This article references to weight loss.
Are you a woman? Do you fancy upping your fitness? You'd be forgiven for thinking that workouts must begin and end on the treadmill, perhaps followed by a quick Pilates class for that toned (but not bulky!) look. If you're feeling particularly brave, you could venture towards the squat rack – or even go for a punishing jog along your local high street. In any case, it's probably something that you want to get over and done with; endorphins be damned.
However, if you really want to improve (and maintain) your fitness, the secret is to find an activity that you enjoy. Ideally, it's something that you can do with your friends, something that will make you laugh – as well as sweat. Enter the humble exercise class. And no, we're not talking about Legs, Bums, and Tums.
Research shows that women make up 76% of group fitness class attendees in the UK. And with thousands of classes on offer – including Aerial Hoop, Ravercise, and HulaFit – we're spoilt for choice. Sadly, we're also shamed for our choices.
Middle-aged women will do “anything other than cardio, weight training, and counting [ing] calories.” Or at least that's what one Twitter user says. Their evidence? A clip of women participating in a bungee workout class, which, as X's community note kindly pointed out, is a form of cardio.
Over on TikTok, clips of women participating in fun exercise classes, including cardio dance drumming and ‘Kangoo Jumps’ (bouncy rollerblades), are racking up views, with captions like “Middle-aged women doing everything in their power to avoid lifting a single weight” and “Middle-aged women doing everything in their power to avoid working out like a normal person”.
TikTok content
And look, I get it; it's a bit of fun. Most women – not me, you understand – can take a joke! But why should “middle-aged” women always be the targets of such banter? Earlier this year, an editorial in the British Medical Journal [BMJ] called for urgent action to address the “dearth of older women in sport and exercise science.”
The research showed that out of 5261 studies published in sports and exercise journals, women and girls made up just over a third of the total number of participants, which is “likely to be even lower for women from mid-life onwards.”
“Women in midlife often feel invisible and ignored, with few activities directed towards them and no visible support or encouragement…”
This can be partially explained by the hormonal changes women experience as they transition through perimenopause, which is the period of time when a woman (or any individual with ovaries) ceases to menstruate regularly. This is the body preparing for menopause, when menstruation stops altogether. During this time, women are at a heightened risk of osteoporosis, muscle loss, and cardiovascular disease, which, as the aforementioned research notes, can impact women's “willingness to take part in physical activity, their athletic prowess, and their response to training.”
A 2021 report by Women In Sport also identified that mid-life women find it difficult to prioritise finding time to exercise due to the fact they're often balancing the unequal division of domestic labour, caring responsibilities, and career obligations. The report further notes that “women in midlife often feel invisible and ignored, with few activities directed towards them and no visible support or encouragement to take up activity.”
While more research needs to be done, it's clear that women approaching mid-life face additional barriers to participating in sports and exercise. Are we really going to add online shaming to that list?
Friends and colleagues told me: “You’re a superwoman.” Inside, I felt I was failing at everything.
Even when women do find the time to exercise, societal and cultural pressures impact our ability to truly enjoy it. As part of their research, Women In Sport identified that “social opportunity” impacts women's enjoyment of sport. This includes fear of standing out or being ridiculed, fear of not being able to keep up with everyone else, fear of not “fitting in” at the gym, and feeling shame about body size.
“If women aren't using exercise to punish themselves, the internet will do it for them.”
The research highlights five principles that will inspire women to be active in mid-life:
1) Expanding perceptions of being active, e.g. not just hitting the gym or going for a run;
2) Creating a judgement-free zone, e.g. an environment where all abilities and body types are welcome;
3) Offering a support network, e.g. creating social support and cultivating friendships;
4) Expand the image of what “sporty” means, e.g. nurturing positive representation of a diverse range of women thriving in sport; and
5) Making it relevant, e.g. highlighting the specific benefits that mid-life women can reap by enjoying exercise.
Similarly, This Girl Can With You, an initiative launched by Sport England last year, recommends that activities for women (of all ages) should ideally meet the following criteria: “social (help women feel part of a community), suitable (meet women’s needs), self-affirming (help women feel confident), and safe (women must feel physically and emotionally safe when taking part).”
Do you know what ticks all these boxes? Exercise classes; the wackier, the better. Imagine you attend a 45-minute hula-hooping class. You're mostly surrounded by women – some of whom look like you, some of whom don't. You are part of a community. As you wiggle the hoop around your waist, your attention shifts from initial embarrassment to focusing on how your abdominal muscles feel. You are working out. With a flood of endorphins surging through your body, you look in the mirror and see yourself in all your sweaty glory. You are confident. You're in an indoor space with a qualified instructor. You are safe. This is how all women should feel when they exercise.
Three months in, these are my thoughts.
The online response to these clips implies that women should feel beset by fear and shame when they exercise. In fact, that's at the heart of the joke: How dare women exercise in a way that makes them happy? If women aren't using exercise to punish themselves, the internet will do it for them. Because guess what? The internet is a microcosm of cultural attitudes. And the prevailing cultural attitude about women who exercise is that we do it for one reason: weight loss. Ding ding! It was diet culture all along.
When exercise is viewed solely within the context of weight loss, it becomes a performance rather than an authentic experience. A woman languishing on a treadmill is preferable to a woman bouncing on a bungee jump because exercise isn't meant to be fun. It's meant to be gruelling; it's meant to be about shrinking yourself down to size.
That's why so many of these quirky exercise classes feel so liberating. By embracing unconventional forms of fitness, they enable women to shake off societal restraints about appearances and how they move about the world. And if you see us in a Zumba class, mind your business.
For more from Glamour UK's Lucy Morgan, follow her on Instagram @lucyalexxandra.
We deserve to get active as much as men (and have fun while doing it).
