the tick isn’t in you for very long, the risk is still pretty low. Overall, it’s about 5%.
For me, this means I’ll keep hiking in the woods but I’ll also keep a sharp eye out for ticks.
That reminded me of the Pedaling for Parkinson’s ride that we’ve been doing in Prince Edward County for the past few years.
We ride in support of frequent guest blogger and family member Susan, who was diagnosed with PD in 2017. She’s blogged about it here and here, and likely on other occasions as well.
Register for this year’s ride in Prince Edward County, August 17th, here. There are 40 km and 75 km options, and the roads are pretty safe and scenic in the county.
Hope you can join us! It’s a fun ride for a very important cause.
These days, I’m thinking less about my knees. I’m walking more. I’m doing physio twice a week still and personal training twice as well. My balance, mobility, and strength are all pretty good.
Think I’ll take this guy out for a walk today!
Cheddar napping. A blond dog sleeping next to a red rope chew toy.
Sunshine, above 10 degrees Celsius, and we’re ready to ride.
Saturday, we took the gravel bikes out and hit the Guelph to Goderich trail.
Me and my new knees are looking forward to a summer of riding bikes. I’m going to gradually ride longer distance, with the aim of getting my cycling endurance back.
Sarah is more ambitious. She’s doing Paris Ancaster in a few weeks. So she rode ahead some of the time and then came back to meet me.
Aside from the crabby guy who yelled at us to “curb your speed girls” when we were doing less than half the max speed for the trail and giving him lots of room to walk, it was a great ride.
I’m not doing too badly. Check out the PRs below. This is a section of the trail I’ve ridden many times before.
Sunday, we set out again, but for a shorter ride on the next second of the trail that leads into Elmira.
Strava report on our ride
After our ride, we hopped into the car with Cheddar, the dog. We’re driving to Prince Edward County for better eclipse viewing.
Cheddar in the car. He’s an 8 year old blonde dog with one blue eye and one brown eye.
In thinking about life after knee replacement and planning my fitness life for my sixties, I’m trying to remember my happiest active times. I’m wondering what aspects of those times it makes sense to think about getting back, as well as what new stuff I want to add.
Sam testing for 5th kyu in Aikido
And, of course, what old stuff I’m ready to give away. I mean, some things are right out of the picture. That’s running and all sports that involve it, like soccer. Other things are back in, for sure, like recreational cycling.
But what form does this take in my ideal life?
I’m still reflecting on Tracy’s piece about how turning 60 feels different than turning 50. And part of that, for Tracy, seemed to be giving up on a bunch of external fitness should talk. Her interests also changed, and she’s approaching sixty with a more integrated and sustainable approach to fitness.
Writes Tracy, “When I was approaching my fifties, I had an intensity and focus around my fitness activities that was extremely goal-oriented. I had an eye on one thing and one thing only: the Olympic distance triathlon. Though of course the goal yielded some internal change (mostly in the form of perseverance), the goal itself was external.”
Truth be told, Tracy’s approach differed in that she had a much more ambitious goal. And she took up more new things than me. So it’s not a surprise that our attitudes about the difference between 50 and 60 are different.
Me, I want to get back to some aspects of the life I created leading up to 50. I loved it. I loved the biking, the rowing, Aikido, and CrossFit. By the end of the challenge, I wasn’t so focused on an external goal. Rather, the fittest by fifty challenge helped me appreciate how much physical activity matters to me and how much it’s part of my version of a good life. I might have started with an external goal–fittest by fifty–but it ended with a real love and appreciation of sport, physical activity, and joyful movement. I knew it was an important part of my life, going into the challenge, but the fittest by fifty challenge helped me appreciate how much it mattered.
My goal for the challenge was the Friends for Life Bike Rally, which I did as part of our challenge, but I did it again in August of 2022, right before my first knee replacement surgery. I don’t think I’ll manage it this year, the year I’m turning 60, but I’ve got 2025 in my sights. I’d like to do it in my 50th and my 60th year and I’ll still be 60 then.
Fit at Midlife the book on the left, Tracy and Sam in a publicity photo on the right
So I did keep some of my cycling fitness after the fittest by fifty challenge, and I hope to keep that up for a very long time yet. So what’s missing for me?
There are four themes that keep coming up when I think about the fitness future I want.
First, it’s community. When I think back over my various fitness pursuits, the best times involve working out with other people. I think about bike clubs and teams, my soccer team, the Aikido dojo, the rowing club, and so on. Even CrossFit’s appeal lay mainly in the community. Soccer, Aikido, rowing, and bike clubs are all team efforts where you work with others. I like that a lot. They’re also all community associations where people are drawn from all walks of life and from all corners of the community. It’s what I like about the Guelph Community Boating Club.
Sam and Sarah racing the snipe at Guelph Lake
Second, it’s active, outdoor adventure. I love being outside. I love moving my body. The combo is perfect.
Two photos of Sam in red shirts in her canoe
Third, it’s intensity. I do my best work in teams and there’s something about the group effort that makes me work harder. Team time trials are one of my favourite kinds of bike races and they’re intense, co-operative efforts. Of course, that’s also true of rowing. I like sports that have intensity built in. I’m not sure what form that will take as I get older, but I still think about one of our earlier blog posts, about aging as a choice. Is Aging a Lifestyle Choice? I talked about Gretchen Reynold’s book on exercise science, The First Twenty Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can: Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer, where I was particularly taken with her chapter on aging,
I wrote: “The old view was that muscle loss and a decline in aerobic capacity were inevitable with old age. We slow down with age and become more frail, starting in our 40s, it seemed. But new research suggests the connections may run the other way. We become slower and more frail because we stop moving. Older athletes get slower and less strong, not because they’re older, but rather because they train less than younger athletes.”
Sam’s bike rally team 2022
Fourth, they’ve involved some element of competition. I’ve never been a serious racer but I like club level competition, in most physical activity that I do. (Obviously that’s lacking in yoga and hiking.) It provides some benchmarking and gives a purpose to training.
So, purposeful training, outdoors, in a community, with intensity, and some competition…that’s where we are so far!
Canberra’s Vikings above, Dunedin’s Women on Wheels below
What happened to my fitness community? Where did it go?
Well, my knees for one thing. Knee pain led to saying goodbye to running, soccer, Aikido and CrossFit. My big move was another. Bye-bye cycling coach and the community of cyclists I rode with in London. And then there was my big new job. That’s a lot.
Also there’s age. In Canada it’s harder to find groups that include older adults. I often think back fondly to my racing days in Australia where the master’s cycling group had an active over-80 group. You needed a doctors note to race after 80. It’s hard to imagine an active group of seniors racing bikes in Canada.
As I try to construct a ‘fitness after sixty’ plan, I’m thinking about activities in three groups–things I’m saying goodbye to, things I’m keeping and new things I want to add.
And I also want to recognize the pieces of the plan that are already in place. Zwift hits both the community and competition buttons. The Guelph Community Boating Club is very much of the volunteer association model I like.
On the bye list are running, soccer, Aikido.
On the keep list are hiking, cycling, sailboat racing, yoga, paddling, and weightlifting.
And on the new list are bike packing and dancing. I’m not sure where to put swimming but it’s in there.
Oh, there’s also a fourth category–to pick again after retirement–rowing for sure!
Sled pushing at the gym
Look this is obviously very much a work in progress. Stay tuned!
Also, I’ve been trying for better blog post titles.
Here’s some AI suggested:
1. “Rediscovering Joy: Embracing Fitness After Knee Replacement”
2. “Creating a Vibrant Future: Planning Fitness in Your Sixties”
3. “Reflecting on Active Happiness: Reimagining Fitness After Knee Replacement”
4. “The Next Chapter: Designing a Fulfilling Fitness Journey in Your Sixties”
5. “From Recovery to Revival: Crafting a Dynamic Fitness Routine After Knee Replacement”
