9 Tips for Cultivating Body Positive Fitness

Cultivating Body Positive Fitness

Written by:ย ย Lexie Kite, Ph.D.ย andย Lindsay Kite, Ph.Dย ย authors of the bookย More Than a Body.

Are you focusing only on good body image? Or prioritizing both body positivity and fitness? If you are neglecting fitness, then you are damaging your physical as well as mental health. Hereโ€™s how to ensure body-positive fitness.

*Trigger Warning: If you struggle with overexercising or orthorexia, please be cautious and mindful of how this discussion might affect you.

If you want to improve your body image, butย you have trouble prioritizing regular exercise โ€ฆ join the club!

Lexie and I (BR co-directors)ย decided this week to renew our dedication to fitness.ย Not the โ€œgetting a bikini bodyโ€ or โ€œget your body backโ€ kind of fitness, but the improving strength and capability and โ€œusing our bodies as instruments instead of ornamentsโ€ kind of fitness. Those areย veryย different โ€” both in terms of motivations, goals, and anticipated results. ย Weโ€™reย re-dedicating ourselves to exercise because sometimes life gets busy and other things get in the way, blah blah blah. You know how that goes. But we know โ€” no matter how busy, lazy, or distracted we get from regular physical activity โ€” it is absolutelyย keyย to feeling positively toward our bodies.

So many of usย have been trained to see fitness and physical activity as a means forย lookingย thin, sexy and toned, or a punishment for eating โ€œbadโ€ foods. When youโ€™re working on positive body image, it can be tempting to opt-out of fitness altogether in order to avoid falling into traps of disordered thinking and weight obsession.ย 

However, forgetting about fitness does aย HUGE disservice to not only our physical health but also our body image.ย Tons of research,ย including our own,ย shows one of the best ways to improve your body image is through sports and exercise.ย Using your body and experiencing your capabilities can help shift you away from a focus on your looks โ€”ย if you do it right!ย 

Here are ourย tips for body positivity and fitness. Follow the links for more information about each tip!

1. Rather than forgetting aboutย fitness, try forgetting aboutย fatness.

Go into your fitness regimen with no assumptions about what effect exercise will have on your fat, weight, size, cellulite and body proportions.ย You are not a โ€œbeforeโ€ or an โ€œafter.โ€ย Consciously work to separate your personal definition of fitness from your feelings about fat. While steeped in research for my PhD dissertation on this very subject, I wrote these two blog posts that go deep into the ways healthย isย veryย problematicallyย defined and measuredย within our culture and how it can be more accurately measured and achievedย byย forgetting about fat to focus onย fitness.

2. Avoid exercising in front of mirrors.ย 

This often leads to self-objectification that can decrease stamina. If your gym or workout partners trigger you to focus on the way your body looks while you exercise, change your routine and let your partners know youโ€™re working on getting the focus on how you *feel,* not how you look. Hereโ€™s aย videoย of Lexie describing what self-objectification means, what it feels like, and why it is the worst.

Related: 8 Foot Exercises That Can Cure Back Pain in minutes

3. Wear clothing you feel comfortable in and arenโ€™t constantly adjusting.ย 

Clothing plays an important role in prompting or preventing self-objectifying thoughts. If youโ€™re regularly thinking about covering your exposed stomach or adjusting your shorts that are riding up, your clothes are constantlyย remindingย youย to think about what you look like, whether you want to or not. Loose-fitting, reasonably covered, and properly sized clothing can be your best friend during exercise if you tend to worry about what your body looks like while working out.

4. Skip the scale and stopย measuring yourself.ย 

Weighing and measuringย leads to a focus on external appearance and size and to discouragement when those numbers donโ€™t decrease as much as you hope. Your weight and size donโ€™t tell you all the incredibly positive changes that happen inside your body when you exercise.

Medical expertsย warn against theย tendency to focus on thinness rather than actual indicators of health and fitness. In a fantastically-titled paper โ€“ โ€œBeneficial effects of exercise: shifting the focus from body weight to other markers of healthโ€ โ€“ King et al. (2009) conclusively demonstrated that โ€œsignificant and meaningful health benefits can be achieved even in the presence of lower-than-expected exercise-induced weight loss.โ€ย Sounds crazy, right? It goes against anything most media will every tell you about health, but itโ€™s true.

Even when you donโ€™t lose as much weight as you think you should (and as money-making media train you to think), youโ€™re still likely gaining some serious health benefits.ย When people with serious health issues like Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular issues and high blood pressure start a meaningful exercise program, their health problems oftenย disappear or greatly improve โ€“ regardless of whether or not they remain overweight or obese. Read moreย here.

Related: The Number One Exercise For Slowing Down The Aging Process, Studies Suggest

5. Measure your progress and set fitness goals

that haveย nothingย to do with your weight or size.ย 

Set goals for achievements by certain dates like โ€œbench X pounds by this date,โ€ โ€œrun/walk/swim for X minutes/miles this week,โ€ โ€œget my heart rate up to X for X minutes every day,โ€ etc. Any physical activity goal can be tailored for your abilities, no matter how limited your abilities might be.

Related: 8 Foot Exercises That Can Cure Back Pain in minutes

6. Avoid fixating on your looks and comparing yourself to others

while you exercise by consciously focusing on how you feel and how your muscles are working.ย 

Distract yourself with outside entertainment if necessary, but try to check in regularly on how you feel. This will help you to appreciate your capabilities and monitor your levels of exertion (can I push harder,ย do I need to rest?).

Rather than imagining your body getting smaller, try to imagine your heart, muscles, and immune system getting stronger. Imagine your endurance and stamina increasing. Imagine your body as a powerfulย instrument for your use, rather than an ornament for others to admire.

Related: Best Home Workout Ideas To Stay Fit While Stuck At Home

7. Opt for competitive or non-aesthetically focused activities.ย 

Sports like soccer, basketball, tennis, lacrosse, etc., are awesome ways to focus on a goal and get outside of your head. Getting into what scholars call a โ€œflow stateโ€ is one of the most empowering ways to experience the capabilities of your body without thinking about your body. Readย this fantastic guest postย for a look into the way watching the Womenโ€™s World Cupย openedย Autumn Whitefield-Madranoโ€˜sย eyes to the beauty of womenย forgettingย about being beautiful while focusing on what theyย reallyย want.ย 

Be cautious of activities like cheerleading, ice skating, ballet and other forms of dance that include a looks-focused component. (Before you get upset about that point, please readย this post.)ย Be cautious of anyย sport or activity that requires you to wear something you are not comfortable in โ€” especially in front of spectators. Volleyball is a good example of a great sport with an oftenย questionable dress codeย for female players.

Related: 6 Reasons You May Be Gaining Weight Unintentionally: The Science Behind Obesity

8. Avoid โ€œfitnessโ€ media

that actually just keeps its focus on the appearance of female bodies, emphasizesย weight loss, or that sparks your body anxiety.ย 

Things that might fight into this category are social media pages that feature lots of before-and-after body images or images of idealized, Photoshopped, sexualized bodies; sites, pages and programs that exist to sell you products intended to โ€œtighten,โ€ tone, contour, detox, or ensure weight loss; and anything that elevates one body type above another โ€” โ€œreal women have curves,โ€ โ€œskinny girls look good in clothes, fit girls look good naked,โ€ etc.

Ditch it all. Try the best kind of health cleanse you could ever use โ€” a media fast. Read one womanโ€™s transformationalย experience of cutting out all fitness media while undergoing major body changes inย this guest post.

Related: 4 Tips For Better Mental Health Through Nutrition

9. Donโ€™t go to extremes.

Donโ€™t overdo it. Choose activities you actually enjoy doing and can look forward to. Donโ€™t exercise to punish yourself for eating or for not being thin enough. If you have a tendency to over-exert yourself or are replacing one disorder for another (like trading anorexia for over-exercising or orthorexia), please proceed with caution. Cognitive-behavioral therapy can help youย understand those compulsionsย and how to stop them.

Based on your experiences with starting and maintaining regular exercise regimens while actively avoiding the intense focus on the appearance of bodies in fitness culture, are there any other tips you would add?

Our bodies are instruments, not ornaments. Letโ€™s use them!ย 


Written by: Lindsay and Lexie Kite
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Originally appeared on: BeautyRedefined
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