Offended by Fitness

On Google Plus I have been a member of a community simply called "Running". On that community people post about their recent runs and upcoming runs, they ask for tips and advice and they share tips and advice. They talk about their new running shoes, post articles about elite runners, and write about their experience running. They also share lots of data from runkeeper, runtastic, etc.

Today I joined a fitness community that I won't share the name of, and left it within 5 minutes. On that community it seems people post a few useful things, but mostly pictures of women's butts in "workout clothes" that I've never seen a woman wear in public, spam ads for various shakes and scam diets, and psuedo-inspirational memes shaming people for not working out until they puke.

I look at this and I see why some people get uncomfortable when I talk about fitness on my personal facebook page. I see why so many people are offended by the fitness industry. If one is to believe what I saw on that community, fitness is a world where those who are overweight must become skinny, those who are skinny must become muscular, and those who are muscular need to become more muscular. The other option is to be seen as a fat hopeless slob with no chance at happiness, and worse, no chance at sexiness.

Personally I'm sick of the idea that a person must loathe who they are before they can become fit. I'm offended by the idea that if you are just a little fit, you should still loathe yourself until you've reached "beast mode".

Fitness should not be about how your butt looks, how your legs look, and how many people are checking out your biceps. Fitness should not be about shame and self loathing. Fitness should not be about shame.

Fitness is about enjoying life to the fullest. There is a list of benefits of fitness, scientifically identified and quantified, it includes reduced risk of coronary disease, diabetes, and some cancers, increased chance of living longer, stronger bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments, improved mood and mental health, ability to continue with your daily activities and avoid falls as you age.

That all sounds just fine, but what it really means is that you have a higher ability to enjoy life to the fullest, and to live that life longer.

At age 5 my daughter wanted to ride her bike to Chaney's Dairy Barn to get ice cream. From my house that is a five mile bike ride, thanks to my level of fitness we were able to plan the trip, and I ran beside her as she pedaled down the backroads.

I can grab a couple of dumbbells and do a squat to overhead press, but I can also squat down and lift my daughter onto the first branch of the redbud tree in the back yard.

I can run an ultra-marathon, but I can also run around the backyard with my daughter and our dogs.

I want to maintain a strong body with amazing cardiovascular fitness for the rest of my life. Not so that at age 51 I can share holograms of my awesome abs to the colonists on Mars, but so that at age 51 when my daughter is visiting from college and says, "Dad can I have a piggy back ride?" I can say sure, hop on.