Why Women Should Stop Running? Hardly!

A while ago, I wrote about trying to be inclusive at the gym. The idea of that post was that I may weigh less on a scale, but everyone who is at the gym is trying. How hard or how much they are trying might be a combination of experience, knowledge, comfort, and will, but they are there.

Two situations have completely outraged me today, in reflection of that piece.
First, my friend went to a health fair at work, and reported feeling snubbed by the local gym recruiters. My friend is not in peak physical health, but she was asking questions, in search of information. If a gym is not looking to challenge itself and its customers by having a wealth of different clients, it should probably exist only in Hollywood.

Second, I came across this link to someone who, according to his opening paragraph, has little respect for anyone who is not doing Everything Right at the Gym.

The piece is inflammatorily called 'Why Women Should Not Run', and has been apparently released elsewhere. Being a very proud half-marathon runner, the title of the article immediately has my hackles up.
The first error I find is that the title is misleading. The writer is not saying that women should not run, period. Instead, he is arguing that running for hours on end is not conducive to losing weight. To a point, he is not wrong, but his examples and his style of writing leads any sensible woman to ignore the argument he is trying to make.

The writer's primary example is his friend Jessica. I hope that's not her real name. He says he has observed her doing static running on a treadmill for years on end, and despite his repeated attempts to offer suggestions, it has been only until recently that she understood that what she is doing is not working. The writer does not give any examples of suggestions he may have offered, but since his main complaint seems to be against the static exercise of treadmill, bicycle, or elliptical, it is entirely possible that getting out of the gym might be a good start. I have heard of people who can go from a treadmill to running a half-marathon with ease, and heavens bless them, but I find running on the unevenness of a path to be much more energy-consuming than running indoors on an incessant treadmill. The scenery is also more interesting.

It is also interesting to note that the writer boldly declares that his intent is not to pick on women or make fun of them, but he does not follow words with action. His tone is unmistakably condescending when he says, "I’ve tried to rescue her from the clutches of cardio in the past..." Just how he has tried to rescue her is not clarified, like his unheeded suggestions,  but he is also so gracious as to not 'name names' when commenting on the dietary habits... rather, the "amazing displays of gluttony" of women at the Cheesecake Factory. While I am sure he has seen this in practice, his using the word 'gluttony' hearkens to the seven deadly sins, of which Eve, the representing matriarch, is the cause of the Original Sin. I'm actually quite sure the author did not intend to cut so deeply with his words, but he inadvertently uses the term in a shaming, and ultimately shameful, fashion. Another matter I take issue with is that, when he mentions two machines in relation to women, the author only mentions the abductor and adductor machines, as if these two machines are the stereotype of 'women machines' in the gym. Strangely, at my gym, the adductor and abductors are two machines I rarely see women on. Maybe I'm in the wrong part of the gym, by the free-weights.

The last problem with this article is that, like the author's unclarified suggestions and methods of saving someone from cardio, he has many arguments for not running on a treadmill to lose weight, but he has very few alternatives. He does mention appropriate HIIT, but very little else; it gives the impression that fitness and cardio start only when you enter the gym, and once you leave, there is nothing to do. Meanwhile, my alternatives are: running outdoors (c'mon, if I can do it, whining and bitching in my snowy hometown, the only excuse is the north pole. Or a hurricane), running hills, cycling for groceries or to work, swimming (no one care what you look like in the swimsuit, they just want a lane), or even climbing stairs.

So far, I've focused on how wrong this writer's approach has been, with little nod to the technically correct aspects of his article. He is correct in saying that steady cardio on a treadmill is not conducive; that pointing this out is not a new thing; I will also give him credit on the biology information that I haven't bothered to look into. However, this is my article, and that's about the most that I can really find that's accurate about this. Unfortunately, even this information is presented in such a condescending fashion that an unpracticed woman might think that this is the average gym goer's train of thought, so she shouldn't even bother; and a gym-going woman will find it hard to see through the red haze that she won't bother reading the rest of it.

It is my sincere hope that the people who share this way of expressing their views on fitness are few and far between. It is in this manner that people are dissuaded from trying to attend a gym or thinking that their situation can ever change. It is also my sincere hope that, despite the inciting, inflammatory, and desensitized titles and content, that this article does not reach people who would take it to heart - those of us who can read through the belittling nonsense will hopefully find it appropriately rude and lacking in humanity, if not credibility, and sin-bin/File 13 it as they see fit. In essence: this article, however scientifically sounding, is opinion and should be treated cautiously as thus.