Fit doesn't have to be synonymous with thin.

April 23, 2018 3:40 AM

Fit is a Feminist Issue, a blog about fitness for older women.

Tracy and Samantha in the Toronto Star.

Their interview in the Globe and Mail.

posted by Kitteh (19 comments total)

I liked this: "Fitness is a complex thing: it’s physical conditioning and discipline and strength and all of those things — but it’s also all of the stories of who we are balled into one place. I have completely different narratives of who I have been in my body different times. And understanding them helps me figure out how to orient myself to fitness in my aging self."
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:17 AM on April 23, 2018 [5 favorites]

I posted this because this is really resonating with me right now as I am firmly over 40 and I am thinking seriously and deeply about my health going forward. I discovered the benefits of exercise sort of late in life--mid 30s--and in the beginning, it was very much tied up in the images I saw all over the place about thinness. But now, recalibrating what I want and need in this place and time, it has become about strength.

(I did buy their book this weekend; I look forward to reading it!)
posted by Kitteh at 6:40 AM on April 23, 2018 [9 favorites]

Thanks for sharing. I love this and it resonates deeply.
posted by Sublimity at 7:13 AM on April 23, 2018

A good friend is 50+ and lifts on the regular because she likes how it makes her strong; it has nothing to do with how other people perceive her morphology. She discovered recently that her typical lift session weights are right up with the state records for age/sex so she's going to go for it in a couple months. Will be cheering her on.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:29 AM on April 23, 2018 [36 favorites]

This is very cool. I've been following them on Facebook for a while, and as someone with an unusually complicated set of responsibilities, about to turn 40, it's useful to look at fitness as an integrated part of life.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 7:39 AM on April 23, 2018

This, so much this. An upper body weight lifting class had changed my life! Thanks so much for sharing this - the blog is super interesting and I love the focus on strength. For older women, weak muscles is what happens if you don't use them.
posted by bluesky43 at 7:57 AM on April 23, 2018 [5 favorites]

I started running off and on two years ago and I recommit every summer to running more because it is just not gonna happen during the winter where I live. I am looping in circuit training too and really want to get into weight lifting soon.

Oh, and I am running my first race on June 3rd--it's 8K--and am nervous and excited.
posted by Kitteh at 8:02 AM on April 23, 2018 [15 favorites]

I think looking at metabolic markers is a better way to gauge your health. I read a book that sugested that Indian Americans are especially prone to Type II Diabetes and Cardiovascular problems because the typical Indian Vegetarian (I am South Indian) diet is unsuited for the lifestyle here in the US. Looking at my own family's health situation, this rang true. The Doc suggested keeping track of your METABOLIC SIXPACK as a better way to judge your health, rather than just looking at weight, overall cholesterol numbers and such. After I got my check up done, I found I was prediabetic and my Cholesterol numbers were all screwed up, even though my overall number was OK. That made me change my diet and exercise routine, and it is helping. Here is what I keep track of. Assuming you are otherwise healthy (i.e. no other problems), these markers seem like a good starting point to get started on living a healthy life.

1) HDL>40. 2) Triglycerides/HDL ratio of less than 3. 3) Waist/Hip ratio of less than 0.9 (Waist less than 35 inches but this can vary depending on body type and size). 4) BodyFat or BMI of less than 23. 5) Pressure less than 120/80 and 6) A1C Haemoglobin of less than 5.6.

I also enthusiastically second the suggestion of doing weights/resistance exercises. The change in how I feel is very rewarding. I am really happy with the changes I made to my diet after talking with my Nutritionist and I actually look forward to exercise because of how I feel. I think this attitude is also helping me. If I am doing this as a chore or not enjoying it; I don't know if I can continue with it.
posted by indianbadger1 at 8:16 AM on April 23, 2018 [5 favorites]

I recovered enough from GRS to start regularly going to the gym for the time in my life 7 weeks ago. (getting GRS really took my whole body for a warp...I'm still in pain 5 months after and not even fully healed yet).

That said I've been going to the gym every day and being aware of how much I eat (in the US it seems like portion sizes really are bizarrely large and way too much food...). I've consciously worked on not focusing on weight (which is hard because yeah hello beauty standard I'll never fit into), instead I just...get in a lot of cardio and lift weights and do this for fun. Like I'm going to doggy daycare play gym for adults.

All I know is that going to the gym everyday and pushing myself, not overeating and trying to walk as much as possible has done more my sense of "internal fitness" than I imagined. And doing this while still healing from a massive surgery that is forcing me to re-learn my body under excruciating pain and mind-warping psychological effects means that I get the privilege of "getting fit" from a perspective most others will never get to have, and even though what "fit" means for a middle-age trans woman is not what I see plastered around me on the daily, I'm still pretty damn sexy and fine even though I'll never fit "the mold".

Learning this has been worth a lot. It's keeping me going.
posted by Annika Cicada at 8:49 AM on April 23, 2018 [17 favorites]

Like I'm going to doggy daycare play gym for adults.

This is such a great way of looking at it. I'm going to use this trick on myself.
posted by tofu_crouton at 9:57 AM on April 23, 2018 [5 favorites]

I discovered the benefits of exercise sort of late in life--mid 30s--and in the beginning, it was very much tied up in the images I saw all over the place about thinness. But now, recalibrating what I want and need in this place and time, it has become about strength.

I really like the way you phrased your comment. I started to pay attention to my fitness/health about 8 years ago, running is how I got into everything but lately the running has been replaced with strength training/minor-weights. I'm not looking at bulking up, but I am looking at building my strength up so that it's easier to lift things like my groceries or go up 4 flights of stairs without experiencing any pain. I can do these things right now, but I'm already looking at the decade ahead. I'm 38 and while I feel fine right now, nothing lasts forever.

This is a good reminder to plan ahead and take better care of ourselves, thanks for this post.
posted by Fizz at 10:31 AM on April 23, 2018 [3 favorites]

I'm sedentary by nature, but got conscious of fitness while watching my parents get fragile in their 90s. I mean, yay, they got into their 90s; but neither of them liked or wanted to exercise. They just didn't have a mindset where it was important.

And it does make a difference at any age! My mother was almost always in bed, and had to go to rehab for two months. There she was strongly encouraged to exercise daily, and when she went home she was able to walk up and down the corridors without a walker. And sadly, once at home she just didn't want to keep up the exercises, and declined again.
posted by zompist at 1:23 PM on April 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

I love the idea of fitness and being "in shape" being almost totally unrelated. It's the approach I've been using myself for about three years.

I take the dog for at least one good long walk every day. It's good for the dog's health and their lifespans are so tragically short I feel like I own it to her to make sure it's as healthy and long as I can manage. Additionally I lift weights twice a week. My main goal is to be able to deadlift 400Lbs by the time I'm 40 (I turn 38 later this year) and then to maintain that ability for as long as I'm able.

Those are habits I keep up no matter what my body looks like and are totally unrelated to my efforts and getting slimmer. I've lost 60Lbs over the course of three years by eating less. That's really all there is to it. Now, how to eat less gets really complicated really fast. It really does boil down to calories in vs. calories out. But measuring either side of that is basically impossible so I think it mostly comes down to figuring out what works for each individual.

The best workout routine is the one that you stick with. That said I think more people should incorporate some kind of strength training in their routine. It's good for your muscles, it's good for your cardiovascular system, it's good for your bones and joints, it's just good for you!

I just wish the "I'm not trying to bulk up" thing would go away. Unless you work-out like it's your full time job, you're not going to bulk up. That goes double for women. Don't be afraid to lift heavy and/or get into power-lifting and the like because you're afraid of bulking up. Heavy compound lifts are great because they're useful movements in the real world and you get a TON of benefit from a relatively short time spent working out.

I've lost 60Lbs over the last three years and figure that I've put on about 15 Lbs of muscle in the same time period. I often get asked how I did it and after I describe my weight-lifting routine often hear "I'd be afraid of bulking up" from a lot of people. It's almost completely a myth and I'm sad when something that's been so successful for me get's so instantly disregarded. With women in particular it feels like I'm inadvertently propping up the patriarchy and, I don't know, it bugs me.
posted by VTX at 2:26 PM on April 23, 2018 [6 favorites]

I often get asked how I did it and after I describe my weight-lifting routine often hear "I'd be afraid of bulking up" from a lot of people. It's almost completely a myth and I'm sad when something that's been so successful for me get's so instantly disregarded.

It's really amazing when it comes from folks who aren't happy with their current situation. What's your fear level of nothing changing at all from how it is right now?
posted by phearlez at 2:52 PM on April 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

What fascinates me is that the term fitness comes from Darwin - but in the diet and health industry it has especially ended up meaning completely the opposite of what Darwin meant when he come up with the phrase survival of the fittest. It's about fitting the environment where you find yourself. Health is absolutely relative. In some cases the individual who is most likely to survive and reproduce is the quietest, or the one who can process toxins, or the one who is most fearful, or the one who has a recessive gene for gay and three gay brothers who don't have offspring to compete with hers, but do provide the protection of a larger tribe. The meaning of fitness had no implications of being in good physical training or not.

Do you fit your environment? Are you a good fit? How well do you fit your environment?

And yet our assessment of fitness now has more to do with status than with heath, or prospects of survival, or how stressed your environment makes you. If you show people pictures of two runners of roughly the same appearance, one wearing expensive work-out gear and the other one wearing sweats they will tell you the one in the expensive gear is much more fit than the one in the sweats every time. Every time. It's the same if you show people pictures of two individuals and their health metrics, and match better health metrics to a fat person and worse health metrics to an underweight person. Everyone you show it will say that underweight person is more healthy and the numbers don't count, or will soon change, or are faulty. It's bizarre.
posted by Jane the Brown at 4:05 PM on April 23, 2018 [7 favorites]

Pushing 50 very hard and still struggling with an eating/body image disorder that has plagued me for 40+ years. I am firmly on the road to recovery though (no binging or purging for 10 years) and actively poking into the core issues. While I'm doing all of that mental lifting, I'd really like to go back to actual lifting. Thank you for posting this. I am going to get this book immediately.
posted by Sophie1 at 6:47 AM on April 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

"Do you fit your environment?"

Absolutely. For one example, this year the Boston Marathon was held in chilling rain (temps in the 40s, near-freezing with wind chill, worse with rain on your skin). Many of the elite runners who are usually in contention for first dropped out entirely. They're built like greyhounds, all lean mass, no fat for insulation. The winners this year were not-that. They've been in contention before (Desiree Linden was 2 seconds behind the Boston winner in 2011), but this year *nobody* was setting record times and the first place finishers were minutes ahead of their competitors. Fitness is a matter of context.
posted by clauclauclaudia at 6:52 AM on April 24, 2018 [8 favorites]

My husband told me "you are so much happier on days you exercise" - endorphins are a powerful drug, and so I'm going to keep exercising for my mental health, even though I signed up to get "fit".
posted by freethefeet at 3:59 PM on April 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

The difference between a me who has exercised on any given day, and a me who has not is tremendous. Exercise makes me happy, though I admit to not always being so happy at the beginning of every work out.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 9:46 AM on April 27, 2018 [2 favorites]