2/?? GYM FEELINGS : on 'skipping' the gym

EFF #12

(Content warning, this essay is about - as the title suggests - going to the gym. It is from my perspective and I don’t think exercise is a moral obligation. I decided to write about it because movement or exercise, whatever term you want to use, is still very emotionally loaded for me and I think others might connect with my experience. )

Lately I’ve been thinking about ‘how not to sound like an asshole’ when talking about going to the gym. Because every time I casually mention that I worked out or am going to the gym, I wonder if I’m presenting myself in a particular light and in turn, setting myself up for disaster.

I don’t think health or pursuing certain health behaviours should hold moral weight, but with the return of rabid diet culture and body standards, I know people are drawing these simplistic symbolic relationships. That health is obtained through very specific actions (when actually it’s very fucking complicated and is influenced by things way out of our control). And the people who do these actions - in particular exercising and eating in a certain way (however depending on who you ask, these rules can never be agreed upon) are the good ones.

This is juxtaposed against the people who don’t work out - which could be for multiple reasons. Maybe people are time poor, don’t have the energy, are chronically ill or disabled, don’t have access to safe spaces to work out and yes, some of us simply do not want to which I think is an entirely valid choice too.

I wonder just by talking about going to the gym, do people presume I’m trying to present myself as a ‘better’ person?

Am I accidentally making myself out to be the ‘good fatty’? Even if I’m abundantly clear that I am not seeking intentional weight loss, my actions still feed into the idea that I’m doing the things I’m meant to be doing.

I don’t want to be considered one of the good ones, because by extension, there are people who are seen negatively for not working out. At any point, that could be me too.

The problem with being the ‘good fatty’ or supposedly putting so much emphasis on being a gym-goer, is what happens when I stop?