Untraining the Athlete
4 minute read
I’m sure we’ve all come across some iteration of the social media fitfluencer whose brand is built around the idea that, “you don’t ever have time to exercise, you make time”. While I’ve always taken issue with the overly preachy and simplistic delivery of this statement*, past versions of myself have ultimately agreed with this message at its core.
My day-to-day during my undergrad and masters made it easy for me to go all in on this mentality. With the flexibility offered by the student schedule and a remote part-time job, I was able to make running a central priority. The motivation for these daily doubles was just as much community as it was performance; these teams were where I built some of my closest friendships and made inroads into grassroots volunteering that I maintain to this day. These motivating factors that brought me to practice each day bled into each other, and running became synonymous with so much more than just sport for me.
Because of this, running became an integral part of my identity, and was something I was always eager to make time for. As I transition into the workforce, my relationship with the sport is changing. While I am forever grateful for all that it gave me, I am also beginning to recognize all that I missed out on making time only for this one passion. Because I put so much of myself into running, I had spent little time exploring who I was outside of the sport.
Now that I’m running on my own, I’ve started to think about why I continue to do it and what this movement means to me. Do I enjoy these frequent solo endeavours, or am I only engaging in this type of exercise because I feel obligated to? Am I any lesser than if I choose to take a night off to see friends? To take up a new pastime (knitting is as hitter as people say it is, guys)? In engaging with these questions, I am learning that there is value in deviating from our training plans in pursuit of new experiences. We each come to exercise with our own complicated relationship to it, and its ok to take a night off to hash that out- don’t let the “grindset” get to ya!
*The idea that everyone can make time for an hour gym sesh if they want it bad enough reflects a certain degree of privileged ignorance. For a lot of people, it’s not just a matter of resisting the urge to snooze your alarm. Working two jobs, for example—whether these are both financially recognized or if you take on the role of a primary caretaker—present real barriers to working out. These aren’t just excuses like our hypothetical fitfluencer friend has made us to believe.
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