The other day I got chatting with a lady in the gym, she was asking me about the exercises I was performing and core strength and other reasons for building strength with training. She would have been about 70 if I am guessing correctly and she admitted to me that she still trains to 'look good' in her clothes.
I saw a social media post about this just the other day and the post was discussing whether it is OK to admit to training for aesthetic reasons in a world where we are all focusing on 'body positivity'. I say YES, it is OK, because the reason that you train is personal to you and nothing to do with what anyone else thinks is right.
This being said, I also realise that there is a lot of pressure placed on fitness trainers to look a certain way in order to prove their worth. This kind of thinking is just as toxic as fat-shaming and can drive some fitness trainers into a place of overtraining and under eating in order to live up to the expectations of people around them.
We all know the health benefits that exercise offers us, but we are more than a collection of cells that need looking after, we are social creatures with needs, wants and desires to satisfy whichever way we choose.
Just as fat-shaming is unacceptable, so is criticising someone for wanting to exercise so that they can look good in their clothes. The mental health benefits of exercise can also be achieved by feeling comfortable in your own skin, not just the endorphin hit of the actual exercise itself.
Whatever your shape and size, whatever your reason for exercising, acceptance of one another across the board is the way forward. My choice is mine, yours is yours, let us just accept one another and get on with being decent, happy, healthy human beings.
Mel x