Happy International Women’s Day

How to say you don’t understand the concept of International Women’s Day without saying you don’t understand the concept of International Women’s Day? How many examples have you already seen that completely miss the point?

So why do we have a day for women you ask? And in the interest of equality, when’s International Men’s day? Well actually it’s on 19th November, but that’s beside the point. The point is the peak of internet searches asking this question is always International Women’s Day every year, interestingly there isn’t a spike of searches for International Women’s Day on 19th November. M

International Women’s Day is misinterpreted as a bit of a marketing opportunity for businesses, an easy way to look good, a slogan – Happy International Women’s Day, as if it’s Christmas. But it actually has a point to highlight what women have achieved, yes, but also the inequalities that still exist.

On the face of it women in the uk are equal in terms of right, but this is all still pretty new. We’ve had the vote for less than 100 years, it’s been less than 50 years that women have been able to take out a credit card, until the 1970s women were routinely unable to open bank accounts in their own name or get a mortgage.

Even with this so called equality women are routinely paid less than their male counterparts, expected to take on more of the household and family responsibilities alongside work and are less likely to hold senior roles. Despite making up close to half the workforce this is not reflected in most board rooms and in 2013 less than 22% of parliament was women, meaning we are consistently under represented in the decision making process at almost every level. It’s been estimated full equality at the current rate is likely to be some three centuries away.

And though in the UK we are one of the more equal societies, remember this is fragile. This progress is less than a century old and that sort of change can be changed again quite easily. Think about how abortion rights have been eroded in the USA, one of the most powerful countries in the world. Or Afghanistan, where women overnight were stopped from leaving the house alone, wearing what they want or going to school. Away from the UK, there are millions of women who do not have equality or anything close to what we have here.

This is why the day matters and why it shouldn’t be reduced to a slogan or quote or gimmick. It should be a day to ignite uncomfortable conversations, make people think, raise awareness, because for progress to continue to be made we need to know what is needed and why.

International Women’s Day 2023

Rather than being a day where people post pictures of women with hashtags hopefully there will also be posts focusing on this years theme (if you’ve read my blog for a while you’ll know every years there’s a theme).

This years International Women’s Day is about embracing Equity. So what does that mean?

For years women have campaigned for equality – being given the same opportunities as men. But equality relies on us all starting from the same point to begin with. In reality that doesn’t happen. It’s not just that girls and boys tend to have different experiences growing up and face different challenges to one another but even amongst women we all start from different places and have different levels of advantage or disadvantage and that means even two women given the same resources won’t be on an equal playing field to one another.

The idea of equity is that to create equality we need to ensure people have what they need to succeed. People with past advantages may need less now than their peers and rather than that being seen as unequal it should be embraced to allow others the same opportunities they have had. Of course beyond International Women’s Day this message counts for all. Where can this fit into the world of fitness though?

Gyms can be intimidating places, especially for new people, people with injuries, those coming back from illnesses, people starting back again after a long hiatus. For people who for whatever reason might need to take more tests, modify their movement, need a little more help in whatever way. Male or female it’s the fitness community and instructors / PTs role to help anyone who doesn’t feel like they’re in a position to just start exercising and provide the tools and a safe environment for them to train in a capacity that works for them.

International any day can end up being lip service but days creating actual conversations that help people think about things in different ways or consider different ways of thinking of things can have lots more benefits to a nice photo and a hashtag.

How short are those shorts?

This morning I saw a post on Facebook about someone concerned about stretch marks ad loose skin that could come with the weight loss they wanted to achieve.

This bought about a lot of comments about loving your body, accepting these things and learning to be OK with them, and there’s a lot of merit in this. We should all accept our bodies as is and if it’s not causing us actual harm then our bodies should be nobody else’s business.

But as much as the change in outlook that women should not be expected to meet a certain criteria and can be whatever shape / size they wish we still spend an awful lot of time judging women.

Look at the Olympics. There’s been news articles where female athletes have been told their shorts are too short and then others where they’ve been told they’re too long. Even alongside the body confidence / acceptance movement there are still judgements made on women based on appearance. Whilst we may have more choice now the choices are still judged.

So back to stretch marks. They are normal and yes part of life, we almost all have them. But if a person wants to look to reduce them why should they be judged for that or told they should just love their body as is?

Because if you are about to embark on a weight loss journey there are things you can do to reduce the chances of loose skin or stretch marks. Steady weight loss, keeping skin hydrated, incorporating strength training amongst other things can have an effect on how your skin shrinks with you. Nothing can be avoided completely of course, but if you want to try there are things you can do.

And why shouldn’t you? Just like if you have loose skin or stretch marks there are things you can do to make you feel better in yourself. Whilst it’s an ideal that we all feel confident in our bodies and embrace the changes as we go through life I think it’s really OK that alongside that we shouldn’t feel bad or vain for wanting to do things that make us feel good in ourselves.

Because it comes back to choice- we should not only be allowed to have that choice but also be allowed to not be judged for them. If you want to make changes for a purely cosmetic reason that’s ok, just as wanting t make changes for health reasons is.

And whilst we’re at it can we not just let women train in what they want to train in, whether that be at the gym or the Olympics.

Female Fitness on International Women’s Day

Today is International Women’s Day, so I thought a post focusing on female fitness would be appropriate.

With periods and child birth and the menopause amongst other things affecting a woman’s body over her lifetime, women face different challenges to men when it comes to training, fitness and weight gain / loss. Thankfully more fitness professionals are starting to use their knowledge on these factors to help women achieve better results. By tailoring training and diet around a female’s menstrual cycle for instance a PT can not only help their client improve their results but also feel better in themselves, more energetic and less like they are failing during those weeks where they just don’t have the energy to hit the big lifts.

One such coach and nutritionist is Chris Ward. I’ve known Chris for around four year now, and in that time he’s qualified as a nutrition coach and delved deep into female fitness. The podcast below discuses some of the struggles females can go through on a monthly basis, including the menstrual cycle, hormones and PCOS and is a great listen for any female looking to greater understand how these things can affect our training.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-chris-ward-podcast/id1441709658?i=1000499610871

Be A Lady

International Women’s Day. A day that conjures up lots of ‘Strong Women’ quotes and equally lots of why should we be designated just one day or surely there’s equality now why is it even needed.

If anything sums up why even in 2020 women’s rights still need to be campaigned for this video does.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/life-style/women/cynthia-nixon-be-a-lady-video-they-say-girls-magazine-feminism-a9359611.html%3famp

Whilst women in the majority of the western world have equality on paper, there’s still an awful lot of double standards we are exposed to.

So today is a day to celebrate female achievements but it’s also a day to campaign for continued change.

This years campaign theme is #EachforEqual

The website states

“An equal world is an enabled world.

Individually, we’re all responsible for our own thoughts and actions – all day, every day.

We can actively choose to challenge stereotypes, fight bias, broaden perceptions, improve situations and celebrate women’s achievements.

Collectively, each one of us can help create a gender equal world.

Let’s all be #EachforEqual.”

The crux of the campaign is that gender equality isn’t just a nice idea it’s an important issue in business and society as a whole and that our own individual actions can all add up together to create collective change.

So today, and in the spirit of this not just being one day. What can you do to promote gender equality (whether you are male or female), whether that idea be small or grand, work related or personal. To take today beyond the realm of ‘just another one of those special days’ requires taking some action.

Me?

One thing I want to continue to promote is the notion that not all women want to be skinny, some women want to be strong and enjoy lifting weights in the gym and the amazing feelings that come from finding your strength. The idea of strong and healthy and fit being more desirable as a goal than just being thin before all else has definitely grown in recent years and this is an area I think as a PT I can help develop and make a positive change in other females perception of themselves.

International Women’s Day 2019

It’s International Women’s Day.

To me today appears to have different meanings for different people. For some today is about celebrating the achievements made towards gender equality whilst acknowledging there is still work to do and working towards changing that.

For others it’s a day where we all tag other women on Social Media in a show of solidarity. Nothing wrong with that, it’s nice to support and acknowledge the people in your life you admire and appreciate.

But why don’t we make a choice to do that not just today but for the next 364 days of the year. If someone deserves recognition give it, if someone needs support offer it. ‘Strong women fix each others crowns’ and other such quotes don’t have to be confined to today (or the days following a break up). Next week or next month when you find yourself thinking something judgmental or bitchy about someone (be honest, no matter how kind you are generally we all do it sometimes) stop yourself, re-frame your thoughts and return to the positive female empowerment expressed today.

And take a moment away from all the tagging today to consider the theme of this year’s IWD (every year there is a specific focus) #BalanceForBetter. Working towards gender balance. What can we all do within our own ecosystems to work towards gender equality, today and everyday?

And Gender Balance – that means it requires men’s input too.

IWD used to annoy me because I viewed it as limiting the importance of half the population to one day. Now I see it as a chance to refocus our understanding on how we interact with one another both female to female and female to male and use that understanding every day.

P.s. To all the companies who use taglines about female empowerment and strong women today whilst promoting an unrealistic and unhealthy ideal of women the rest of the year. Shame on you.

International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day.

I have mixed feelings.

On the plus side it’s a day to celebrate the women who have campaigned and fought for women like me to have opportunities and rights my mother and grandmother didn’t. This is great.

On the other hand- the fact that a group of people that make up around 50% of the population still need a ‘day’ to recognise and promote them is, in my view, a little sad. If we have International Women’s Day does that mean the other 364 days are Men’s days?

But I digress, this blog isn’t about politics or social awareness, it’s about fitness. So today in the spirit of International Women’s Day I want to write about women in the gym. Or more specifically my experience in the gym.

Five years ago, when I first started going to the gym, it was to attend Group Exercise classes. These felt ‘safe’ in comparison to the main gym space. There was someone there to tell me what to do, the moves were modified, everyone does the same thing and the space felt like a cocoon. I went into the gym areas too of course – PT sessions, occasionally training alone but always felt like a bit of a fraud. This is stupid really- my technique is OK but I lacked the confidence that I was doing the ‘right’ things.

In the last year I’ve started taking my own training, away from classes and teaching, more seriously. I’m focused. I have a plan of action. I know what I want to do and the reasons I am doing it. I’ve learnt new things. This change in training has meant getting comfortable in the gym itself and the area I struggled to enter the most was the weights room.

I always felt like the weights room was a male domain – the feeling as you appraoch a squat rack that you are encroaching on a space which is not for you. I really only felt comfortable if I was with someone else (and by that I really mean a male). From talking to other females I suspect many others have these thoughts. Some of the men who use these spaces do appear to actively discourage newcomers (it’s like the opposite of the group ex studio). However, I wanted to lift weights and so needed to get over this feeling.

Several months in and I now feel confident in the weights area of any gyms. Now I see that whilst I may be lifting less than (some of) the men in there my technique is ok – perhaps better than some and I have have just as much right to use a squat rack (even when the room is busy) as anyone else. Sometimes people will even smile at you, the other day someone asked me to spot them.

What changed to allow this to happen? Essentially nothing except my mindset. My confidence increased. Now when women ask me about training as we chat after classes, I encourage them not to be intimidated by the weights in the gym and to get in there and just have a go. Classes are a great tool for training and conditioning (and a brilliant starting point- Body Pump for instance will give you a grounding in various moves you can replicate in the gym) but I strongly believe that lifting heavy things should be an important part of all training programmes too.

How does this link to International Women’s Day? Well I guess it shows that for many women there are still barriers in all sorts of aspects of life. We don’t have equality. It’s a sad fact. BUT… It also shows that SOME of those barriers can sometimes be self imposed – my fear of the weights area was mainly in my head – so as much as there are still lots of inequalities that we need to fight against, we also need to realise that we hold the power to move forward and grow.

That applies to men as much as women to be honest. So I’ll finish as I started.

International Women’s Day.

I have mixed feelings.