Samantha Brennan - Fit at Mid-Life: A Feminist Fitness Journey

Copyright 2018 by Samantha Brennan and Tracy Isaacs

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For a copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.

Greystone Books Ltd.

www.greystonebooks.com

Cataloguing data available from Library
and Archives Canada

ISBN 978-1-77164-167-8 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-1-77164-168-5 (epub)

Editing by Stephanie Fysh

Proofreading by Stefania Alexandru

Cover and text design by Naomi MacDougall

Cover photograph by iStockphoto.com

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, the Province of British Columbia through the Book Publishing Tax Credit, and the Government of Canada for our publishing activities.

For the ever-growing community of fit feminists who read and comment at Fit Is a Feminist Issue. You inspire us daily.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

THE BOOK grew out of the blog Fit Is a Feminist Issue, which we started to document our Fittest by 50 Challenge. We want to thank the blog readers, commenters, and guest bloggers who have embraced and advanced the conversation about an alternative, more feminist, approach to fitness. Special thanks go to regular contributors and frequent guest bloggers: Natalie Hbert, Catherine Womack, Cate Creede, Martha Muzychka, Audrey Yap, Christine Daigle, Catherine Hundleby, Michelle Goodfellow, Stephanie Keating, Rebecca Kukla, Jessica Schagerl, Kim Solga, Susan Tarshis, Chloe Wall, Elan Paulson, and Tracy de Boer. A warm shout-out and high-five go to Caitlin Constantine, our faster, younger fit feminist friend and sister-blogger, a formidable athlete, who forged the path on Fit and Feminist with the spot-on tagline Because it takes strong women to smash the patriarchy. And the blog wouldnt be the same without Jean, from Cycle Write Blog, who comments on just about every new post (and there are a lot of new posts). We extend thanks also to Aviva Shiller, our research assistant and guest poster. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Lisa Adams of the Garamond Agency, who worked closely with us to give shape to our book; to Nancy Flight of Greystone Books, who helped bring our project to fruition; and to Pam Robertson, whose smart editing decisions resulted in a much better book than we would have been able to produce without her.

Sam also thanks coach Chris Helwig and his thriving community of women cyclists; the members of the Aiki Budo Centre; Dave Henry and Jennifer Broxterman of CrossFit London and NutritionRx; the women of the London Rowing Club; Jeff; Sarah and Kathleen; her children, Mallory, Gavin, and Miles; her mother, Kathleen; and all of her cycling friends, especially her fellow participants in the Friends for Life Bike Rally.

Tracy also thanks Balance Point Triathlon coach Gabbi Whitlock; the early-morning swimming crew (especially in lane 2) at the London Centre Branch Y; Karen Major of Yoga Centre London; the London, Ontario, Running Room Run Club and clinics; running buddies Anita Kothari and Julie Riley; Daphne Gray-Grant (The Publication Coach); her parents, Ray and Norma, who are role models for vitality and active living; her step-daughter, Ashley Joy; and Renald.

PART ONE

Feminist Fitness and Fittest by 50

ONE

Introducing the Fittest by 50 Challenge

WE CAN sometimes forget that we wont live forever, but when our age is about to click over from one decade to the next, many of us make big life changes, often committing to new health regimes with the hope of aging well, if not preserving our youth. The midlife decade birthdays40, 50, 60start to loom about a year or two before we get to them. People like to view these milestones as calls to action. Thats when we start new diets or ramp up those occasional runs into more regular training. Theres even a name for these individuals: 9-enders. Studies show that when 9-enders run a marathon, they do better than people two years younger or older. The spectre of a new decade spurs them to train harder.

We were hired just one year apart (1992 and 1993) into the Department of Philosophy at Western University in London, Ontario. We discovered many similarities in our backgrounds and world views. Both of us had immigrated to Canada with our families as young children. Wed both gone to the U.S. to do our philosophy PhDs. We shared research interests in ethics and feminist philosophy. And wed both been born in 1964, less than a month apart. Through countless coffees, lunches, walks, and chats in the department, weve had a more than 20-year conversation about dieting, fitness, and the social pressure on women to see these in relation to only one goal: getting thin. But diets dont work in the long run (sorry, they just dont), and there are lots of other, more self-nurturing and empowering reasons to play sports and get active.

On the eve of our 48th birthdays, as 50 came into view, we set ourselves this challenge: by the time we turned 50, we would be the fittest weve ever been in our lives. We called it our Fittest by 50 Challenge (FB50, for short). To document our challenge and to invite others to join our conversation, we launched the blog Fit, Feminist, and (almost) Fifty.

We expected our friends and relatives to read it. We could not have predicted the blogs impact. It started off smalla few hundred readers in the first month, a few hundred more in the second. In the sixth month, the blog registered over 20,000 hits. By the end of the seventh month, that had more than doubled, to over 44,000. Wed struck a chord.

Our challenge had begun when, right before her 48th birthday, Sam posted this on social media: As I approach the two-year countdown to 50 (I turn 48 at the end of this summer) Id like to set an ambitious fitness goal. Roughly, Id like to be the most fit Ive ever been at 50. A long thread of comments ensued. People had all sorts of views about what markers would make good evidence of most fit. Speed? Heart rate? Increased distance in running or cycling? Body composition?

Tracy joined in the challenge and we launched the blog to give us some accountability, with a more public goal. At the same time, it presented a great opportunity for us to continue the conversation with a larger community. We would blog about our efforts to reach our Fittest by 50 (FB50) goal, and along the way, develop our feminist approach to fitness. We wanted to write for a general audience of women and to offer them an alternative way to think about their fitness goals, divorced from the cultural obsession with looking a certain way. We were sick of that perspective, and we guessed we werent alone.

Physical activity is a tremendous source of joy for both of us. The blog attracted like-minded readers as well as those who were ready to try a new way. Many women have been put off by the whole idea of fitness and are fed up with the regular messages they receive from fitness gurus, books, and blogs about how to lose weight on restrictive diets. And why shouldnt we be? Our cultural bias favours looks over physical strength, health, and fitnessand sets most of us up to fail. If youre like us, you are tired of hearing about long cardio sessions and light weights. And youre even more weary of the sea of pink that dominates womens fitness: pink shoes, pink yoga clothes, pink running skirts, pink stability balls, pink dumbbells. Enough!