An Exercise Book Made Me Cry
When I was looking over nonfiction releases, I wanted something that really kept with the "New Year, New Me" theme I had in my mind, and I hit gold! Right there, being released on January 4th, was Let's Get Physical by Danielle Friedman. I was slightly hesitant. Working out is enough of a beast, but reading about it? I must be some sort of masochist. But as I read the synopsis, I saw it was a lot more than just a book about working out. It was about women taking charge of their bodies and health and shaking up not just how women found ways to be healthy, but everyone. Let's Get Physical is an eye opening, awe inspiring, feel good book that makes me proud to be a woman.
Exercise gives you endorphins.
Endorphins make you happy.
Happy people just don't shoot their husbands.
- Elle Woods, Legally Blonde
Let's Get Physical starts in the 1950s and works its way through each decade, giving a thorough run through of each main exercise of the decade, going all the way through the COVID-19 pandemic. Danielle also covers the leading woman/women and supporting men who helped these changes in physical health go from "what the hell?" to "OMG I love (insert exercise) too!"
I really loved the chapters from the 50s and 60s, Tuck and Run. One of my favorite things to do when I want to waste some time is watch health videos from any time before the 70s and listen to how bizarre the advice is. Watching a person teach sex ed without ever mentioning sex, or making love, or conception, or the horizontal tango (whatever you want to call it) makes you wonder how we have survived this long. These chapters also really show how little we knew about our bodies, and what we shared about what we knew. I wish I had taken a count of how many times Danielle had to write the phrase "the uterus would fall out." Yes, for the longest time, it was believed that if a woman ran too long, worked too hard, did anything slightly physical while on the rag, her uterus would vacate her body and land between her feet. Just in case any of my Darlings aren't women or don't know how the female body works, the uterus does not fall out of our bodies. They're like, really in there. Don't worry.
But what I have never really paid attention to is what mens workouts were like during this time. It wasn't much more than women. I haven't heard anyone say "if you run more than two miles, your balls will fall off," but exercise just wasn't really part of daily life. You ate healthy, you took a walk, played a round of golf, and tried out tennis every now and then. Unless you were a pro athlete or in the military, a muscular body was not something to aim for. There are reasons that Danielle goes into, and it really is fascinating. Working out and health is such a prevalent topic of the day, it's hard to imagine a time when it wasn't an infographic in every doctors office, at least five different channels, multitudes of apps on our phones, and staring us in the face in so many places we visit daily.
Now, you're probably wondering what part made me cry? As a human, I haven't always loved my body, or even liked it. I will focus on the times my body let me down instead of helped me. I knit pick a bulge, a wrinkle, an increase on the scale. This book got me right in the introduction, Sweat.
I was marrying a wonderful man, and I had spent my career as a journalist making the case that women should be valued for their inner selves and not their appearance. But weddings have a way of stirring up our most basic desires, and even feminists sometimes fantasize about greeting the world with a flat stomach and firm arms....
I was drawn to the studio in the same way I'd been drawn to my high school's cheerleading squad: desperate to join, but doubtful, in some core teen girl way, that I belonged. Or that I wanted to belong....
When the class began, a ponytailed instructor wearing a headset microphone ushered me and a dozen other women to a ballet barre, where we moved our thighs up an inch, down an inch until our muscles trembled.... When I looked around the room, every other woman was stone-faced in her Lululemon. Would one of them catch me if I collapsed mid-squat?...
At the end, I didn't die of embarrassment or exhaustion. I felt fantastic.
So I went back, again and again. The workout made me strong in parts of my body I hadn't realized were weak. It allowed me, for the first time in my life, to carry grocery bags without stopping to rest after three minutes. I didn't look like a ballerina, but I felt like on -- light on my feet, energized, connected with my body in a totally new way. I came to understand that the other women in class weren't unfriendly but intensely focused, in the one space where they had to focus only on themselves. I, too, developed a resting barre face. (pp xii-xiv)
Looking at Danielle Friedman's picture on the book jacket, she a gorgeous woman. Hearing a person you perceive as beautiful say that they were scared, they wanted to belong, and that her attempt to positively change a part of her life worked out. It gives you (or at least myself) the power to make a positive change in your life.
The book as a whole is an amazing read filled with so much interesting information, moving stories, and a powerful message, that women have discovered the joy of physical strength by moving together.
Comments
Post a Comment