Building a More Inclusive Fitness Culture by Learning from the Past [Podcast Series]

Dr. Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is Associate Professor of History at The New School.
She is also the author of Fit Nation: the Gains and Pains of America’s Exercise Obsession.

“And that is really the beginning of this book, in some ways, because that was that first moment I realized there's this thing called sport that we talk about a lot in our culture, but then there's this whole other world called fitness. And that's a super interesting world.”

“It's actually, I think, made the job of being an instructor a lot harder, because you're no longer tasked with just like the physical transformation of people's bodies, nor are you expected to only operate in this one note way of sort of like, hate yourself to a better you, which I feel like is what it used to be like no pain, no gain, right? And now, you know, I think the really inspiring instructors are like these vessels of brilliance and inspiration.”

“And I think one of the contributions I hope this book makes is not only talking about fitness from the consumer experience, which other people are doing, but also from the labor experience of the people who are doing this work because it's not insignificant at all.”

“But if you think about what counts for expertise, like somebody who has a six pack and good lighting and a bunch of supplement deals and a lot of followers is probably more likely to be dispensing advice that people listen to than somebody who actually is maybe less charismatic or less media savvy, but is dispensing actually more sound knowledge. And I think that's a real issue.”

“One of the things that is notable is that there's so many women who are like really pioneers in this group fitness world. And they're pioneers in a way—and I say this indelicately—because no one else cared about it like they were creating experiences for people that no market was thinking worth serving.”

“Part of the story that I'm telling is like about a time when no sports manufacturer would lower themselves to make clothes for women because that just wasn't something that you would do. It would actually diminish your brand. It reminds me a little bit of today how even though they could profit from it, some apparel clothing, some apparel manufacturers won’t make like plus sized clothing because it's like no, that would like diminish our brand.”

“A big story is laying out the way that we have the rise of a massive fitness industry and a kind of collective sense that exercise is good for you and you should be exercising more and this is just uncontroversially like a positive thing. Yet, at the same time, we don't believe that hard enough to make it a policy priority or a right of kind of civic participation.”

“But if you think about the 80% of people who are not even close to being in that group, wow, wouldn't it be something if they were served either by consumer options, or I would prefer, by kind of more publicly available stuff with programs that were like, here's the on ramp, here's something that will help you. And this is like my, become my tagline. Find a way to exercise on your own terms.”

“It's mostly happening in the private industry. And so I think it would be amazing to be able to take some of those lessons and integrate them with public policy that does more than just have like a charity class or like a free day or like free passes. That stuff is great. I don't want to diminish it. But I think that we need a more sustained solution that brings those worlds together, because they are not together now.”

Integrating Movement into Learning in Active Classrooms [Podcast Series]