Feminists spend a lot of time critiquing how women's bodies are treated, and talking about how we are made to feel insecure as women about our bodies. Within these discussions, exercise, diet, or fitness books usually get a pretty bad rap.
But what about those of us looking for a feminist resource on strengthening and physically shaping our bodies in the way we want to? Are there feminist fitness or exercise books out there?
The question came up for me because my mom has recently decided to start an exercise program, because she feels unhealthy and lacks energy to accomplish the things she wants to in her life. I want to encourage her in what is the most successful push I have seen her engage in to really care for herself and her body in a really long time. I thought getting her an encouraging, pro-woman fitness book would help keep her inspired would be a good idea. The problem thus far: I'm not sure I've found anything that meets my standards, and sorting through exercise books for women on Amazon and book review sites is starting to get me a little down.
So I thought I would turn to the Feministing community for help. Are there fitness or exercise guides out there that you think come from strong feminist perspective? Or ones that aren't explicitly so, but implicitly celebrate women's bodies in their approach? Do you have an exercise guide you especially like to use?
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Several years ago I read The Quest for Peace Love and a 24 Inch Waist by Deborah Low. At the time, I was not yet reading and thinking critically about feminism, so I didn't think about it from a feminist perspective. Although I did posess a basic feminist common sense and thought it was the most amazing fitness/self help thing I'd ever read. Unfortunatley, I cannot find my copy now to glance through to ensure I'm not forgetting about anything anti-feminist.
The basic gist is about valuing health above some number on the scale and about remember how fun it is to be fit and feel good. Finding motivation within yourself because you want to feel good rather than meet an arbitrary numerical goal.
Personal opinion: If you're going to be serious about exercise, you need to use the best resources available whether you'd describe them as feminist or not. I'm not suggesting you put up with anything you find deeply insulting, but at the same time, if you limit yourself to products based around a strongly pro-woman message, you're limiting the bases of knowledge you can draw on.
To that end, if you'd be willing to go in for videos and not just books, Beachbody's videos are extremely good. Speaking solely for their ability to give you an effective workout, I would recommend them to anyone. But in one set of videos I use, the instructor, Tony, will sometimes act in a way you might call paternalistic. It's not terrible, and he's always trying to be positive, but you could watch it and say, geez man, this is a little insulting.
The thing is, if you view it from the perspective of the people making the videos, they're obviously trying to cater to the majority. And if you can disregard those bits- which is very easy to do, by the way, since the option exists to turn the sound off except for cues- the workouts he puts you through are incredibly effective.
The company has other trainers in their videos. I'm going through one with this guy Shaun who is completely equal towards everyone. And I don't think you'd have reason to complain about the female trainers, but I haven't seen their videos, so I can't say anything for certain. They also have a community set up so you can meet people online and go through the workout programs together, which is another bonus if that's useful to you.
I know I probably sound like a fanboy, but I've simply been very impressed with their work. If you can find something as specifically feminist as you want that's just as good, more power to you, but if not, I'd definitely go this route.
Hey Spiffy, are you talking about Tony Horton and P90X and Power 90? If so, I have to agree with you. Most exercise tapes and books annoy me when they talk about "not getting too bulky" or "working on problem areas." What was great about the early advertisements for P90x was that it showcased some older women who did not look like models. These women wanted to have more energy and gain muscle and strength. Now, the women in P90x advertisements talk about wanting to fit into a tiny wedding dress and "not getting bulky" (cringe). However, I do still like Tony Horton's tapes. There are some comments that were not good, but overall, I find his tapes really emphasize being strong and fit, whether you are female or male.
I find Leslie Sansone's walking tapes to be a really good place to start an exercise program. The DVDs I have seen of hers have women of different body types exercising, including a larger instructor, Mary Kay, who could run rings around most people I know. The emphasis seems to be more on health than on clothing size.
I know you specifically asked about books, but books don't tend to motivate me, so I have nothing to recommend. 7 years ago, I would have recommended the magazine Shape, but I definitely would not recommend Shape or Self now.
That's the one, though I didn't mention it because it's fairly hardcore and I figured that wouldn't be where the OP might start anyway. But I got 10-Minute Trainer for my mom and she said it's pretty ownage (I'm translating, obviously). That might be good.
Are you talking about the women in the infomercials? That's kind of sad if so. The one infomercial I've seen had one woman, looked like mid-20s, who just talked about getting all ripped. But that said, the women in the videos look like normal people who kicked ass and got in shape, not models brought in specifically to do a workout vid. So it's still good stuff.
You asked about books, but someone else on this site recommended http://www.stumptuous.com/ a while ago, and I think it's a great resource.
Can't characterize any of these as "feminist," but they're not cardio-striptease and not annoying...
I use iVillage's FREE healthylivingonline.com. You customize the "virtual trainer" for your personal goals, the exercises are done with an animated character, the health guidelines do not let you try to achieve unhealthy goals and the eating guidelines are HEALTHY and attainable. It also offers stress reduction techniques and check in/goals updates.
I also like yogatoday.com for FREE yoga shows at all levels.
Best of luck to Mom!
I really like the Crunch yoga workout DVDs. None of the women (and men) shown in them are exactly fat, but some of them are a little thicker than what you normally see in workout videos. And what I also like is that they're all wearing *sensible* workout clothes (sweatpants, t-shirts, whatever) with their hair pulled back in pony tails, not super tight bikinis and hair and makeup done like they're going to a fancy dinner.
I recently got Women's Strength Training Anatomy from the library. I don't know if I'd go so far as to call it feminist, but it has illustrations of how different muscles work during different exercises along with descriptions of how to do them.
There's also "The Woman's Belly Book" which is kind of a body celebration/simple workout/yoga/spiritual sort of thing.
Ugh, link = fail. You can look it up on amazon, though, it is the 'look inside' feature and everything.
There is nothing sexist about Pilates, nothing sexist about speed walking, jogging, running, swimming, climbing.
Nothing sexist about a treadmill, stationary bike...
get up and go is not something you'll find in a book.
The most feminist instruction can offer as a feminist who taught yoga and pilates for years, personal trained, taught dance etc.
is
simply
the more you move around the better. When you've been moving enough to feel a slight diff, start focusing on posture, abs in, shoulders back, chin parallel. When you are comfy with that add some stretching.
Yoga is an overall health form that I recommend to all ages as well.
Don't spend your money on a book or magazines, go for a walk with your mom.
Get up and go is a good start, but deeper information can improve both the quality and the speed of results. It's worth looking for good sources of info.
Dr. Miriam Nelson has written a series of books on the importance of strength training and exercise for women.
http://www.amazon.com/Strong-Women-Young-Miriam-Nelson/dp/0553588737/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254065333&sr=8-1
They're suitable for people who are just starting out in an exercise programs, and include a lot of exercises that can be done at home. I don't specifically remember if it had a feminist slant, but the overall theme was lifelong health rather than losing weight or looking good.
I am working my way through the exercises in The New Rules of Lifting for Women: Lift Like A Man Look Like a Goddess and I am loving it. It dispels a lot of the myths in female fitness magazines of the likes of Shape, etc. and has solid science behind it. I also found it to be an empowering book and the exercises get progressively challenging with a break in phase which is good if like me you haven't exercised since high school. The book also sees food as fuel and doesn't have an unhealthy stringent attitude towards it or advocate an extreme low calorie diet the way some books do. I have not been strictly following the food plans but I have been eating the number of calories recommended and amount of protein recommended and eating the complex carbs and healthy fats and I found that I am not hungry at all on this program and I think I am getting stronger despite it only being three weeks since I started. I also dropped in those three weeks a little less than five pounds which is not a bad start though I am sure some was just water weight.
This is not a fitness book, but I like it a lot since it is geared to improving strength and power in military occupational performance. It's actually a medical study on which regimens cause what improvement in which metrics, yay science!
One of my favorite parts about the study is that it shows that you can vastly improve women's fitness (measured by how much they can lift, how fast they run, how fast they can do a loaded road march, etc) and their body fat percentage does not substantially change. That's controlled by diet. Women can be fantastically, kick-your-ass fit and still have a 25-35% body fat percentage. Which I think is awesomely feminist, and also SCIENCE.