Good article, nice to read and inspiring.
One thing though: Long Arms actually are good for chin ups ...
When I was a little girl, my dad was gone for work, for weeks at a time, on the oil rigs. Saying goodbye was a big deal, because I didn’t get to do it every day, and so it had to last a long time. This feeling was compounded by my dad making certain to emphasize, to my brother and me, that any of us could die, at any moment, with zero warning. My mother would sagely nod in agreement, untroubled.
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Good article, nice to read and inspiring.
One thing though: Long Arms actually are good for chin ups ...
With all due respect to the writers of so many of the articles on here, this was one of the best pieces I've read on this site to date.
Agreed. I'll be deploying her observation that: abs and biceps are the padded bras and fake eyelashes of the fitness world in future conversations concerning "fitness." That's a keeper.
I just made a copy of her essay for a near-40 year-old female friend having scoliosis who needs to lift.
Simple. Effective. Hard.
Well done and thanks, Ms. Pralle.
Fantastic article. The last exchange reminded me of a conversation I had with a co-worker who always complained of debilitating back pain. I suggested she try strengthening her back with squats and deadlifts. Her response? "I just told you I have a bad back, I can't do that weightlifting shit!"
Same as above. Nicely written young lady, looking forward to the next article.
Love the article. Your writing is like listening to a reminiscing storyteller by a campfire under a starry night.
Hopefully I'm not overquoting, but this struck a chord:
I've always seen the aversion to strength much like the former aversion to having a tan. People with suntans were people who worked in fields. The lily white class were the people who lived indoors. Nowadays, tanning is done in expensive equipment and/or with free time so it's a sign of status. Conversely, being skinny and not needing strength is now a sign of being a Very Smart PersonTM rather than having to work hard. After all: why lift things when you can diet, pill, and surgery your way around the issue?We try to find ways to not eat when we’re hungry, to not sleep when we’re sleepy, to redirect our bodies’ natural desire for exertion to milquetoast routines, and really worst of all to think that there’s something wrong with wanting men’s shoulders to be wider than their guts, or women’s asses to be wider than their waists. It’s just crazy.
Anyhow, I hope you keep writing articles. Both this and Barbell Summer were pleasures to read.
Yeah, this is written well. The flashforwards and flashbacks nicely entwine the main ideas with key experiences in your life.
The leading analogy of Barbell Summer - between exercisers locked out of gyms during COVID-19, and revelers tossed out of bars at 2 AM - is shrewd. It highlights the role of social conformity in mindless exercise.