Feminist reflections on fitness, sport, and health
by Andrea Zanin Four years ago, I underwent the second of two surgeries and radiation treatment for a rare spinal cord tumour that caused me chronic pain for over twenty years. I’ve shared a few posts here about chronic pain and my experiences of figuring out how to be in my body and regaining fitness… Continue reading Gut Job, Butt Job: On Cycling, Yoga and Long-Term Cancer Recovery (Guest Post)
In August 2012, both 48 years old, Sam and I decided to become the fittest we’d ever been in our lives by the time we hit 50. That gave us two years to make and execute a plan. We decided to blog about our fittest by 50 challenge and also about feminist issues in fitness–stuff… Continue reading Tracy’s good-bye for now series, part 1: Why Tracy is stepping away from the blog
Last week I reflected on some of the posts the other blog authors have written that had a lasting impact on me. Today, because I’ve written a lot here over the past seven years and I feel good about at least some of it, I’m going to talk about some of my own posts. I… Continue reading Tracy’s good-bye for now series, part 3: reflections on posts Tracy is happy she wrote
Yes, I’m a proponent of doing less, scaling back (also see “Let’s Be Realistic: It’s Okay to Scale Back”), starting small, and that whole family of kinder, gentler approaches to working out. But hello, I’m training for the Around the Bay 30K on March 31. That’s less than three weeks from now. And the furthest… Continue reading Tracy Grapples with Scaled Back Around the Bay 30K Training
So my patience is running low 12 weeks after knee replacement surgery. I was doing okay until I did something to my Tibialis Posterior–see Sam discovers another weird and painful muscle–and now have ankle exercises along with all the knee exercises. More physio! Argh. I’m searching “ways to make physio less boring” and found this.… Continue reading PHYSIO IS SO BORING AND IT’S NOVEMBER AND SAM IS READY TO SCREAM
Here is me on my pink Brompton commuting bike. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Samantha Brennan (@samjanebrennan) As we’re getting ready to leave for the Toronto-Montreal bike ride in support of Toronto’s People With Aids Foundation, I’m getting more questions from readers about how to train for big bike journeys. The… Continue reading Training for multi-day bike adventures
It’s become commonplace in gym classes, for coaches, to offer alternatives for certain moves. Perhaps, the move is a box jump or a chin up or Bulgarian split squats. Sometimes, they will say “here is the easier version.” Coaches: Please stop calling these alternative movements “easier”. Whether a move is easier or not is not… Continue reading Coaches: Please stop calling alternative movements “easier”
My cousin Rachel was over for dinner the other day. She’s in her late 20s and art-y and youthful, and, as is often the case with young people, also wise. We were catching up on my patio over homemade Ethiopian food and talking about doing things that don’t excite you and Rachel told me about… Continue reading HELL YES! and nothing less.
We’ve all heard the message of small changes, Make small changes to improve your health and fitness And for Canadian Men’s Health week that’s the message, Don’t Change Much. I love the motto, “Half fries, half salad, once in awhile” in this radio spot, There are lots of reasons to start small. Tracy, here on the… Continue reading Men, don’t change much but women, you’re doing everything wrong!
With all the book promo we’ve been doing, one of the most popular questions people ask Sam and me in interviews is “what advice do you have for someone who is just starting out on their fitness journey?” This is a great question because, as we hope is the case, a lot of people who… Continue reading Best advice ever (in Tracy’s world): start small
