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Shelly McKenzie - Getting Physical: The Rise of Fitness Culture in America

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John G. Cawelti Award
Archivists and Librarians in the History of the Health Sciences Award
From Charles Atlas to Jane Fonda, the fitness movement has been a driving force in American culture for more than half a century. What started as a means of Cold War preparedness now sees 45 million Americans spend more than $20 billion a year on gym memberships, running shoes, and other fitness-related products.
In this first book on the modern history of exercise in America, Shelly McKenzie chronicles the governmental, scientific, commercial, and cultural forces that unitedsometimes unintentionallyto make exercise an all-American habit. She tracks the development of a new industry that gentrified exercise and made the pursuit of fitness the hallmark of a middle-class lifestyle. Along the way she scrutinizes a number of widely held beliefs about Americans and their exercise routines, such as the link between diet and exercise and the importance of workplace fitness programs.
While Americans have always been keen on cultivating health and fitness, before the 1950s people who were preoccupied with their health or physique were often suspected of being homosexual or simply odd. As McKenzie reveals, it took a national panic about childrens health to galvanize the populace and launch President Eisenhowers Council on Youth Fitness. She traces this newborn era through TV trailblazer Jack La Lannes popularization of fitness in the 60s, the jogging craze of the 70s, and the transformation of the fitness movement in the 80s, when the emphasis shifted from the individual act of running to the shared health-club experience. She also considers the new popularity of yoga and Pilates, reflecting todays emphasis on leanness and flexibility in body image.
In providing the first real cultural history of the fitness movement, McKenzie goes beyond simply recounting exercise trends to reveal what these choices say about the people who embrace them. Her examination also encompasses battles over food politics, nutrition problems like our current obesity epidemic, and people left behind by the fitness movement because they are too poor to afford gym memberships or basic equipment.
In a country where most of us claim to be regular exercisers, McKenzies study challenges us to look at why we exerciseor at least why we think we shouldand shows how fitness has become a vitally important part of our American identity.

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GETTING PHYSICAL CULTURE AMERICA Erika Doss Philip J Deloria Series Editors - photo 1
GETTING PHYSICAL
CULTURE AMERICA
Erika Doss
Philip J. Deloria
Series Editors
Karal Ann Marling
Editor Emerita
GETTING
PHYSICAL
THE RISE OF
FITNESS CULTURE
IN AMERICA
SHELLY McKENZIE
2013 by the University Press of Kansas All rights reserved Published by the - photo 2
2013 by the University Press of Kansas All rights reserved Published by the - photo 3
2013 by the University Press of Kansas
All rights reserved
Published by the University Press of Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas 66045), which was organized by the Kansas Board of Regents and is operated and funded by Emporia State University, Fort Hays State University, Kansas State University, Pittsburg State University, the University of Kansas, and Wichita State University
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McKenzie, Shelly.
Getting physical : the rise of fitness culture in America / Shelly McKenzie.
pages cm. (CultureAmerica)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7006-2304-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-7006-2317-4 (ebook)
1. Physical fitnessUnited StatesHistory. 2. Exercise United StatesHistory. I. Title.
GV510.U5M45 2013
613.7dc23
2012049235
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available.
Printed in the United States of America
10987654321
The paper used in this publication is recycled and contains 30 percent postconsumer waste. It is acid free and meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.481992.
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project has benefited from the expertise and kindness of - photo 4
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This project has benefited from the expertise and kindness of many individuals. At the University Press of Kansas Ive been fortunate to work with a wonderful team. Nancy Scott Jackson took an interest in this project in its earliest form, Ranjit Arab shepherded the initial manuscript to book form, and Fred Woodward saw it through to the end. Id also like to thank Philip Deloria for his kind words and insightful comments as well as the presss anonymous reviewers who commented on the manuscript.
I owe a huge debt, and at least a ream of paper, to Ellen L. Berg, who read every page in this book, sometimes more than once, and whose friendship, comments, and questions helped see it to completion. My writing courses on food and the body provided an intellectual space to test-drive many of the ideas in this book. Thanks to my supportive colleagues in the Writing Program at George Washington University and the curious and motivated students who thought through what it means to be fit in contemporary America with me in class.
Without the encouragement of Melani McAlister, Chad Heap, and Barney Mergen, my ideas would still be just that. Melani taught me that cultural criticism is a useful tool in the pursuit of social justice. From the start she believed that the history of exercise was a topic worth exploring and that I would be able to do it justice. Chads attention to detail taught me to be a better historian and a better writer. Barney has been a presence in my intellectual life since my first day of graduate school. Although he has left the concrete jungle of Washington for greener pastures, our friendship endures. I am especially grateful for the support he provided during the books final stages.
The challenges of doing research in recent history, especially in a field that often leaves a scant paper trail, forced me, in many cases, to pursue documents in places that receive few visits from historians. I am therefore especially grateful to those people and organizations that so generously granted me access to their workplaces and document collections. My thanks to the American Running Association (formerly the National Jogging Association), particularly Barbara Baldwin, and the Road Runners Club of America, especially Ed Demoney, former acting director. Both organizations allowed me access to their staff libraries, photocopiers, and files, which provided invaluable information related to the early history of the jogging movement. I am also grateful to Primedia Business Magazines and Media, publisher of Fitness Business Pro, which publicized my project on its website and helped put me in touch with several longtime members of the fitness industry, resulting in useful oral history interviews and documents. John Firth was one of those who responded, sharing with me a veritable treasure trove of materials on his mother, midcentury television exercise personality Margaret Firth.
Katie Dishman and Kendra Malinowski, of General Mills Archives, provided me with a much-desired Wheaties Sports Fitness Tester and the permission to reprint it. Lara Friedman-Shedlov of the Kautz Family YMCA Archives at the University of Minnesota made my visit there a productive one, and Ryan Bean provided help when it came time for photographs. Carol Bohannon was eager to discuss her father and jogging with me and graciously provided photographs. For additional research assistance, my thanks to Ann Trevor, Scott Daniels of the Oregon Historical Society, Michelle Romero of Northeastern University Archives, and the Air Force History Office. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the Cosmos Club Foundation both provided financial support for this project. Sections of chapters 2 and 3 previously appeared in an abridged form in Women, Wellness, and the Media (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008) and are published here with the permission of Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
I owe a tremendous debt to my husband Jim, who has lived with this project since the idea first came to me in a middle-of-the-night lightbulb moment. As a non-gym exerciser, he has endured more fitness talk than hed care to. He supported this project in all its forms, in every way possible. Thanks doesnt even begin to cover it.
GETTING PHYSICAL
INTRODUCTION
FITNESS IN AMERICAN CULTURE
In 1957 physician Donald Dukelow a member of the American Medical - photo 5
In 1957, physician Donald Dukelow, a member of the American Medical Associations Bureau of Health Education and an adviser to the Presidents Council on Youth Fitness, noted that although research on exercise was being conducted, these investigators rarely say whether the observed phenomena are beneficial, harmful, or of no consequence. Today, messages about the value of exercisefor both health and appearanceare ubiquitous. From Michelle Obamas Lets Move campaign and government warnings about the financial implications of obesity to The Biggest Loser and fitness magazines, physical activity is promoted as the answer to the obesity problem, the path to a perfect body, and the ultimate fountain of youth. But how did we get here? Where did modern exercise culture come from? What forces taught us that fitness is an appropriate use of leisure time? What prompted us to take up jogging? To join a gym? To Zumba?
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