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Feminist Yoga: Musings, Reflections, and Beginnings

2/4/2018

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To say I am a feminist yoga instructor feels redundant. However, it is important to make this distinction more clear given the vast array of approaches to feminism and the similarly vast array of approaches to practicing yoga. Both are contested, commercialized, conflicted.

Being a feminist yoga teacher means being more than a feminist and more than a yogi. There are many overlapping aspects of yoga philosophy and feminist theory and pedagogy, but a yoga teacher is not necessarily a feminist unless they embrace the complexity of social and cultural systems and help the individual navigate this reality using yoga’s tools.

For instance there are strains of yoga that believe in the pure, unadulterated power of positive thinking. If you visualize it, meditate on it, and get out of your own way, you can have it. They even go so far as to say that you can acquire riches through visualization and meditation.

Further, if you get enough people together to meditate, they can change the world simply through the vibrations of meditation. However, in a social and cultural system that is based upon oppression, visualization and meditation is not enough. Power and privilege shape our lives in ways that we, as individuals, cannot control. We have to work together to change these systems and no amount of meditation or vibration can make these changes.

Both of these ideas are simplistic and some yogis would accuse me of being too cynical to appreciate the nuances of spiritual power. However, I am a realist and an optimist. I know there is power in yoga. I have felt this power—or some of this power, at least. Yoga and meditation can be transformative, but if we wait around for some kind of magic to happen (especially on a global scale), we are simply being naïve.

Thus, the power of critical thinking that comes with feminism is an important aspect of feminist yoga. However, it’s not like this is an easy aspect to work in among the asanas (physical poses/practice) of a yoga class. I often sneak this critique into the music and into some of the things I say during class.
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As I think more about what a feminist yoga teacher is and what that teacher does that is similar and different from other approaches to yoga (one of my many sabbatical projects!), a few initial thoughts are floating around…. Some of these are overlapping and there is a lot more to unpack here…

A feminist yoga teacher empowers students, activating awareness and providing space for discovery. This might be awareness, empowerment, and discovery on an individual level, but it might also extend beyond the individual, into culture or community.

A feminist yoga instructor is aware of gender dynamics and is concerned with power dynamics. They understand the connections and contradictions of the individual and the structural. For instance, while yoga in the West is often dominated by women participants and instructors, it still suffers from the impacts of patriarchy. I have heard and read many accounts of sexual assault that have happened during yoga classes; for instance, a male instructor who would kiss women during savasana (final relaxation). The sacred space of the yoga studio is not always safe for women.

A feminist yoga instructor is informed by intersectional feminist theory as well as interdisciplinary yoga traditions. Simple, one-dimensional approaches to feminism, or to yoga, are incomplete and act to obscure the ideas and the practice.

A feminist yoga instructor has an awareness of the limitations and possibilities of the body and mind that is grounded in an understanding of anatomy and kinesiology as well as their own embodied experience. A feminist yoga instructor teaches from their body while recognizing the limitations and possibilities of the bodies in the room. Participants are encouraged to strive for challenge and ease depending upon a variety of factors.

A feminist yoga instructor makes interventions toward transformation—of individuals as well as institutions.

A feminist yoga instructor recognizes the diverse spiritual aspects that are experienced through yoga and honors this diversity.

A feminist yoga instructor understands trauma—its impacts on the mind/body and the tools that can help to heal.

A feminist yoga instructor values process and suspends judgement. They continue to learn and grow in their practice as well as their teaching.

A feminist yoga instructor understands consciousness as both critical/oppositional as well as transcendental.

A feminist yoga instructor challenges gender stereotypes and recognizes the natural balance of femininity and masculinity as well as the socially constructed foundations of these natural phenomena. For instance, when taking a Kundalini yoga class we were told to do a certain hand mudra (position) if we were female and a different one if we were male. I switched my hand mudra several times throughout the exercise and wondered if there was anyone in the room experiencing discomfort at the idea of choosing a hand mudra based upon sex/gender. I try to emphasize the feminine and masculine characteristic that we all have and the importance of balance.

A feminist yoga instructor encourages and models self-care, sets aside ego, and taps into community.
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Feminist Yoga
Happens in community
Utilizes an awareness of structure and personal navigation
Emphasizes process
Calls for patience
Develops empathy
Increases mental flexibility
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These ideas represent the early stages of further research, thinking, teaching, practicing. It might just be that feminist yoga is just yoga taught consciously and responsibly. Or, perhaps feminism has something to offer the development of yoga in the West and we are just starting to tease out the possibilities.
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YogaFit Kids, not just for Children!

2/4/2018

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I don’t have children. I don’t plan to have children. And I don’t spend a lot of time with children. So, I was not looking forward to choosing one of the two required classes to complete my 200 hour yoga certification: Prenatal or kids. I chose based upon availability. Because most of my fitness teaching happens at the YMCA, and because pregnancy pretty much grosses me out, I was glad that it worked out to complete my YogaFit for Kids training in Palm Springs this January.

In the past, I have been asked to teach yoga for kids and I have filled in for instructors for kids’ dance classes. Working at the YMCA, it was only inevitable that I would teach yoga to kids in some way, shape, or form. I did a yoga session for the Martial Arts Kids Camp that did not go very well. A few kids were into it; the rest pretty much ignored me. This was not totally unlike teaching adults, but adults tend to want to do exactly what the instructor is doing.

I was also asked several times to teach yoga to kids, but declined (or deferred) because of my busy schedule. I also declined because I had no idea how to make yoga friendly to kids. I had a few ideas about how to use animal poses to engage kids, but from there my imagination failed me.

The biggest challenge for me in the Kids training is that because I don’t spend a lot of time with kids, I have forgotten the markers of childhood—the aspects of learning and the permission to play. After taking Yoga Fit for Kids, I finally have a clue. I’m not saying that I plan to run out and teach yoga for kids. But I better see the value in teaching yoga to kids. Besides the benefits of relaying tools for managing stress and regulating emotions, I understand the role that stories play and the ways that games can be used to engage kids in yoga.

I also saw many parallels in my mind/body fitness dance as well as the other training I took in Palm Springs—Yoga For Warriors: PTSD. In mind/body fitness dance, we encourage participants to play and (re)discover their bodies while connecting to their minds. In Warriors and kids yoga we let participants find their way into a pose. We downplay the alignment cues and let them find ease and comfort in each pose.

I try to incorporate elements of play and ease into all my yoga classes. I try to give my participants structure and freedom.  I try to teach them new things—new ideas, new poses, new sequences. At my YogaFit Kids training, I was reminded how important these elements are in yoga, and life, more generally. Play and ease are aspects of yoga that we should all embrace—even if we aren’t tapping into our inner child.

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Remembering Betty

2/4/2018

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Because I don't have a picture of Betty that does justice to her memory, I offer this picture of a chocolate cake full of fruit. Good fruit and good chocolate were two of Betty's favorite things. Mine too.
For many years, Betty attended almost all of my cardio fitness classes at the Bangor YMCA. When I met her, she was in her early 70s and she would hold her own with the younger women in the room. She would wear her uniform: old-school leotard and tights in a variety of bright colors, often with a sparkly belt or headband or a ring with a flashing light. She liked to dress up.

The YMCA was Betty’s social time and she had many friends in class. We often told Betty how inspirational she was to us. We would sing for her birthdays, and class was never really the same without Betty there. And Betty made her presence known—through her loud voice as well as her generosity. If Betty didn’t like something, she told you. But, if Betty liked something, she would also tell you.

And Betty liked—loved—sweets. After (almost) every class, Betty would have a piece of chocolate for me and for the other instructors and some of the participants, depending upon how much chocolate she came with. Most often she gave us the Dove chocolates with inspirational sayings. Sometimes the treat was mini-sized candy bars like Baby Ruth or Snickers. Sometimes she had caramel and chocolate. Sometimes she would bring an orange or a pear or a piece of homemade banana bread. She would apologize if she came to class empty-handed, a very rare occurrence.

For years, Betty would tell me that she was not feeling well and that she was going to try to make it through class. But, if she left early, she didn’t want me to worry. Until recently, Betty never left class early. She stuck it out for the entire class and often did some extra planks. When she left class, she would tell me that she hoped to see me next time. Most often, she did.

If Betty didn’t like something, she would not do it. And she would be sure to tell you that she didn’t like it. For instance, Betty liked the dance classes best. She hated kickboxing. Sometimes I would throw in some punches during my mixed-cardio classes. She would do the punches and then tell me how much she hated that part of class. If she was really unhappy, she would let me know by not giving me a piece of chocolate after class.

In fact, Betty complained about a lot of things. Almost every day she would have a new complaint to share with me. Often it was complaints about her chronic illness; for decades she battled COPD and also suffered from vertigo and heart problems as well as the occasional ankle injury (which rarely kept her away for long). But she would also complain about the YMCA policies, like being required to have her debit card on file for the automatic payment plan. Regardless of the complaint, I would listen and nod my head until she was finished. Sometimes (rarely) I could help resolve the issue. When she complained that she ate too much ice cream or cake in the middle of the night, I would praise her for such actions and encourage her to eat whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted it.

She also liked to complain about the other fitness instructors. She told me on many occasions that the other instructors are great girls, but that she and I were just on the same rhythm. The way I taught seemed to work for her. Even when I was delivering the same choreography, Betty liked the way I delivered it. But, I also catered to Betty’s requests. For instance, the rope lights bothered her and she preferred the room bright. We compromised and I would turn off the rope lights, but I would not turn on all the overhead lights. When I would have to miss a class, I would be sure to let Betty know, if only to spare the sub from her wrath.

But Betty also showed me her appreciation outside of my fitness classes. For years she would send me cards for St. Patrick’s Day and Halloween. When the holiday fell during her time in Arizona for part of the winter, she would often write me long notes about her Jazzercize classes and the dry weather. At Halloween time she would often send me a card and a couple of crisp dollar bills so that I could get myself a treat. She always remembered my birthday and once she even brought me one of her favorite frozen cakes—a coconut cake that was so delicious that I ate almost the entire thing and had to throw the rest in the trash to stop myself (which was only marginally helpful).
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This year, Betty passed away on my birthday, January 27. I was expecting the bad news. When I left town in December, I had not seen her at class for the last couple of months. This was not too unusual; despite her regular attendance, she would often miss a stretch of time for health or travel reasons. But, this absence felt different. For the last year or so, I had seen her health deteriorate. She lost weight (which she did not need to do). She had trouble making it through a whole class and would actually leave early more often than not. I got in touch with her husband to check up on her and the situation did not sound hopeful.

For years she told us that coming to classes was what was keeping her alive. And it was true. It was not only the physical exercise that helped her clear her lungs, it was also the community. When Betty wasn’t there, we missed her.

And so, even though I am away from home and I haven’t taught a cardio class in more than 40 days, I will miss Betty. I will remind myself of her spirit and her love of sweets. I will eat all the cake and ice cream I want. I will speak my mind and I will try to remember to be kind and grateful. I will remember how important it is to keep going, to push through the limitations that our bodies set. I will remember how important it is to tell people what we appreciate about them. I will keep on dancing, for myself as well as Betty.
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Girls on Fire is My New Groove: Mind/Body Fitness Dance Remix and Reboot

1/30/2018

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My YMCA family knows how obsessed I am with Group Groove, and anyone who has read Women and Fitness in American Culture knows this too. I write about this "manufactured fitness" program and how much I love it despite my general distrust of fitness programming created by corporations (MOSSA, formerly BTS). I am somehow surviving without this program during my sabbatical, but barely. I miss the mental and physical challenge of this highly choreographed cardiovascular workout. BUt Group Groove, or Groove Together, as we call it at the YMCA, is not the only kind of Groove.

I had written a blog about The Groove Method and PL3Y a couple of years ago, but I never got around to posting it (until now). But, the other day, The Groove Method popped up in my Facebook feed. Nothing had changed about this program, it was simply an advertisement for the same DVD series and workout routines. But, The Groove Method now sells itself as the World Groove Movement. ... I'm only a little bit jealous!

Given this obsession with "Groove," I was surprised that I never stumbled upon The Groove Method. It shares many characteristics in common with my own "brand" of fitness dance (Organic Dance or Mind/Body Fitness Dance) as well as with other fitness dance programs I write about like 5 Rhythms, Jamie Marich's Dancing Mindfulness, and Nia. In fact, when I first stumbled upon "Groove" via a MSN link about new fitness trends, and saw the call to "try an organic workout," my first reaction was "she stole my idea." But the idea(s) behind Body Groove, Organic Dance, Nia, and other such fitness dance programs--while "owned" by some--can't be contained by brands. These ideas--community, authenticity, awareness, pleasure, self-care, mind/body movement--are the basis of feminist fitness.

Convincing people of the idea of a dance workout that is not Zumba is not an easy feat. I have taught a variety of dance programs to a varying degree of success. When I decided to try it out on campus, I wrote a blog explaining Mind/Body Fitness Dance and inviting my community to participate. It was successful only to the extent that a few of us got to experience this stress-relieving, empowering form of fitness dace.

For a variety of reasons, my fitness work has focused more on yoga for the past couple of years, but this focus on yoga has only shown me the similarities between yoga and the form of mind/body dance that I have created, honed, and taught over the years. This dance has always drawn from yoga and the many other fitness forms I have participated in over the decades.

My Mind/Body Fitness Dance classes have also drawn from my academic work in women's studies and American studies. Thus, during my sabbatical I have been developing a new theme for this program--Girls on Fire. The connections are somewhat obvious since my past incarnations have often had a girl power theme. But in this program I am more purposefully combining power and empowerment, self-care and dystopian survival. I am linking my forthcoming Girls on Fire book with Women and Fitness in American Culture.

So, perhaps this new Groove is temporary, an experiment of sabbatical freedoms. Or, perhaps it joins the beginning of a fitness dance revolution. A movement.


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Who Owns Fitness?: PL3Y and The (Other) Groove

1/30/2018

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A few years ago, I came across The Groove Method and wrote most of the blog that follows. I never posted it, mostly because I never got around to it. But when an advertisement for The Groove Method showed up in my Facebook feed the other day, it got me thinking about the ways in which we try to own fitness. For instance, despite the fact that there is, more or less, a finite number of poses and variations in yoga, all sorts of yoga brands have tried to put a stamp on their particular approach. Many have failed.

Despite the flashy branding, trademarks, and other attempts to own fitness, there is really only so much "new" that we can get in the fitness world. When there is that little window of novelty, it becomes blown into a mass-marketing enterprise. For instance, Zumba brought something new to the fitness scene (ad the dance fitness scene in particular), but the novelty of the Latin moves and music was not all it brought. It also brought proof that a fitness trend can be big business--an empire. Because of this status, Zumba has to find new ways to grow. Thus, their new program STRONG by Zumba draws upon the popularity of Zumba's world-wide brand as well as the recent turn in the fitness world to HITT and strength-based programs. The similarities between STRONG and other programs, like MOSSA's Group Fight/Defend Together, reflect fitness trends rather than revolutionary new approaches.

So, all of this brings me back to my previous explorations of PL3Y and The Groove Method. The falling out between these two fitness forms is instructive not only regarding the business side of the fitness world, but also in understanding the role of dance and play--two marginalized approaches to fitness--within the fitness world.

With some digging, I found that The Groove Method has gone by several names, and has been embroiled in battles over who owns the content and concept of "Groove." In terms of the arguments I make about fitness--in my book, in my academic "American Fitness" class, and in my fitness teaching--"The Groove" is worth knowing more about. And so is the controversy over Groove's ownership, a conflict that is representative with the problems of branding and ownership in the fitness industry.

A January 2013 post explains a bit about the controversy surrounding "theGROOVE"--as described by Misty Tripoli, "having my life’s work claimed by someone else that I trusted." In a post on a page titled "My History of the Groove by Misty Tripoli," a joint statement from Misty and Melanie Guertin informs readers of the resolved differences and the names and sites that each woman can claim as her own. Melanie Guertin's "PL3Y Inc." and "DANCEPL3Y" share many of the same philosophies--like the need for an evolution of fitness, safe and effective workouts, and for happiness and health--but is quite different from what has become "THEGROOVE."

PL3Y's focus encourages playfulness, fun, positive thinking, happiness and health, and notes the variety of genres and the "hottest" music. Dance is only one of its approaches to fitness. The site explains DANCEPL3Y as: "based on an innovative teaching style that uses a 360-degree approach, combined with playful group formations. This methodology allows students to learn movements in a less intimidating context than traditional dance classes while encouraging each person to get interACTIVE and explore their own way of styling the movement*." The asterisk notes that it was "inspired by the GROOVE Method" and the similarities are clear in terms of the movements, the class space and structure, and the basic concept of playing with dance.

In many ways, PL3Y, in all its incarnations--Dance, Power, and Playground--are really just tweaks on traditional fitness programs. It gives dance more freedom, movement, and creativity. It gives conditioning a playful element and it redefines fitness by creating community settings. The philosophies are rather simple and straightforward with "3 Rules of Pl3Y" (be positive, be fun, be yourself) and values of playfulness, passion, leadership, community, abundance as well as a vision "To inspire positivity and playfulness through physical activity." PL3Y calls its certified instructors "engineers of awesome" and provides a variety of resources to these "engineers" for a membership price. The site and programs have a corporate feel to them as well as a familiarity.

PL3Y is certainly a program to be celebrated in terms of bringing fitness to individuals and communities in ways that undermine the narrow strictures of the fitness industry. "THEGROOVE," on the other hand, is about dance as fitness, and it dares to go deeper and further from traditional fitness forms. Compared to PL3Y, THEGROOVE has a depth, a desire to transform consciousness, a whole sense of the self--a movement that inspires beyond the physical and beyond joy. The "Technology of AUTHENTICITY" that guides and shapes THEGROOVE makes space for more than just physical movement.

As Tripoli writes in a What's New post (link): "THEGROOVE™ is for people that LOVE to dance creatively and authentically, people that want to challenge, explore and play with their bodies to not only cultivate physical health but to condition and enhance the health of their mind (thoughts and ideas), the heart (passions and desires) and the soul (expression and purpose).  The truth is that authenticity and creative self expression are just as important as having a healthy body or a tight ass!" (The "tight ass" part here speaks to Misty's personal history with bulimia and body dysmorphia while being "healthy" working in the fitness industry, which she shares as the impetus for her development of Groove.)

Misty directly challenges the ideology of the fitness industry that contributed to her poor health veiled behind aesthetic priorities. She is not content to create a fitness dance program; she wants to create a global movement. The mission: "To inspire and assist in the elevation of global consciousness, creativity, and vibrant health by giving people permission and the space to be authentic and dance THEIR DANCE!" The values: simplicity, community, authenticity. With three training levels--providers, facilitators, and designers--as well as a master team and ambassadors, THEGROOVE provides training and programming around the world.

The concept of play encourages us to explore movement; the concept of authenticity encourages us to explore ourselves through that movement. THEGROOVE seeks a more holistic approach to fitness through dance and its programs have a more "new age" feel to them compared to PL3Y. For instance, THEGROOVE's  "Just Love" retreat and ideas about therapeutic dance for the mind, body, and soul. The posts provided under "what's new with THEGROOVE" show the evolution of Groove through Misty's own evolution.

THEGROOVE is a program that was created organically from Misty's experience and it continues to grow that way as well. It is like Nia and Organic Dance and 5Rhythms and other similar forms of mind/body fitness dance because ultimately all of these forms are creating fitness dance that pushes against mainstream ideas of fitness and dance. They provide structured freedom, community, pleasure, play, and conditioning. They seek to feed the body, mind, and soul.

PL3Y is more vanilla, more digestible by the mainstream. It does not look that different, even though it does greatly differ from traditional, mainstream approaches to fitness. THEGROOVE, like Nia, is chocolate. As I quote Nia founders Debbie and Carlos Rosas, in Women and Fitness in American Culture, "Debbie and Carlos are right. Nia is like chocolate. 'You can't describe it--you have to taste it' (3). And while there are some people who don't like chocolate, those who like it, love it and can't live without it." But, lucky for us, we can have chocolate and vanilla and all of the (as Ani DiFranco reminds us) "32 Flavors and then some." And with all these forms we make our own flavor, borrow flavors, mix them, and change the taste and very nature of fitness.

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YogaFit Full Circle: An Evolving Teacher Training (part one)

6/21/2017

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When I took a break one afternoon, the reason for all the goose poop I had seen became apparently clear!
I officially began my yoga journey in 2005. I had taken a few yoga classes before I took my Level 1 training with YogaFit, mostly a summer session that my friend taught to the only two people who showed up (me and my husband). I regularly taught a variety of cardio classes and had taken a Pilates training program, but I still thought that yoga was just a bunch of stretching (and some woo-woo stuff I had little interest in). I took the training mostly because the Washington State University Student Recreation Center paid for me to go. My fitness perspective was changed forever. . . . But my yoga practice is still slowly evolving, mostly through my teaching.

This slow evolution is part of the point of YogaFit; they want you to take what you learn and practice and apply it, coming back for more when you’re ready. Many of the women I have met at YogaFit trainings find YogaFit and compete their 200-hour training certification in a few years. I have been working on my hours for about 12 years. My road has not been so direct. I have wavered from the YogaFit path because of the demands of my career in academia or my doubts in my ability and desire to fully commit to yoga. I have had to process and practice what I have learned at trainings—to teach it and integrate new ideas into my classes (amid my multiple other professional and personal obligations).

YogaFit has grown exponentially since I started my training. The depth and nature of the programming has also changed. When I began, there was much more of a fitness focus and in addition to the five levels, there were programs like YogaButt that were targeted to health club audiences. While it maintains the accessibility of “yoga for every body,” and makes yoga accessible to populations like my local YMCA, YogaFit provides a solid basis in yoga philosophy and tradition. It also encourages adaptation and innovation—permission to play and encouragement to take yoga beyond preconceived notions.

Today, YogaFit offers a 200-hour training and an additional 300-hour training (which qualifies for Yoga Alliance's 500-hour certification) as well as a 100-hour certification for YogaFit Warriors and a Health track (formerly YogaFit therapy). These programs are oriented toward not only teaching content, but also teaching how to teach and to integrate ideas from training into personal practice. The trainers I had—just two of the whole team—were amazing. Kelly Gardner brought wisdom and perspective from her work in the field of mental health (and was funny and full of practical accessible examples) and Sandi Cartwright was an excellent teacher, grounded and wise with a wealth of knowledge and a foundation of experience in the world of fitness.

Further, YogaFit offers a supportive community—the #YogaFitFamily that can be found at the Mind/Body Fitness Conferences across the U.S. and increasingly in social media spaces. Its emphasis on teaching and its commitment to community, as well as the ways it empowers women, has brought me back to YogaFit.

I never thought that I would do my 200-hours. There was a 5-year break between taking levels 1 through 3 and taking Level 4. I took Level 4, in part, because I was working on my book, Women and Fitness in American Culture, and felt I needed more training to make some of the arguments I was making. After taking the Level 4 training, I thought I had had enough. I learned a lot over the four days of training, but I never even thought I would take Level 5 training (the final “level” in the 200-hour certification). Level 4 included a lot of elements of traditional yoga, and I didn’t really see the relevance to my daily teaching.
In the five years since taking Level 4, I have explored some other yoga venues like the Yoga Journal Live conference in New York, and I have learned a lot of things that I have integrated into my teaching, largely because of the foundations that YogaFit gave me. In fact, what I learned from Bo Forbes in her workshops inspired me to pursue yoga further. So, I found myself back at YogaFit.

I also found myself back at YogaFit because I recently decided that I wanted to complete my 200-hour training, mostly because I wanted to further pursue my academic work in fitness, and in interdisciplinary approaches to yoga specifically. To be taken seriously, I thought, I needed at least my 200-hour certification (500 hours still seems out of reach!). So, while I found myself at the YogaFit Mind/Body Conference in Minneapolis for practical reasons, the full circle of yoga gave me so much more. Most of all, it gave me positive reinforcement of what I know, what I teach, and how important this work is to me and to my communities.

While I still struggle with some of the “woo-woo” of yoga, I can’t ignore the many connections and synchronicities that yoga generally, and YogaFit specifically, have made for me. My four days of training—one-day of Pranayama: The Science and Practice of Breath and Cultivating Prana, one day of Meditation and Mindfulness, and two days of Level 5: Integration—illustrated that I have absorbed so much more of yoga (and YogaFit) than I realized and reinforced the power of yoga in my teaching and my need to continue to develop my personal practice.

Through the conversations and connections with women who teach yoga, to the ideas and practices we explored, I returned home renewed, rejuvenated, empowered, and grounded. . . . And with new ideas, new tools, new visions, new inspirations, and new possibilities.
 
More on the development of my teaching and personal practice in part two….
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Freedom and Structure through Mind/Body Fitness Dance

2/23/2016

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I have tried many names and many incarnations of my particular "brand" of fitness dance: Pleasure, Power, and Movement; Feminist Fitness; Just Dance; Organic Dance (the biggest failure); and, most recently, Mind/Body Fitness Dance.

During the fall semester I previewed Mind/Body Fitness Dance at UMA-Bangor. I had positive feedback to this fitness class, and I decided to offer it this spring as a two-part series. While I have struggled to keep consistent attendance at this kind of fitness/dance class at the YMCA, I think that teaching this class on campus allows me to more fully share all of the nuanced aspects of this fitness form.

Starting this Thursday I will be offering Mind/Body Fitness dance on campus, Thursdays from 5:15 to 6:15. I have created a pamphlet that explains a little more about this form of fitness and dance, but it is really something that has to be experienced and embodied.
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People are often afraid to dance, afraid to move outside of culture’s strictly draw boundaries of body and space. This is especially true of women and girls. We are taught to take up as little space as possible and we fear judgment and doing things wrong. I know this because I used to feel this way too.

I found confidence in fitness classes that allowed me to follow directions--and to give those directions when I became an instructor. In both cases, movements were rigid, linear, contained. In group exercise classes we generally know what to expect and the rise of manufactured fitness classes (like Zumba, Les Mills, and MOSSA) make for consistent, predictable workouts. While not everyone enjoys classes, many find safety in proscribed movements.

Invitations to try Mind/Body Fitness Dance are met with: I can’t dance. I only dance when no one’s home. I have no rhythm. I can’t follow directions. I need to be told what to do. I am so out of shape. These are excuses I hear often.

I also hear the unspoken reasons. I am insecure about my body (too fat, too thin, too something wrong). I am uncomfortable trying new things. I’m scared. I have anxiety. (I have made all these excuses too.) But all of these discomforts are exactly what Mind/Body Fitness Dances offers to alleviate.

Movement helps us let go. Music gives us a landscape. Structure and freedom help us feel safe while we also have literal and figurative space to explore.

Mind/Body Fitness Dance has changed my approach to fitness and has helped me to find more confidence, wellness, balance, and joy in my life. Sharing this movement--my art--with those who are brave enough to try something different is scary and rewarding. I share Mind/Body Fitness Dance as a tool of self-care; it is my gift to my community.

Eastport 124, on a Thursday afternoon, is private and the environment is conducive to freedom of movement. Music fills, but does not overwhelm the space and the play of light and dark enhance the dance fitness experience.

I want to invite students, faculty, staff, and community members to try this form of mind/body fitness dance. When we step into the dance, we leave these roles and become movement. Lose yourself. Find Yourself. Move and Be Moved.

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Discovering Authenticity at Yoga Journal Live!?

5/4/2015

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For almost 10 years I have been teaching yoga. And for almost 10 years I have not considered myself a "real" yoga teacher, let alone a "yogi" (or yogini if I'm going to gender myself). The last thing I expected to discover at the Yoga Journal Live! conference, in New York City of all places, was authenticity, purpose, or a feeling that I was exactly where I needed to be. I didn't expect to find myself or to find out how powerful I am in my teaching.

And yet, this is exactly what I got... and more.

What I expected at the YJL! conference was: a bunch of thin (mostly white) women in expensive, trendy, stylish yoga clothes; commercialism and consumerism; and star instructors whose personalities, images, and fame made for impersonal, packed classes and "show off" yoga. All of these things were at the conference, and all of these things--among other factors--have contributed to my lack of feeling "real" in my yoga. I have often felt like I am just going through the motions--literally and figuratively--even when I have felt that there is something more to those motions.

My training and experience have also contributed to my lack of feeling like a real yoga teacher. Coming from a fitness instructor background, being trained in a fitness style of yoga (YogaFit), having "only" part of the 200 hours required for official certification, and teaching primarily at universities and community centers are all factors that have contributed to this feeling. Additionally, much of my teaching has been self-taught through embodied experience in my own classes as well as the few other classes and trainings I am able to attend.

Over the past 10 years I have taught yoga and written about yoga--in and out of academia--in my classes at the local YMCA and at my university, and in my book, Women and Fitness in American Culture. Yoga has done much to keep me sane and balanced and energized. Yoga has been truly transformational, personally and professionally.

What I found at JYL! continued the journey of discovery and transformation and centered some of the things that had been floating around me. While I am still processing, still going over my notes, still thinking and practicing, I have already begun to bring this new yoga self to my participants at the Bangor YMCA--my yoga and fitness family.

Here are some of those floating things that my experience at YJL! brought home:

Yoga is a life-long process: I say this all the time in class, but what I discovered about yoga, and about myself, really confirmed this. We can't learn or know or feel or experience everything in a yoga class, let alone a lifetime. We have to be patient with our minds and our bodies.

Yoga really is for every body: I have been to several classes and workshops with this "every body" title and I am often disappointed when the physical practice of such classes do not fit with my vision of what "every body" can do. Seane Corn highlighted this idea in a different way. Sure, the physical practice of yoga can be modified for every body. But when we think about yoga as breath and movement, as an opportunity to experience sensation, as a technique to increase mind/body connections, as a way to work through resistance in our bodies and find new relationships with our emotions, and a way to connect to others beyond our mats.... Clearly there is more to yoga that every body and everybody can benefit from. Yoga gives us a different angle.

Yoga isn't about advanced postures or perfect alignment. Yoga may not even be about postures at all, but for most Americans practicing yoga, postures are the means if not the end. My students have often asked for adjustments and to be told whether they are doing it "right." While I provide many alignment cues and occasional physical adjustments, I remind them that the postures are not so much about how we look, but how we feel. What's right for one body might not be right for another, and I practice what I learned in my YogaFit training--I provide cues for how a pose "should" look and feel. When Bo Forbes explained that alignment cues will last for a class while teaching people to inhabit their body will last a lifetime, this idea really hit home.

Yoga can happen anywhere. While I have taken yoga to many different physical locations--purposefully or stealthily--this conference was a good reminder of the physical and mental places yoga can take us. Doing Hiking Yoga in Central Park (with Eric Kipp) on a beautiful Sunday morning, with my mother and sister and new acquaintances (and runners and dogs and more), reminded me how calming and rejuvenating yoga can be outdoors. But the mindfulness techniques I learned with Bo Forbes reminded me that yoga doesn't have to happen anywhere specific. In fact, the yoga that happens when I am in child's pose, with my forehead on a block--the yoga that clears my mind and centers me--happens mostly in my head.

Yoga can change your body and your mind... and your life. While most people I encounter come to yoga looking to transform their bodies, what they often find is that yoga does much more than work the body. But this aspect of mind/body yoga and yoga as a practice beyond the physical is a hard sell, especially at the YMCA where I teach yoga as well as more traditional cardio classes. I have been hesitant to emphasize the mind/body aspects, or maybe I just didn't have the language or the knowledge that I needed. I tell people that yoga is healing and even miraculous, and I have had many such stories shared with me by my participants. Now I have more tools to emphasize the mind/body connection, to expand my participants' experiences.

Mindfulness is worth learning more about--and practicing! What all of the above points have in common is the idea of mindfulness. While I had begun to learn more about mindfulness, I had not really given this idea or practice much thought beyond what I thought was the obvious mind/body yoga connection. Mindfulness is simple and practical, but not at all obvious until a good teacher brings mindfulness to the forefront. Just before the YJL! conference I had stumbled upon Dr. Jamie Marich's program Dancing Mindfulness, which reminded me how much I miss my own form of mind/body dance (Organic Dance). So, yoga and dance are ripe for mindfulness!

While there are many other things I learned at YJL!, the most important thing I learned is that I am absolutely a "real" yoga teacher. Yoga isn't any one thing and no one owns it. I will continue to work with, process, practice, and share these many kernels of wisdom as long as I am able to breathe. This is something else I tell my participants: if you can breathe you can do yoga... and you should. We all should.
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Feminist Fitness in WGS 101

2/23/2015

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In my WGS 101 class, Introduction to Women's Studies, after establishing some basic concepts like the social construction of gender and the meaning(s) of feminism, we consider a variety of topics like health, work, beauty, racism, and family.

This semester I included a video about fitness binaries along with our other readings including a reading about women's health, a chapter from bell hooks' Feminism Is for Everybody, "My Fight for Birth Control" by Margaret Sanger, "If Men Could Menstruate" by Gloria Steinem, and the preface to Inga Muscio's book, Cunt: A Declaration of Independence. These diverse readings provide some historical background and some contemporary issues related to women's bodies and women's health.

This was the first time I have formally introduced the idea of feminist fitness via my research and the ideas developed in my book, Women and Fitness in American Culture. I have given several talks using a version of the power point I made into a video, and have found that while feminism continues to be an "F word" in our culture, people generally respond positively to ideas about feminist fitness.

There is still some confusion over the term, particularly when people assume that feminist is equal to feminine, a common misconception about the term feminist as well. Feminist fitness is not about different approaches to fitness based upon one's biological sex, or even one's socially constructed gender. Feminist fitness is an ideology about fitness--a critical lens for considering mainstream ideas about fitness and a tool for creating fitness beyond the superficial ideals of size and the trends of "elite" fitness.

I asked my students what they think feminist fitness is, and here's what they shared:

"I would say feminist fitness is not working out because someone wants to achieve the body view media portrays women to be, but because they want to be in a healthy state. Feminist fitness helps support one another in achieving a goal and it realizes that everyone’s body is different and we all aren’t going to have the same body type. It is helping others find out what will work best for them and knowing that something that works for you won't work for everyone."

"That is what feminist fitness should be.  Taking care of you so that you can live life to its fullest as it comes along, feeling happy with who you are now."

"I believe 'feminist fitness' is about living a positive life. Striving every day to have a healthy body, mind and spirit by being physically active, consciously in the moment, taking care of yourself by getting enough rest and consuming food that is good for your body."

"I had never heard the term 'feminist fitness' before this class. The most important message and what I found to be at the very core of feminist fitness is the connectedness of the mind, spirit, and body. In general the components are viewed separately and the whole is not taken in consideration for its connectedness. This principal makes me reflect on the idea of synergy and how the whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts. My idea of feminist fitness is a personal and unique level of ability that is idiosyncratic and results in a life full of pushing ones limits and remaining in a state of constant challenge and activity."

"I think 'feminist fitness' is teaching all women young and old that being healthy physically and mentally should be the sole purpose when seeking to become fit. It's saying getting fit shouldn't be about visually pleasing anyone and not to take what the mass media says is fit or acceptable into consideration. It's saying we shouldn't need to look a certain way either when we go to the gym and that we should only dress to be comfortable not to look like we came out of a Dick's Sporting goods magazine. After watching the YouTube video I think the slide stating 'Ultimately, fitness beyond body, beyond binary calls for a feminist approach' hits the nail on the head as to what women's fitness should be about."

"Feminist fitness means many things to me, a healthy life style and body building are my immediate thoughts. When a women works out to maintain a healthy lifestyle that ideal for me. It should not be about the inches in your waist or the size of your butt. We all have different body builds, and should all do some sort of fitness to maintain a healthy balanced life. But, I also think of body building because I find it so fascinating to see the female form pushed to its boundaries. It’s the extreme of what I see in glamour, and it is great in my opinion for a woman to express herself in a way that she sees fit."

"I think it is a women’s intellect and her ability to enjoy quality of life.  Thin does not mean fit as noted in the video and as noted in real life.  Feminist fitness offers a constant contradiction in our society.  I have chosen the idea of mindfulness by adding a daily log of sleep patterns, food and water consumption, exercise and other self-care practices.  I have developed a plan of care for myself, by setting goals and discussing my journey with online classmates in my nursing course."

"I think 'feminist fitness'  is the confidence of a woman.  A woman can be physically fit and still be unhappy, she could have straight A’s and still be unhappy.  Any woman that is confident with herself and what she does with herself to me is feminist fitness.  I watched the video, and it analyzed women in the fitness world, which basically just talks about the sex appeal of a woman.  Women are much more than that.  We are mothers, daughters, sisters, co workers and overall human beings.  We shouldn’t be judged upon appearance, but unfortunately, we are."

"I think feminist fitness is a reality check. The truth verses the myths employed by media. I never realized that fitness was a tool once again being used to deconstruct a women's body image. Why do we continuously have a target on our back??! I swear it seems no matter what the topic is concerning a women, it is taken and deliberately used against us for destruction.......it's making me very f#$%^g  tired! Enough already! We need to wake the fuck up, sleeping women and men (myself included)!!... Ok, now that I have taken a deep breath of release, onward I will go :/"

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Binge and Purge U.S.A.

2/12/2015

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I have always had an unhealthy relationship with food. I learned it from my family, a habit passed down from generation to generation. Besides the fact that we were, generally, a fat family, we were focused on food, rewarded by food. We lived with plenty and what reason did we have to deny ourselves what we wanted? Such a situation is a disease of affluence and a disease that plagues Americans. About 1 in 7 households in the U.S. don't get enough to eat (and eat food of poorer nutritional value), about 14.5%. On the other hand, obesity rates are around 30%. Our social and cultural problems with food mirror our national schizophrenia.

But I never considered this unhealthy relationship as an eating disorder. Eating disorders were anorexia and bulimia. I had seen the after school specials. Later, in women's studies classes, I saw the documentaries--girls and women starving themselves and/or expunging food from their bodies. It was a matter of control, the analysts argued. Under the thumb of overbearing parents, under the shadow of the thin sister, one's own body is the only thing she can control. But anorexia and bulimia are different and there are all sorts of combinations and shades and methods and reasons for such behavior. And sometimes such behavior is not about being acetic; it's an obsessive compulsion. It's not simply about those numbers on the scale. The problems go deeper.

Food is something I can control. In theory. I can decide when to eat, where to eat, and what to eat. But, I can't control myself when it comes to food. I love it too much. And, at times, it substitutes for all sorts of different things including those things I can't control and those things that none of us can control. But mostly, overeating is an unconscious act. And this is yet another problem that plagues the U.S.; we are unconscious in so many things we do. Eating is only one such manifestation. Eating junk is only one thing that is pounded into our heads by media and culture. It's easy to choose not to think too much. The bag is full. pop another one in your mouth.

It's become common knowledge in the last few years that a variety of eating disorders plague the U.S. Statistics about the number of children who think they are fat or who are on diets reflects our culture back to us. For instance, Miss Representation offers the fact: "80% of 10-year-old American girls say they have been on a diet. The number one magic wish for young girls age 11-17 is to be thinner." With the highest rates of obesity and morbid obesity in the world, it is obvious that overeating is becoming more visible as a problem. But this isn't simply about overeating. It's also about health care, poverty, inequality, globalization, education, media, and food security and insecurity. These are complex problems undercut by a billion dollar diet industry, a billion dollar fitness industry, and a load of misinformation and misunderstanding. Where do we begin to sort it all out? And once we do, are our choices that much different?

Recently, I decided that it was time to get perspective on my eating disorder--my compulsive overeating, my binging without purging. When I mentioned the problem to my mother, and said that I was considering seeing a counselor, she confessed that she had talked to a counselor about her issues with bulimia. I was stunned, saddened. I couldn't ask for further details; I didn't know what to say. But it made sense. She was dealing with issues passed down from her parents that were modeled for me so that I was dealing with issues from my parents. And both of us were trapped in a culture that values thinness while also being trapped in a body that prefers soft curves. The issues compounded. And they were weighing me down.

The problems we pass down from generation to generation are weighing on us as a nation. We choose not to question too much what we put in our bodies, just as we choose not to question too much of what we put in our minds. In both cases, our choices are limited, passed down to us by those who have chosen not to witness the corporate take-over of farms, the consolidation of media outlets, the genetic engineering of grains and corn, the surgical and photographic manipulation of bodies and images, the over-fishing of our seas, the mass inundation of technological gadgets, the medicating of our cattle, the medicating of ourselves. These are problems that have compounded and these problems continue to grow. The scales are tipping.

There is no easy fix. I will always struggle with eating only as much as my body needs. Such a relationship with food requires mindfulness, conscious eating, letting go of control, and working out other kinds of problems. It requires breaking old patterns of thinking and unconscious action. This is not the path to healing that our culture models for us. Quick fixes and miracle cures are what we seem to be about. Or we ignore the problem, hoping it will go away. We cover it up with baggy clothes, convince ourselves that we are bloated, swear we'll go to the gym after work. We figure we'll start that diet next week, next month, next year. But we don't often turn to mindfulness, to a conscious relationship with what we take into our bodies or minds out of habit, ignorance, or hopefulness.

When the binging is over, purging is not the only useful method. Before or after the purge, we have to figure out how we got full in the first place.


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The Ups and Downs of Two Pounds...

1/15/2015

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Last fall my American Fitness students participated in a Personal Fitness Reflection assignment. At the beginning of the semester they were asked to identify one thing that they were going to do over the course of the semester for their own personal fitness.

Some had quite ambitious goals like quitting smoking. Others had what could be considered "easy" activities like eating more whole foods, going for a walk twice a week, or getting more sleep. None of these projects was "easy." Regardless, students were not graded on the success or failure of their personal fitness goals or activities.

I don't pose this project in terms of goals because even though some students made the project goal specific and measurable (like improving their mile time), meeting a goal is not the purpose of the project. (Plus, I am just not a goal-setting type of person; I just do it or I don't.) I want students to learn about themselves and to learn about fitness. This project lends itself well to dispelling the "quick fix" idea of fitness. And the students' reflection requires them to consider their Personal Fitness Project and how it relates to class. I love this assignment.

And here is one of my favorite project reflections. This student really speaks to many of my own problems with eating and body image, but what I really love about this reflection is that it was written without the prompt. This student worried about whether she did the assignment right. She had nothing to worry about. Plus, this piece really shows how fit this student is: she is beautiful, smart, thoughtful, caring, passionate, active, and engaged in her community.

I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I did.

My personal fitness project was to loose five pounds by reducing the carbohydrate intake from my diet. It sounded easy enough. Something I could monitor. Something I thought I could do. And so I decided to do this on my very first day of class, September 1, 2014.

Why I chose this weight loss project was on that very September morning, my bathroom scale said 161.8 pounds. This number struck a chord in me. It was 1.8 pounds over my, “you have to stop gaining point.”

I know that weight is just a number. But, it is also a state of mind. We are obsessed with our weight, what we consume and how we exercise. I did not realize this on the first day of class, but I sure do now.

Thin is everywhere! Magazines, TV, store fronts, internet. Everywhere you turn someone is shoving a skinny model at you. Then you start to compare yourself to them and you say OMG I am too big. My jeans don’t fit like that. I need to lose weight!

Every morning, (after I emptied my bladder), I would hop up on the scale and document the entry into my journal. I was obsessed with the number. One day I would be up two pounds the next day down two pounds. Then back up it would go two pounds over the original weight. It was crazy. Getting on the scale was like riding a rollercoaster.

I was exercising as I usually do. Walking the dogs, gardening, taking care of my horses. and taking riding lessons.

I also was monitoring and documenting what carbohydrates did or did not pass over my lips. But this was inconsistent. Some days were real good “no carb days” and others not so good.

My girlfriends would call and we would go out to Margaritas .I would have a couple of drinks and some salty chips and some sort of cheesy Mexican masterpiece and oppps……the scales would rise. For the next few days I would concentrate on the anti-carb diet and the scale would go down.  Every time I turned around there was some other event that involved eating. The fly in up in Greenville, another girls night out (there are a lot of those), The Special Olympics, the Trip to New Mexico, the Federal Women’s luncheon, the Equine affaire (three days of junk food and wine with my horse girlfriends) and  one of the biggest days of all Thanksgiving. Food is ever where and I am weak. I love to eat, I love to spend time with my girlfriends and family and we like to eat, drink and be merry.

What I discovered through my personal project is the sisterhood I share with my girlfriends is worth every pound.  That the obsession of food intake and weight is exhausting and getting on the scale every day is not for me.  I also noticed on some of my heaviest days I felt the fittest.  One such day I had a two hour riding lesson (posting, which is like continuous squats) and the next morning my weight was up but I felt great. I am sure that was the mind body connection of being as one with my horse.  Horseback riding is very good for the soul. Unfortunately, as winter approaches and my riding and gardening stops, and as much as I hate to admit it, I am going to have to increase my exercise to continue with this carbohydrate food frenzy. I am addicted to chips, M&M’s ,wine and margaritas(to name a few)  So, through the winter months I have decided to go to the gym twice a week to increase my exercise and burn the calories I would by riding my horse. Hopefully at the gym, I will achieve that fit feeling I do when taking a riding lesson.  


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Women and Fitness: An Open Letter

11/19/2014

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As a reader of this blog, you're most likely aware that I've written a book about women and fitness. (Click here if you aren't!:) What you may not know is that this book is a unique take on the world of "American fitness" that draws on my life, and at times feels like a really scary personal and professional risk. I am slowly letting go of the anxiety that surrounds publicly sharing my life in and between these two spheres of fitness and academia. This open letter is a part of that process.

And my letting go is slow since I drafted this blog post two months ago....

The reason we write books is to be read. We want to share our message, insights, and research with both an academic audience and a mainstream one. Since I do not have a marketing team behind me, I am relying on my own energy and the generosity of others to help me reach more potential readers and to keep moving this conversation. Many of you have already helped me do this. If you can help me get the word out on Women and Fitness in American Culture, I will return the favor or pay it forward.

Here's what I have been doing and where we might connect:

~I created a website last summer where I share all of my work, connect to resources, and maintain a blog.

~I am writing about my book on my website and through my blog. I have even decided to give the world of Twitter a try. @sarah_hentges

~I created a Facebook page for Women and Fitness in American Culture. Perhaps you will "like" it!

~I have also started an Author page on Amazon and would appreciate reviews that you might do there or on Good Reads or other similar sites.

~I have been working to get people to review my book in academic journals and other forums. If you're interested in this my publisher might send you a book!

~ I will be doing guest blogs like these: Love Average guest blog and Fit is a Feminist Issue guest blog and will be reaching out to a variety of print and online sources to share some of the ideas that this book takes up. If you know of such a forum, please share it with me! Here's a recent piece I wrote about CrossFit for The Conversation.

~When I get my tech needs sorted, I will be making a short promo video to share.

~This fall I am currently teaching my American Fitness (AME/WGS 306) class hybrid and online, and we will be making connections to our local communities through a variety of projects. I will be sharing some of my students' work through my blog. Here's the first post: a lovely piece about walking in three different modes.

~
I'm developing curricular tools for teaching fitness through American studies or women's, gender, and sexuality studies, or interdisciplinary studies more generally. I'm happy to share these!

The world of social media is rather new to me, so I am happy to receive any feedback that might make my work here more effective.

Finally,
~Over the next couple of years I also plan to offer mind and body workshops, both in academia and in fitness and community centers. I have a lot of ideas that range from an hour or two to a weekend or overnight retreat, and some versions that fit better in academia as well as some that work better in community fitness spaces. I outline a few possible fitness workshops on my website (click here for Move and Be Moved: Fitness Workshops for the Mind and Body) and will be adding to these descriptions as I develop more workshops. If you think that your campus or your fitness or community center would be interested in something like this, please contact me and we can work out the details.

~And, of course, the book would make a nice gift for the fitness enthusiast (or novice) in your life. That gift-giving season is upon us! And, yes, I would humbly sign and personalize a copy for such purposes.

Women and Fitness in American Culture is something I was compelled to write despite a lack of time and resources. It comes from my experience in a variety of overlapping fitness communities, of which many of you are already an important part. I want to thank you all for your continuing role in pushing the boundaries of mainstream fitness. This work--mine and ours--is work that I am passionate about and work that I think can be transformative. But I struggle with the idea of "self-promotion" as well as asking for help from others, as much as I am reminded that I am simply doing what I love and sharing my work.

And this is the reason why I do this work in the first place. To Move and Be Moved.

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An "Innovation" Theme Out of Context: Fitness and Interdisciplinarity

9/20/2014

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The first year I got involved with my university's colloquium theme was the year that "revolution" was chosen and I was asked to speak on the theme at our annual convocation event. It was exciting to explore this theme in my classes and to share an American studies take on revolution. The next year I found the food theme to be at least as fruitful in the classroom, and the excuse to focus on food meant that we could nourish our minds as well as our bodies. I was less excited by the bioethics theme that followed, but I found myself learning new things and expanding the tried and true topics that have made my classes engaging and challenging.

When our committee settled on "innovation," I wasn't really seeing how "innovation" was anything more than a tool to promote the idea of a linear path of progress that pushes forward in attempts to fulfill mainstream definitions of success, weaving--and sometimes challenging--myths along the way.

But, the theme of innovation nagged at the back of my brain. It got me thinking, and, ultimately this is the point of having an academic theme. Taking innovation out of these obvious contexts of science, technology, and business only makes room for further innovation. Somewhat obviously, innovation in the arts and humanities is coveted. We celebrate innovative filmmakers, innovative artists, innovative writers, innovative thinkers.

I never think about my work as being innovative; I think about it being flexible, dynamic, engaging, challenging, tireless. But seeking new ways of looking at old ideas is certainly innovative (as James Cook confirms for me in his framing of the theme at Convocation), and this is at the heart of my interdisciplinary teaching and scholarship. Interdisciplinary studies are studies in innovation, finding connections in spaces where strict boundaries are drawn, creating new methods and new forms of knowledge.

The innovation theme invites us to think about what we teach and how we teach it, and part of the point of such a theme is to approach it from a variety of angles. A quick search reveals ways of teaching innovation that coalesce with interdisciplinary approaches, like this Mind/Shift list of ways to teach innovation.

While there is a long list of innovative pedagogies, and maybe even a short list of innovative technologies, at play in my teaching, what is most immediately on my mind are my ongoing explorations of fitness in humanities and interdisciplinary contexts. In our AME/WGS 306: American Fitness class this fall, we will consider fitness in a variety of texts and contexts and through an interdisciplinary lens.

We expect to see fitness as a topic in the sciences. Bodies are measurable. Time, distance, expenditure are measurable. And in the social sciences--attitudes, behaviors, and demographics are measurable and comparable and surveys and interviews provide qualitative analyses. Interdisciplinary fields like women's studies considers strong women and women who break gender norms in sports and physical education as well as the ways in which gender is portrayed in magazines, for instance. These approaches produce important insights and a foundation for innovation.

Innovations in fitness are often met with the rigid resistance of minds and bodies trained in certain kinds of movement--linear, purposeful, exacting. People drawn to the linear, competitive aspects of running might be threatened by the choreography and hip movements of a Zumba class. People drawn to dance might resist the regimented movements of weight training or the aggressive nature of kickboxing.

Innovations in scholarship meet similar kinds of resistance. Interdisciplinary inquiry threatens definable boxes and known quantities. Certainly Luddites push back against innovations in technology, ethicists push back against innovations in science, activists push back against innovation in business. When innovation meets at the intersection of fitness and academia, push back is often stillness, a lack of engagement, a quiet anger, a refusal or inability to embrace change let alone the possibility of transformation.

I detail, analyze, and extrapolate many of these fitness innovations in my book, Women and Fitness in American Culture. I also continue to highlight the work of my colleagues in this field through resources on my culture and movement website and features on my blog. My students' blogs and projects this fall will help to make this class--and interdisciplinary inquiries in the realm of fitness--more dynamic and innovative. Those interested in such innovations can join our Google+ Community.

My initially limited view of innovation in business, science, and technology left me with an underdeveloped idea of what innovation means. Innovation challenges norms, disrupts comforts, and shapes expectations. Innovation is now a conscious hammer in my toolbox and I look forward to sharing this tool with my students this fall.

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Additions and Reconsiderations: Red Nails, Black Skates

7/14/2014

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Whenever I finish a project, when what I've written/birthed/sweated out goes off to the publisher, I start to find more sources that would be "perfect." I lament not finding them before I was finished even though I could not have included another source. In fact, the last of my writing process for my last book--and most things I write--is cutting out the excess, polishing the product.
 
There was a lot to cut from Women and Fitness in American Culture. It went through many incarnations and there was so much "perfect" evidence. But that doesn't mean that there weren't sources that would have been helpful, insightful, even key to the crux of my argument. The fact that there are always more examples to add to the mix speaks to the flexibility of interdisciplinary studies as well as the subject at hand.
 
Red Nails, Black Skates: Gender, Cash, and Pleasure On and Off the Ice is a book I not only highly recommend, but also wish I would have discovered before my book was written--for my own personal and professional reasons.
 
It is really quite ridiculous that I did not discover this book during my extended research process. In fact, as I scratch at the reaches of my brain, I am pretty sure that I clicked right past it. At one point I decided that I needed to narrow my scope of research, to only tangentially consider "sport." I wanted to consider sport mostly as it stood in for "fitness," as it narrows the overall quality of fitness to an athletic/competitive activity that relies upon the mastering of a set of specific skills. I remember scrolling by thinking "skating" is not "fitness." And it's not, but I didn't imagine at the time just how relevant skating is, at least in the context of Rand's work.

Since author, Erica Rand, is practically my neighbor and is a friend of a colleague of mine, and since I am pretty sure said colleague mentioned this book to me at one point, it is simply a travesty that I did not pick it up. Her arguments about pleasure, social justice, and queer bodies and queer approaches and spaces would have been helpful to round out some of my less developed arguments. For instance, while I write about the term "pleasure" scaring away participants, Rand boldly writes a whole chapter on the connection of skating and pleasure titled, "Skating Is Like Sex, Except When It Isn't" and in the first paragraph she proceeds to provide the best definition/description of sex I have ever read:

        For me, skating is a lot like sex. It's at once hot, intense, smooth, and sweet. It involves control, in ways that mix taking         and yielding it. It's rhythmic, you can improve with practice, little things can make all the difference, it can feel like flying,         and when it really works it's intensely in-body and out-of-body at the same time (46).

While I apologize, Rand embraces.

But the biggest reason I lament my oversight is that Erica Rand's book is so much like mine at the same time that it is so different from mine. It would have been helpful to have her book in a kind of role model/mentor kind of way. So many things that I was afraid to do with my book--tell my story (even the personal details), use myself as a research subject, put my body on display beside the product of my brain--Rand does with confidence, poise, and insight. She owns her work in a way that I want to own my work.
 
Even the structure/approach of my work has similarities to Rand's book. When I read her "Introduction: Skate to Write, Write to Skate," I felt like we had parallel projects. The thoughtful subtitles, the process laid bare, the personal narrative, the connection between the spheres of academia and physical embodiment/engagement, and the desire to reach audiences beyond academia, are all qualities that our work shares. She lays it out with confidence.
 
I lay it out with trepidation--a different language, a less-definable subject (skating is more concrete, fitness is diverse and abstract), an exploratory method, a distilling of theory, a weaving of less defined voices and more abstract ideas. I am still in the process of understanding how to do critical interdisciplinary work; and interdisciplinary theory and methodology will be one of my next research projects.

But, ultimately, for both of our works, transformation is the impetus. In conclusion Rand writes about "the principle of ethical fieldwork: Don't take from communities you study without giving back" (261). This is a principle that is embodied in my dual spheres of fitness and academia; for both of us, "fieldwork" is also life. She also reminds me that "there is not one single way to effect change ... in the rink only" or "to participate in anti-oppression struggles across categories of race, gender, sexuality, economics, and nation" (261). Academia and activism, pleasure and politics do not have to be binaries.
 
Our endings are even similar. She notes, "we need to get out there and do the work. And still, then again . . ." (261), while I note "if we are willing to do the work(out)." But neither of us can let that be the last word. I turn to final relaxation/rejuvenation. She turns to correcting a myth (that I perpetuate)--that Emma Goldman never actually said: "If I can't dance, I don't want to be in your revolution." But, Rand argues, she did express this sentiment. And to this sentiment, Rand adds, "And sparkle."
 
Next installment of additions and reconsiderations: Hanne Blank, The Unapologetic Fat Girl's Guide to Exercise: And Other Incendiary Acts.

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Yoga for a Cause: Self-care and Community

12/1/2013

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A couple weeks ago at The National Women's Association annual conference, yoga was on the program. (See my related blog: "Fitness Makes Its Mark at NWSA.") I didn't have to leave the conference to get my fitness fix.

At the American Studies Association national conference, yoga--and fitness more generally--are not really on the agenda. I did attend a few panels and roundtables that took up discussions about health, but these discussions are not the same as those about fitness. Fitness asks us to think about more than health; it means considering the whole person and the bigger picture. I certainly would not propose an Organic Dance workshop at this conference! (For the important exception to this lack of fitness at ASA, please see my related blog about fitness at the ASA.)

Instead of finding fitness on the formal conference agenda, I found it down the street at The Studio DC. The yoga class I took was refreshingly different from the yoga I usually teach, and different from other yoga classes I have taken. Of course, all yoga classes have their common elements, but the instructor, the space, the style, and the location can make a big difference. The participants and the instructors I met were warm and welcoming. The class was almost evenly split between men and women, and the vast majority were young and attractive. The instructor, Christine, was amazing.

This heated vinyasa class was just what I needed. Where I teach, the temperatures vary, but it is usually cold. Sometimes it is very cold. (We have jokingly referred to our yoga as a new "cold yoga" trend.) Sometimes it is very warm, but it is never "heated." The studio was very small, and even though it felt full to me, I imagine that it is often packed much tighter. (When I went back the next morning, it was very hot and very full of people.) While I was familiar with almost all of the poses (except the most advanced forearm balances that I will probably never be able to do), it was a different experience to be guided through this class and the warmth (from temperature and people) allowed me to really sink into the experience.

The class was fast-paced, even as we were doing one breath per movement. The second class I attended, with Jane on Saturday, was even faster paced. I was surprised that I was able to keep up since I teach a slow flow yoga. I was also surprised at my ability to push myself beyond my usual limits in several poses that I rarely do in my group fitness space: forearm balance against the wall, a headstand off the wall, half moon balance with ease.
When it came time for savasana, I felt like I had earned it.

But this was more than a class; I was visiting a community. The instructor greeted and engaged in conversation with each of us, identifying most everyone by name. She even remembered my name. Before class we turned 360º and introduced ourselves, and even before this, the woman next to me engaged me in conversation. (The next day, the woman next to me remembered me from the day before and also engaged me in conversation before class.) As class started we were reminded of the ongoing theme of ahisma (non-violence) and Christine reminded us that this yoga principle is, among other things, about self-care. Since self-care is something I have been trying to work on, it was nice to have this reminder. Some might even say the universe was aligning in my favor!

At the end of class, the instructor made announcements, which included one for the "Stretch for a Cause" class the following day--a class being held to raise money to help teens impacted by domestic violence. This is only one such event that The Studio DC offers. Others include "Have-a-Heart" a class held on Thanksgiving morning as a fundraiser for turkey rescue. And once a month, the studio is open to the community for free classes all day. These are the types of yoga activities that yoga studios should be offering, and being a part of this experience was a refreshing reminder that opening up space--in our hearts, in our minds, and in our communities--is ultimately what yoga is about.


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Some Inspiration from NWSA

11/11/2013

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Academic conferences are often difficult experiences for me. As a shy introvert, it is difficult to make connections, even with people I already know. It's also simultaneously intimidating and inspiring to see all of the amazing work being done in and around the fields I work in--American studies and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality studies. Inspiration is especially the case with the National Women's Studies Association conference, which I attended this past weekend in Cincinnati; these women are amazing.

I always learn so much at this conference, and it provides a number of opportunities that other academic conferences don't offer. For instance, the contributions by graduate students, and even undergraduate students, at this conference are welcome and encouraged. Simultaneously, the "big names" in women's and gender studies are accessible and approachable. There are certainly things that NWSA could do better, many of which are the usual weaknesses of academic spaces, but NWSA will continue to be my favorite conference. Here I'll share a few highlights (and see my related blog about Fitness at NWSA).

Women Everywhere. As one might imagine, the NWSA is attended by mostly women. There are certainly some men there, and they are as welcome as anyone else. And there is a diversity of people generally--women of all sizes, shapes, colors, sexual orientations, national and international origins, younger and older. It is inspiring simply to share the space with so many women. There are few other spaces where you can walk through crowds, make eye contact and smile, maybe even chat with someone you don't know. (In fact, after an embarrassing cash mishap at the airport, I hitched a ride with a couple of faculty members from Rutgers who welcomed me into their cab and trusted me to pay them back later.)

Workshops and Roundtables. While many conferences include alternate formats to the "talking head" presentation, NWSA does this particularly well. In fact, I walked out of a more traditional panel when one women read her paper--a critique about the One Billion Rising movement--quickly and in a monotone. People talking about their work is so much more powerful than listening to someone read, especially if they are reading in a disaffected manner. Further, I really hate it when I go to a panel to hear a particular panel and the one paper I wanted to hear is a no-show. The whole discussion is stunted with a missing piece. Roundtables and workshops are always worth attending.

I attended two roundtables that I want to share. One was with some of the editors from The Feminist Wire, a website and collective that does amazing work. The other was with the Crunk Feminist Collective who also publishes a blog. Both of these roundtables were amazing and inspiring. Both groups maintain and update their site regularly--daily and weekly, respectively. They do this work--for no pay--on top of their "real" work. Both provide insights that you will not see in the mainstream news media.

The Feminist Wire provides an extensive peer-review process and work collectively to edit articles. They publish well-known authors like bell hooks and Angela Davis as well as people who have never published. They also provide space for "college feminisms" and "elementary feminisms" and encourage young people to submit work to their site.

One of the most helpful aspects of both of these roundtable presentations was their discussion of self-care, a topic I presented on at NWSA this year, and a topic I start to explore in my book, Women and Fitness in American Culture. (More on this in my blog about Fitness at NWSA.) In an environment where everyone sacrifices their quality of life outside the academy--on my campus and in the academic world more generally--it is inspiring to hear women talk about the importance of taking a break, stepping away, or rewarding yourself for your hard work. Such is not easy to do, but it is necessary if we want to continue to serve our institutions, students, and communities.


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Fitness Makes Its Mark at NWSA

11/11/2013

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When I arrived in Cincinnati, exhausted from the school year, let alone the travel, I had just enough time to go check in at the conference site and to pick up the fliers that my publisher said they'd have for my book. When I arrived at McFarland's display table, I was shocked to see my book--in the flesh! (Thanks, Layla!) What a treat to be able to see and touch my book. It looks so good! Perusing all the tables, there is nothing out there like Women and Fitness in American Culture. Now, how do I ensure it reaches the many diverse audiences who will be interested in my work?!

This year, and in 2010, I presented my fitness research-in-progress as a workshop, rather than reading a paper. (See my blog about Inspiration from NWSA.) I write about my 2010 workshop in Women and Fitness in American Culture, which helped inspire me to write the book. My presentation this year was "Organic Dance, Fitness, and Self-Care as a Practice for Effecting Change." I had about a dozen women who were brave enough to come dance with me at 9:25 in the morning. They were warm and encouraging and brought me much joy. I introduced some basic ideas, we danced, and we discussed. They had great questions that will help me to continue to develop my work.

But this year, there were more opportunities for fitness than I expected, and I could not make it to all of them. I missed a presentation: "Decolonizing Fitness: The Cultural Production of 'Fit' Latina Bodies." I'm hoping to connect with the author post-conference to hear more. I also missed a Roundtable: "Investigating Gender and Health from a Feminist Perspective Within a Women's Studies Department." Faculty members from the University of Michigan's Gender and Health minor talked about their curriculum and their students who proceed to "feminist-inflected careers." I'm bummed to have missed these two presentations; however, the reason I missed them was because of what I was able to attend.

The real highlight of this conference for me was the yoga class and workshop that took place on Saturday morning. At the Hilton hotel (the official hotel of the conference), Becky Thompson (of Simmons College) offered a yoga class "for everyone" at 7 a.m. I made sure my alarm was set! Three years ago I had encouraged NWSA to offer yoga and fitness classes on my conference evaluation form. I even offered to teach, but I never heard back and I haven't been able to attend the conference again until this year. With connections to NWSA leadership, Becky was more successful and, for the first time ever, yoga was a part of the NWSA program. I could not be more excited.

If it hadn't been for this yoga class, I would not have seen the related workshop on the program. In fact, even after I knew about the workshop, I had trouble finding it in the program because of its title("It's in the Breath, This Strength") and location (bottom on one page, continuing on to another). But after a quick shower and a smoothie, I attended the 9:25 workshop where Michele Tracy Berger (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) and Diane Harriford (Vassar College) joined Becky to talk about their experience with yoga. It was so inspiring to hear about their work, but it was also encouraging to hear other women talk about the split they feel between academia and this other world of yoga/fitness.

Each of these women, and the participants in this workshop, shared some of the ways in which yoga is being used toward social justice, and how we might better use yoga toward these purposes. Until I attended this workshop (and read sites like Decolonizing Yoga and books like 21st-Century Yoga: Culture, Politics & Practice), I felt rather isolated in the work of promoting social justice through yoga. This is a topic I broach in Women and Fitness in American Culture. Yoga is often seen as--and practiced as--an individual fitness pursuit or an individual path toward spiritual enlightenment. For me, yoga has always been so much more. For many of my students, it is so much more.

Since this workshop had the support of NWSA's president, vice-president, and treasurer, I can only assume that yoga will continue to have a place at NWSA. And I can hope that my work might inspire them/us to open up our discussions of yoga and social justice/self-care to consider fitness more generally. This is, in fact, one of the agendas of Women and Fitness in American Culture. So, I'll keep doing the work(out), and look for opportunities to work in solidarity.


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Musings on feminism, language, and taking up space

10/21/2013

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When I shared excerpts from my book-in-progress with my students last fall, there were a few things that really struck them. I consider these to be "small" points that I am making, which makes it even more interesting how these "small" things resonated with them.

"Men seek to take up space; women disappear." Multiple students connected with this idea, and we discussed it from several angles. This semester a student shared a "feminist poem" with me, a piece by Lily Meyers that won the "best love poem" at the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational at Wesleyan--
"Shrinking Women"
This spoken word piece illustrates this idea artfully. Her piece also echoes the stories I tell about my parents, and the legacies about bodies and space that we all carry from our families.

The other thing that students really connected with was a poem that I wrote called "The F Word." Students especially liked the end of the poem, a call to "fearless/fucking feminists." Students thought that this should be the title of my book and joked about how they would publish an underground version of my book with this title. For them, this is the truth that my writing spoke.

The fact that my students really connected with this title brings up some interesting points about language. Anyone who has had a conversation about feminism is familiar with the argument: why don't they just change the name? If "the f word" is so packed with misunderstandings, why don't we just call it humanism? Such conversations are short-lived in my classrooms. Once students begin to understand exactly how feminism emerged and grew, once they realize the impacts it has made on our collective and individual lives, they start to embrace--or at least understand--the term.

Claiming a feminist identity or ideology is another act of taking up space, refusing to set aside a word that has transformed the world just because of the ignorance and backlash that surrounds it.

Perhaps it was the "profanity" connected to both fearless and feminist that resonated with students. We are not used to hearing such words in our classrooms. One of my online students in my intro to American studies course has remarked multiple times after watching the recording of the class discussion that she has never heard so much profanity in a classroom. She says that she can't watch the class video when her children are around. The other students were surprised to hear this complaint. Perhaps when students discuss subjects that they are passionate about, they do not censor their language as much. Perhaps such passion has become so common place that I don't hear the "profanity" anymore.

Maybe this is what will happen to "feminism"; we will hear it so much that it will cease to register as "profanity." It will cease to offend those who prefer the softer, fuzzier idea of humanism (which is not at all the same as feminism). The word will not lose its weight; it will sink in and settle. It will take up space.


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What Keeps You Moving?

7/14/2013

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Fitness programs love t-shirts. Run a 5K, get a t-shirt. Lose the most weight, get a t-shirt. Part of a team, matching t-shirts. We don't even have to do anything physical--donate money, get a free t-shirt. Years ago, when I worked as a fitness instructor at the Student Recreation Center at Washington State University, this t-shirt announced a kind of motivational campaign that asked "what keeps you moving?"

Because I am a busy person, I am asked a version of this question quite often. Since I don't drink coffee and most people assume my energy must come from caffeine, usually my first answer is water. Some of it might come from my almost-daily Synergy kombucha tea. But, really, it is fitness that keeps me moving. The more I move, the more energy I have to keep moving.

I use the term "fitness" rather than "exercise" because fitness encompasses not only a range of activities, but a state of being and a mindset as well. Making a place for fitness in my life is more than just an exercise routine or a regimen--it is a recognition that strength, balance, flexibility, and endurance are building blocks not only for health and fitness but for life itself.

During the academic school year, I teach a fitness class (or two) 5 or 6 mornings a week. I don't teach the early morning (5:45 a.m.)classes, but 8:00 or 9:30 (or even 10:30 on Saturday) is early enough to still be "early" for me, a recovering night owl. Sometimes my 8:00 a.m. yoga class is really difficult to get out of bed for, especially when the dark Maine winter morning greets me and especially when I have been teaching or working late the evening before. But, I have to be there. People are depending on me.

This summer I decided to lighten my teaching load and gave up my Tuesday morning class, making Thursday morning my only "early" morning. My Tuesdays without yoga have generally been lazy and unproductive. I usually take a nap and sometimes I feel depressed for most of the day. I don't even start moving, so I can't keep moving. Thursdays are different. I'm done with class by 9:30 and I get an amazing amount of work done. It's a good reminder for me that I need to keep moving. Whenever I think about giving up one of my morning classes, I remember the way I feel after class. Perfect and amazing and ready to take on any challenge my day holds.

So, teaching keeps me moving. Yoga keeps me moving my body and my mind. Having a class of people waiting for me, keeps me moving. The transformation from cold, grouchy, tired, grumbly, angry to relaxed and energized--for me and my students--keeps us moving. And as transformative as yoga is, I get as much from my cardio classes. The types of movement may be different, but they are all part of a bigger fitness picture--a way of moving through life as much as through our bodies.

I am not a big fan of the t-shirt. I find them to be uncomfortable and unflattering. They choke me and they never fit right. They're hot and they restrict my movement. They are also a way of advertising a message on the outside of our bodies to anyone who is looking. They can be a way of branding ourselves, or communicating something that is important to us--clothing with a cause, a campaign, or an attitude. The t-shirt is practically disposable, moving from one trend to the next, even when the cause is a worthy one. And more than likely, someone's underpaid sweat--someone with no choice but to keep moving--made the t-shirt in the first place.

What keeps us moving is what we internalize; what keeps us moving is what we know that we need. We have to keep moving so that we can keep finding that feeling and so we can move ourselves as well as others. The t-shirt is one tool, but what's more important is what's underneath it.

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    Sarah Hentges

    I am a professor and a fitness instructor. I work too much, eat too much, and love too much. To borrow from Octavia Butler, I am "an oil and water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive." Because my work is eclectic, so are the topics I write about.

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