Smashing the White Capitalist Imperialist Patriarchy Is Good Exercise, Too...

There are a few things I don’t love about my industry.  The Fitness Industrial Complex has, in many cases, a vested interest in convincing us that we are not good enough.  We get bombarded with messages about how we need to be thinner, how we have to add these four key exercises to our routines, how this superfood will transform us from our current terrible selves into someone much, much cooler.  This is not okay.

Fitness is not about how we look.  It is about how we feel.  It is about what we are empowered to do in our time outside the gym.

We are awesome just the way we are.  If we choose to work out to improve our health or our stamina or our sex lives or our moods, we may become even more awesome, but we were not inadequate to begin with.  Every single one of us has a miraculous body.  Yes.  Every.  Single.  One.  Even the ones we think are too old, too fat, too weak, too wrinkly.

What the Fitness Industrial Complex does not understand is that love is a perfectly good motivator.  We don’t need to live in fear.

Come play!  Come make life rich, because we are alive and we want to enjoy all of it!

Not gonna do it...

I have written a fair amount about what I do with my clients.  It might also be useful to know what I don’t do with them.  (No, this is not about how people who have never seen Pilates equipment before walk into my studio and say, “Oh, a torture chamber…”)

Although, it is good to point out:  I don’t torture people.  One of my goals for my clients is to minimize the discomfort they need to experience while making progress toward their goals.  I say over and over that if an exercise hurts someone, it is time to stop doing that exercise.  This is not to say that all exercises are always fun—they aren’t—just that I’m not a believer in “no pain, no gain.”

Another thing I don’t do is lie.  If an exercise is uncomfortable, I will say so.  Hamstring curls give almost everyone a cramp.  Virtually everyone hates burpees.  I made up a whole song once about how much I hate lunges.  We will still do all those exercises if they are appropriate.

I don’t let clients do dangerous things, even if they want to do them.  Sometimes people get hung up on a particular target for their bench press or squat or whatever.  If the form is not there, I am not going to let that lift happen and I do not care if the last trainer said it was all right or if it was fine last week.

I do not yell.  We are all grown-ups.  I provide the opportunity to work and the accountability.  Clients can do the exercises or not do them.  I will encourage and I may even push, but I will not go all evil drill sergeant on anyone.

I do not get hung up on my agenda.  I plan workouts in advance, but if the workout I had in mind doesn’t match up with the body a client shows up with on a particular day, we do something else.  Workouts are not about my goals or my expectations, although I do have an overarching goal of clients leaving better than when they came in.

My studio is intended to be a safe space, a place conducive to growth and development.  Sometimes that is more about what I don’t do than what I do.

Hot hot hot off the press...

So last week, I think we all figured out that summer can sometimes have it in for us.  When it is too hot to breathe, working out seems out of the question.  Here’s what to do:

• Hydrate.  I cannot overemphasize this.  Pretty much everyone I talked with last week, whether or not they were working out, felt tired and cranky and achy.  That is dehydration talking, among other things.  Drinking constantly when it is hot is pretty much the only way to mitigate the symptoms, mostly water and maybe the occasional drink with electrolytes.  (Yes, a cold beer or two would taste good, but will not help with the hydration problem.)

• Hydrate the outside.  Go swimming.  Do water aerobics.  Body surf.  It helps.

• Go early or late.  When it is really, really too hot, this might not be feasible.  Last week, it was too hot even at 5 a.m.  Still, it is worth a try.

• This is why it is sometimes useful to have a gym with air-conditioning.  Inside workouts are good, too.  Also, air-conditioned cars.

• Rest.  Heat is tiring.  It is all right to take it easy sometimes.

Be well!!!!