Over the past couple of weeks I have come across a few fitness instructors who use body shaming language during class as motivation for their students.
“Bye bye saddlebags!”
“No more muffin top!”
“This will target those gross, flabby arms”
“You can FEEL the fat melting away”
Granted, many sign up for fitness classes with EXACTLY those intentions. But I can’t help but feel that there have to be better ways to motivate than to point out flaws that may (or may not) be an issue. What if someone’s just fine with the way their arms look? What if they didn’t think about saddlebags until you brought it up?
Saying ‘target your glutes’ & ‘make you stronger’ are both good. So is ‘get our guns ready for action’ and ‘boost your heart rate’ and ‘YOU GOT THIS’. There are LOTS of ways to stay motivating, get results and keep your participants sweating hard…without using body shaming language.
Of all the ways to motivate me to do anything, calling me fat isn’t one of them. Showing me photos of underweight underwear models is more likely to make me hungry than inspire me to hit the gym. And while thousands of people over the years have sought my advice on how to become more fit, lose the baby weight, or sculpt a certain body part, I have told people they should lose weight precisely this many times in my career: NEVER.
Why would I bother when there are so many other voices telling women and men that they need to whittle more of their bodies away in order to feel worthy of living inside them? I wouldn’t, and it’s a shame.
But people find inspiration in different places, and, while disconcerting, thinspiration is a thing—a style of motivation that ranges from cheeky mantras like “Sweat is your fat crying,” to downright dangerous behaviors in support of eating disorders.
I remember attending a fitness class a few years ago at a swanky health club. I was enjoying the class and liked the teacher’s sense of humor. But when she encouraged us to eek out one more rep of an upper body exercise to incinerate the “disgusting flab on the backs of our arms,” it didn’t make me work harder. I wilted. I worried about all the ears hearing those words of disgust about their hardworking bodies in the room, and I wondered how they would be internalized.
Thinspiration, whatever it is to whomever is using it, is an interesting word, a riff on inspiration, which is, in turn, formed by the root to inspire—to fill with spirit. Whether at the gym, in a yoga class, or on the Internet, be mindful of what you allow to fill your spirit, and choose these inspirations accordingly.
Because that’s the thing about a body—it’s much more than muscles and bones and fat, and, thankfully, yoga tradition encourages us to remember this. Your body has a spiritual layer (or kosha) that endures or shrinks, fuels or flags, lights up or loses heart depending on how you and others treat it.
The Takeaway: while most people choose to train and target certain body parts, what they really want is to feel better about themselves. And pointing out a persons flaws is not the best way to motivate anyone to reach the next level.
Why would I bother when there are so many other voices telling women and men that they need to whittle more of their bodies away in order to feel worthy of living inside them? I wouldn’t, and it’s a shame.
But people find inspiration in different places, and, while disconcerting, thinspiration is a thing—a style of motivation that ranges from cheeky mantras like “Sweat is your fat crying,” to downright dangerous behaviors in support of eating disorders.
I remember attending a fitness class a few years ago at a swanky health club. I was enjoying the class and liked the teacher’s sense of humor. But when she encouraged us to eek out one more rep of an upper body exercise to incinerate the “disgusting flab on the backs of our arms,” it didn’t make me work harder. I wilted. I worried about all the ears hearing those words of disgust about their hardworking bodies in the room, and I wondered how they would be internalized.
Thinspiration, whatever it is to whomever is using it, is an interesting word, a riff on inspiration, which is, in turn, formed by the root to inspire—to fill with spirit. Whether at the gym, in a yoga class, or on the Internet, be mindful of what you allow to fill your spirit, and choose these inspirations accordingly.
Because that’s the thing about a body—it’s much more than muscles and bones and fat, and, thankfully, yoga tradition encourages us to remember this. Your body has a spiritual layer (or kosha) that endures or shrinks, fuels or flags, lights up or loses heart depending on how you and others treat it.
The Takeaway: while most people choose to train and target certain body parts, what they really want is to feel better about themselves. And pointing out a persons flaws is not the best way to motivate anyone to reach the next level.
Have a Happy and Healthy Day, Cheers :)
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