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.
This month’s camping trip, at the Pinery, would normally also be about bikes, but instead we brought Cheddar along. Cheddar loves the beach. Who was on the trip?: Sarah and me, my eldest adult child Mallory and her friend Sarah, and Cheddar the beach dog!
Mallory and friend Sarah went for a swim (brrr!) but Sarah and I mostly walked along the beach, admired the sunset and the waves. It still sometimes amazes me that Lake Huron is a lake and not an ocean.
Since I’m pretty committed to not driving around the park–and it’s a very large park–that meant a lot of walking. More than 16k steps of walking. My feet are sore, but my knees are fine. This sore feet thing is new. For years, it’s been my knees that limit how far I can walk.
What else to tell you about our weekend away camping trip? We borrowed the middle kid’s luxury tent. Thanks, Gwen, Cheddar loves having room for his own bed. I love the Pinery at this time of year when it’s only partly open. So quiet. So beautiful. (Okay, also cold. It went down to 3 C at night.) We played CrossCrib, and Wizard, and Mallory’s new Library game.
10/10 recommend. Will definitely go again. We stayed in Dunes Area 1, site 79, right next to the path to the beach.
Coordinating the blog means that a lot of the social media content that comes my way is women’s fitness-related. I get inspirational posts about fitness and how-tos, race videos and analysis, and discussions and commentary on women’s fitness and fitness motivation. However, you look at it, it’s a lot.
This weekend I was struck by two posts, and I want to know what you think about them.
If you’re new to women’s sports, you may be noticing how concerned the coverage and marketing of these leagues are with the next generation of players, the “little girls” who are watching and being inspired by their favorite athletes. When these leagues were first selling out arenas, I could maybe understand (and forgive) this focus. But as we are several years into the proof that women’s sports can sell out arena, this narrative is beginning to feel shallow and deeply sexist.
The tension between how women’s sports are being covered and how they perhaps should be covered bubbled over in last night’s post-game press conference following the Boston Fleet/Montréal Victoire matchup at TD Garden. The game had been played in front of a sold out crowd, a huge milestone for the Fleet and definitely a huge moment for the players. The game was also a matchup between the two best teams in the PWHL, with perhaps the two best goalies in the world.
The first three questions for Fleet players Megan Keller and Aerin Frankel were variations on the same question:
“Also kind of redundant, but what do you think young players can learn from the game tonight and the entire PWHL as a whole?”
“What does playing in a venue like TD Garden say about the growth of the PWHL?”
“A little redundant, but just being here and seeing the young girls with the signs, the older women who never thought they would get to see women’s sports celebrated like this—how much does a night like tonight remind you that what you’re doing is bigger than just hockey?”
At first, I thought they were exaggerating. Anyway, go read the whole post. It’s more complicated than you might think from the first slide.
We often do things for multiple motives, and surely it’s not so bad if one of those motives is to help others. I’m proud of my academic achievements and the things I’ve done in my career, but I’m also happy when young women undergraduates say they find my career inspiring. But I don’t do them to be a good role model–that’s just a side-effect of what I do. And at first, that’s how I felt about women athletes inspiring young girls to stick with sports. It’s not why they do it, but it’s a good thing that young girls are inspired.
And I began to think that women’s fitness and sports and motivation is more complicated. In the case of serious women athletes, there’s the young girls and inspiring the next generation narrative. In the case of everyday exercisers and regular women who work out, there’s the narrative about working out because it’s better for our families if we’re fit.
I thought, well, actually, what if I am exercising for me, so I can do the things I love. Is that so selfish? Is it so wrong to care about my future for me?
I’ve never thought that I should work out so my kids can look after themselves and not worry about taking care of me.
I exercise for me — so I can do the things I love, feel strong, feel capable, feel alive in my body. Not to be a good role model. Not to inspire the next generation. And definitely not so I won’t be a burden.
That last one deserves a closer look, because it comes up constantly in women’s fitness motivation, and it bothers me more than the little-girls framing does. At least “inspire the next generation” is positive and other-directed in a way that’s generous. “Stay fit so you don’t burden your family” quietly tells women our own well-being doesn’t count on its own terms. You’re allowed to care about your health — but only instrumentally, only in service of others, only so you don’t inconvenience anyone. It smuggles in a moral hierarchy where women’s needs are legitimate only when they’re actually someone else’s needs in disguise.
Whether you’ll need significant care in old age is far more about genetic luck than about lifestyle. The people I’ve known who needed the most help did nothing wrong. They ate well, they moved their bodies, they slept, they lived. Illness and decline don’t arrive as punishment for neglect. Pretending otherwise doesn’t motivate better health habits. There’s no need to add shame to an already hard situation.
So here’s what I want to say plainly: it is okay to work out for yourself. To want to be strong because strength feels good. To want to keep cycling because you love cycling. To care about your future self not because she’ll be easier for others to care for, but because she’s you, and you matter.
Women are allowed to have self-directed reasons for the things we do — in sports, in fitness, in life. That’s not selfishness. That’s just being a full person.
I think I’ve decided that 10 minutes is exactly the wrong amount of time for me.
Instead, what’s worked is breaking it up into five two-minute chunks. Two minutes is waiting for the toast to pop or for the coffee to brew. I can do two minutes while brushing teeth, or in our house, waiting for the bathroom. I can do two minutes waiting for a Teams meeting to begin. Turns out I have lots of free two-minute chunks but very few ten-minute ones.
The other thing that’s worked is habit stacking. I’ve been adding some of these stretches and mobility moves to my stretching and cool-down after personal training. I’m already on the floor, so it’s easier to add in some other moves.
I still want to be the sort of person who has ten minutes in the morning to dedicate to a mobility routine but instead I’m the sort of person, it turns out, if I have 10 minutes to spare, I’ll empty the dishwasher or climb back under the covers.
When I searched for my old post, here’s the page of videos that show up in the search results. They all look like a great idea. Maybe I need to do it for a week and see if I feel better and then do it because it feels better?
During the pandemic, I enoyed daily Yoga with Adriene, but it’s been a challenge ever since. That’s more about knee surgery and knee physio than anything else, for me.
But I feel like I’m moving past–finally!–the focus on knees. I’m doing new things, like skating. I’m taking some fun classes, like anti-gravity restorative fitness at Movati, and I’m going on long walks. I am so very very happy about all of that!
I’m also thinking it’s time to revisit Adriene. I miss her! I’m not going to be able to manage every day, but I thought I might try her new content each month.
Workout 1: Aqua Bootcamp at Movati (plus 15 minutes of lane swimming before the class began), 10 am
Workout 2: Anti-gravity Restorative Yoga at Movati with Sarah, 1 pm
Workout 3: Dog hike in Starkey Hill Conservation Area with Susan and Cheddar, 3 km. You can read about the trail here, 3 pm
I’m still taking part in the counting workouts group on Facebook, 226 in 2026 this year, and these were workouts 165-167.
After all the movement we enjoyed a fun family evening with Susan and my mother and all the adult kids. We ate General Tso tofu and broccoli, followed by chocolate birthday cake. Happy birthday Susan!
No shopping season is starting early this year. As I started unpacking my summer clothes (also perhaps early, I know, there’s a frost warning this weekend), I was struck by how many of them were bought during the pandemic. Memories of nap dresses, headbands, and lots of athleisure wear.
I tend to shop when stressed, but these days my overstuffed house is also a big source of stress. So I’m back to trying to stick to another summer of no shopping. I’m determined not to add to the “too much stuff.”
So my summer of no shopping is May, June and July.
I also recently decided to just get rid of things I wasn’t wearing anymore, some formal suits and dresses, but also shoes with heels I’ve never returned to after knee surgery.
Why does a fitness blog talk about shopping? I’ve wondered about that too. Mostly I think it comes down to mental health and well-being.
New skills and beginner’s mind. This was a genuinely joyful thread. Sam and Sarah took skating lessons — she wrote about their first lesson and the second, honestly chronicling the nerves, the stickers on her helmet, the slow progress, and the grace of their instructor. Tracy spent the whole month working through C25K with a deliberate beginner’s mind, writing a beautiful mindful update about forcing herself not to skip ahead or compare to past performance. Mallory wrote about discovering queer indoor beach volleyball and her team the Raisins (“Raisin Hell”). All three were about giving yourself permission to be new at something.
Diane’s health arc. Diane had an unusually eventful April on the blog. She wrote about her pool finally reopening after renovations, then about cycling and dementia research, then “Last swim for a while” (April 23), and then on April 30 she posted “Every Step Counts” — writing from the hospital, walking 140 metres with a physiotherapist and counting it as a win. It’s a striking arc: from celebrating community at the pool to rebuilding movement one slow step at a time.
Aging, identity, and resistance.Mina’s “No Surrender” — about approaching 60, running a half marathon every month, and resisting passive acceptance of aging — was one of the top-read posts of the month. Nicole’s “Musings about Menopausal Diet Culture” was another standout: personal, sharp, and resonant. Catherine launched a new monthly Research Roundup column, examining fitness science with appropriate skepticism and wit (including mice on tiny treadmills and the thick thighs science).
The Boston Marathon / Nike moment. Catherine wrote about the Nike “Runners Welcome. Walkers Tolerated” controversy — and the Altra counter-ad — in a post that got good engagement. Typical Catherine: warm, pointed, and quoting the Wellesley scream tunnel.
Top Ten posts of the month: Diane’s “Last Swim for a While” topped the list, followed by Nicole on menopausal diet culture, Mina’s “No Surrender,” Tracy’s C25K launch post, Nat’s two mid-life chaos/friends posts, Nicole on fitness prescriptions, Diane on Maintenance Phase, Sam and Sarah’s skating lesson, and the guest post “The Origins of My Surprising Fitness Journey.”
It was a month where the blog felt genuinely alive — a wide pool of writers, a clear seasonal energy, some real personal stakes (Diane’s health, Tracy’s running comeback, Sam’s skating and biking), and a theme of people giving themselves permission to try things badly and keep going anyway.
First, I rode my bike to the gym. I love doing that, but it’s complicated since I go to work straight after and often have my laptop and clothes with me, and I fret about rain and about theft. See Sam bikes to her new fancy gym!
But today it all worked out fine. No big meetings so I’m at work in sweatpants and a College of Arts hoodie. (Normally, Sarah drives me to my office after personal training but she had to leave early for an important presentation so I cycled there and to campus after.)
