Bad Exercise

The reality of movement from a woman who has co-written five fitness books: less pain, more gain.

Photo by Sven Mieke on Unsplash

A note to the reader: this piece discusses negative body attitudes and disordered eating which is lightly mentioned.

Come the warm weather, come the focus on our outer shells.

This isn’t a beach body (bleurgh) piece, though heaven knows once upon a time the pressure to get my rig in gear for two weeks of hot weather dominated most of my year. I’m not going to talk about the rigmarole I once put myself through because a) it’s boring and b) no-one needs to hear a small-in-every-vector person carping on about the Master Cleanse. It is not 2014 after all.

Instead, I wanted to talk about movement. I’ve co-written several fitness and health books and have a pretty deep knowledge of the field from weightlifting to mobility to nutrition to the psychology and politics that impact our relationship with quote unquote exercise. How this became a calling card, I’m not sure, but I suppose it’s the universe responding to my long and winding history with gym equipment.

I haven’t been my priority this year. For the most part, I’ve been rolling around with grey roots, I haven’t done any Botox or anything similar since last September and I’ve dipped in and out of my regular fitness routine. This is life with children married to an entrepreneur who is often out of the country. I added it up - two months home alone so far since January and when my husband is home, he’s often, let’s just say, in a suboptimal frame of mind for childcare. With lots of other pressures coming from both the generation above and below, outside of work there has just been no headspace for taking care of my mind nor body.

But what I will say, is when I do find the time to move, it now feels like a little love letter to myself. And to get to that place has been such a journey.