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supertinks) wrote2007-11-15 01:57 pm
women and exercise
There is an article on the BBC news website today about how women aren't doing enough exercise to be healthy (report is here). Apparently we don't have enough decent rolemodels to encourage us to be fit and sporty, because the only female role models we have are WAGs, models and actresses who are all to skinny. Apparently we are all brainwashed by the media into believing that its better to be unhealthily thin than to be healthily trim and fit.
There is also a debate on the BBC's Have Your Say boards, which I have been reading with interest this morning. The general consensus on there is that PE lessons in school were so awful, humiliating, degrading and unmotivating that this is the reason that most women aren't interested in doing sport. There's also a lot of crap on there about how women are too busy doing housework and looking after kids etc to have the time to do any sort of exercise.
You may be thinking "yeah, but look at you, I bet you were on all the school teams etc cos you're obviously sports-inclined" but you'd be wrong. I hated it. Was never picked for the netball team because most of the girls in our school played for the county (I once played for the school B team and the school C team. I mean, how embarrassing is it to say you had to be in the C team??). I was useless at hockey. I would have loved to have played rugby, but girls weren't allowed.
Outside school I rode my bike all the time, ran round lots with my mates, roller-blading, we played football on the school fields in the evenings/weekends. We kicked rugby balls about on the training pitch over the road. I did ballroom dancing when I was much younger as well.
By the time I was in sixth form, I did very little 'sports', by the time I was in Uni I did none (and was eating atrociously). LARP probably counts as exercise but probably doesnt count when you consider all the booze and burgers and snacks you consume at an event!
Its only since I left uni, starting eating properly again, bought myself a new bike and become motivated to change that I've started doing sport again. At the moment its not working just right because I have no proper routine, but that will change hopefully very soon, when I sort myself out again. So if we look ahead a couple of weeks, my weekly regime will include:
1 hour swimming
1 hr 15 mins cycling
30 mins hardcore cardio gym exercise
30 mins more relaxed fat-burning gym exercise
1-2 hours rock climbing.
Which is approximately 4-5 hours exercise a week. They recommend 2 and a half hours (30 mins, 5 times a week) so I think I'm doing pretty good there.
The odd thing to note there I think is that not a single one of those activities is a team sport. I may be tempted, when I have more money and time, to take up something like badminton or squash, but even thats just a nice activity I'll be sharing with Jamie, and not a team sport. Also I may investigate something like Yoga or Pilates, because there's a place that does classes not too far from home, but its expensive so we'll have to see.
I really do think school PE has erased any desire I had to partake in team sport activity.
So, on to the point of this excessive ramble... I want to know from you guys (not just women, although that was the original prompt) whether or not you think you do enough exercise, and why that might be. What was PE like in your school?
I'd do some sort of poll but I'm cheap and don't pay for livejournal, so you'll just have to make up your own answers :-)
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The only time I enjoyed PE was in the last year of senior school. In our last two terms we did ten pin bowling and ice-skating, both of which I was good at. I loved skating, and did roller skating as a hobby on weekends anyway. I never really got into physical hobbies (stop sniggering, Caro!), so never had the desire to join sporting clubs, or play football or anything like that. We're not a sporty family, so I wasn't raised with that as a child either, although we were fairly active in other ways.
Going out with Mark was an eye-opener, because he was a personal trainer. Such a different world! I ended up spending a lot of time in exceedingly nice, small fitness clubs, and I actually really enjoyed that. I also wound up as a member of...er...I honestly can't remember. A big gym in Carlisle. *grins* I was there for about six months, because I got half price membership and as a student, I actually had free money.
These days, lack of funds and lack of physical ability seem to be cutting me off from a lot of my options when it comes to exercise, and I dislike that. Maybe one day when I have some money, I'll be able to do some exercise. That sounds awful and I know it does! I hate being out of breath when I have to walk up two flights of stairs at work. :-(
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I think if a lot of schools changed their kits to a simple tracksuit, they'd have a lot less problems!
You're right about the being able to walk up stairs thing, just highlights to me the very important difference between being "thin" and being "fit" because while you are thin, you are not fit (same as I was before, but I'm getting fitter now!). I don't think young women understand the difference.
Especially when we still have to use outmoded measurements (e.g. BMI index) and I'm sure a lot of women my age would be horrified at the thought of weighing 12 stone (like I do).
Was talking to my mum about it a little bit at the weekend, and we were recalling how we used to go on long walks every weekend - proving you don't have to do "sport" to be active and lead a healthy lifestyle.
We should find something we can do together, and I definately think you should get a trampoline for your back garden like the previous owners had!
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It was invented in 1850 FFS, and was designed to be used as a statistical tool on whole populations - not for individuals!
Grr..
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But red hot pants doesnt sound good either. :/
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See now – I don’t totally agree with the BBC there – now don’t get me wrong, PE in school was rubbish and embarrassing and apparently designed to make anyone who isn’t ‘on the team’ feel rubbish – grief, I was on the team and still hated it.
But the majority of women and men are fat because they are lazy. Saying ‘I don’t feel feminine in my gym kit’ is such a feeble excuse it isn’t true (incidentally before you point it out, I’m not being hypocritical here – I am well aware that my lifestyle needs more exercise and less pie).
Of course the other option from lazy is stupidity. Look at Andy – he does far more exercise than me and yet even with me wobble I have a better body / am much stronger and have more stamina than him. That is a prime example of bad diet – Christ, he’s only eating veg because we’ve been having a go at him for 2 years. I dread to think how quickly he’d have got rickets otherwise.
Point is, at the end of the day there should always be time for an active lifestyle – obesity is something that 1 in 100 people should suffer from, not 1 in 3. It’s all about lifestyle choice and sooo many people get it wrong – people look at me like I’m mad when they realise I cycle into work!
Fat women should not be the norm in this day and age – you see some proper goppers, but because they are slim / shaped like a woman / not built like a barrage balloon – they stand out and you find yourself going Hmmmm – because everyone around them is apparently ‘eating for 3.’
Like so many other things, this issue could be sorted by the people themselves getting off their lardy arses and doing some bloody exercise – long hours? Tough - Housework to do? My heart bleeds.
I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m sickened to the very core that we need shows like ‘how to look good naked’ or ‘inside Britain’s fattest man’ – because the vast majority of people need that sort of advice or shock to galvanise them into looking after themselves.
Rah
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"We need the media to pay greater attention to female sporting achievements. Why, when Nicole Cooke won the French cycling tour on the same day as Andy Murray hurt his wrist, did she become an afterthought on the news?"
Oh of course it's the medias fault, couldn't possibly be a persons fault themselves could it? no! that would be like taking the blame for something.
My experience of PE at school was awesome. It was the only "official" bit of school I enjoyed, I couldn't tell you what I had to wear but then it didn't matter because everyone had to wear it as well, it's not like I was there in a full clown get-up whilst everyone else was in gym kit now was it? Between the ages of 10-18 I did an hour of PE twice a week, and two hours of games 5 times a week, 3 hours on match day (usually twice a week) and then 2 hours of army cadets a week which usually envolved running round woods shouting bang at each other (very similar to modern day lrp really). School hours were 08:30-19:15 mon-sat if your wondering how all that adds up.
I loved sport in other words surely I'd be a prime example of someone to carry on physical excercise in my adult life.
And yet I havn't done a single bit in over 10 years, am 7 stone overweight and am strictly speaking; medically obese. But how does that work? thats the exact opposite of what they're saying is true! lordy!
(All this said I have recently joined a gym even though it's not been built yet*, given up smoking, started getting our veg from a local farm and generally looking at getting into a healthier lifestyle)
*this is the best excuse for not going ever.
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My point is this:
I am are lazy, it is far easier to sit about and do chud all then it is to do something. So that's what I do.
I suspect other people are lazy.
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Here's my normal weekday daily routine, and you might see the reason why.
I get up around 7 when either my alarm clock or the baby goes off.
I then have time to walk the dog and sort my stuff out for work - with the bus at 7.45. I then work through till 5.00.
Getting the bus home takes until 6.00, when I stuff some (often cold) food down my neck, before getting in a little play time with the baby.
Bath time at 6.30, bedtime routine takes until about 7.15.
Then I have the washing up to do, kitchen to clean, sort the post, rubbish, recycling, feed the dog. I then have to prep the veg for the next day's dinner, do laundry etc.
This is if Charlie's having a good day. If her illness is playing up, I have to help her by actually cooking the next day's dinner so she just needs to heat it up.
This tends to mean I get to sit down at around 10.00 - 10.30. By this time, I'm a bit shattered.
I still have to walk the dog, sort out my lunch for the next day, do any cleaning and tidying etc.
At some point I need to sort plot etc for Three KIngdoms, Kag Plot, check e-mails etc. I get to bed for about 1.00 for my standard 5-6 hours sleep.
My weekends are, unfortunately, a bit busier. I get some time to myself if Charlie's having a good day - but if she's bad, she needs help standing, dressing, eating etc. Meh - it's all hard work, to be honest.
Once I've passed my driving test, I may be able to fit a half hour's workout in the gym at work into my day.
As for school - I was useless at sport. I was extremely fat, couldn't run, hated cricket etc. The only thing I was good at was Rugby - which I still follow passionately. I played prop - and second row when I got a bit taller.
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i also had very low self confidence and so was unable or unwilling to try the more aggressive sports like rugby.
fitting exercise in around normal life can be hard. i think the actual thing is for people to stop looking at it as a chore for starters. (some of us smoke and fit that in, binge drinking etc these are all bad for your health, why not just do something good for ourselves for once)
mainly i think people jump in both feet first, try to do too much to prove to themselves they are not unfit, hurt themselves and then use that excuse to avoid doing it ever again. much like many other things in life.
what do i do personally? i walk to and from work, 2 miles each way, i do gym 4 days a week, splitting my workouts sensibly between different muscle groups. i also eat sensibly do not smoke and rarely drink (although when i do...)
oh yeah and no money is a dire excuse, the most effective workouts can be done with no equipment other than your household furniture like chairs anyway so it's just another crappy excuse made by people who do not actually want to do it and do not want to admit it. (saw ros' excuse,(though not aimed specifically at her) but it is one i hear frequently. that one and the 'i have no time' one)
if people are not bothered they should be left to carry on as they are, so long as they don't moan to me about being fat, unfit etc...if they do then i will tell them what they're doing wrong, if that is what they want. invariably involves eating less and doing more!
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And the gutting thing is, I love exercising. I'd spend 15 hours a week in the gym if I could.
right now, 15 minutes would be lucky.
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you are on one end.
on the other is a friend i have who works about 10 hours a week and uses the 'i have no time' excuse....
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Absolutely yes! Jamie made me join the gym, and i started out hating it because I felt like I was being forced into doing something that wasnt fun, and that everyone would be looking at me and laughing because I was using really low settings and not going very fast etc.
after a while I realised that noone gave a shit about what I was doing, because they were concentrating on what they were doing. But I got bored of the gym, so I've turned to activities that are more fun (like cycling properly when I cycle to work, so its actually exercise, and swimming, which I've always loved). Its why we're taking up rock climbing, cos we think it will be a laugh and be good for us.
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So one stops. One doesn't hang out with the kids that like to play football or catch or whatever, because it's no fun failing when everyone else succeeds.
So it's a vicious circle; in terms of skill, one starts out behind and only gets further behind, as everyone else practices and one doesn't. One also becomes less fit than one's peers, for obvious reasons.
So now you're at high school, and maybe old enough now to understand that practice would make perfect, but you're working now against an even bigger gap between you and the sporty kids, and they're still getting better, probably even faster than you could if you put all your effort into it, and it's still no fun failing, and you've got years of bolstering your self-esteem by telling yourself that sports aren't for you, and that you don't want to be like them... Because if you did, the envy would eat you alive.
And yes, your memories of PE will suck, because as a rule, the people who teach PE never went round that vicious circle themselves, and so it's that much harder for them to figure out what's going on in your head, but they try their best, but you're sullen and uninterested, and it's too easy for them to assume you just aren't trying (and maybe you're not)... And if you're kinda shy anyway, and don't like having attention drawn to you, well, PE is noisy and often outside and the teachers have to shout so you can hear them, and maybe that freaks you out too, being shouted at, even if it's in a jolly, encouraging, gee-you-up kind of way, because it feels like they're drawing attention to your failure...
...But more significantly, perhaps, you aren't inclined to go do anything sporty outside of that prescribed hour-a-week. Because by then, you know you'll be rubbish, so why try?
Gym stuff, or classes, or joining a club for something? The idea is anathema to me. Circuits-fused-in-head, that's-not-happening anathema. I can do the swimming, because it's Vix who's with me, and I can cope with her telling me when I'm doing it wrong, 'cause she's a friend. Me on a bike? A terrifying sight. I really do have no balance. Running? Hell no. Flat-footed as anything. So, y'know... *shrug* That's how it is.
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Reasons i don't like sport:
1) Its cold outside and when doing sport, you get cold, then hot and it's irritation
2) I'm not any good at any sports. It would be embarrassing for me to do sport where people see me.
3) I'm lazy. I prefere to snuggle up and read a book.
4) I dont see any bad effects of me not doing sport. There may be some, i don't see them.
5) sport is dirty and sweaty.
6) sport hurts.
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and dirty/sweaty can be fun!
in my experience sport/exercise only hurts if you're doing it wrong. When I have enough money, I'm booking myself in at the gym for personal training sessions, so I can have some cute muscly guy yelling at me while I exercise, to make sure I do it all properly.
I'm not saying everyone should be out there doing Sports(TM) all the time, just that everyone should find time to do exercise, which means spending time and effort finding the right exercise for you, so that its fun and things. Hence me and Jamie going to try out rock climbing, cos thats fantastic exercise and it'll be a right laugh. Just cos you don't think you can see any bad effects of not exercising now, doesnt mean they're not there, and by the time you see them, it may be too late (Dad's heart attack taught us that)
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The pressure to be involved in team sports, or to get into pairs made for an ideal breeding ground for social torture. PE teachers should never allow students to choose their own teams. Even if the reason you're the last picked (or even just far down the list) has nothing to do with nobody liking you, that's never going to give you a warm fuzzy feeling. The weekly (or twice weekly) dread one felt as the time approached when you'd have to go round all the most tollerant people trying to persuade them to let you be in a free with them, because you already knew that unless a few people were ill, no one was going to volunteer to be in a pair with you.
By contrast, if it hadn't been for the horrors of PE kit and showers, I'd say I quite enjoyed things like circuit training, swimming, trampolening, aerobics, high-jump, running, shot put, javelin etc. I'm not entirely against exercising now, but I'll never want to be involved in a team sport.
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