Strong Women
Strength training for my mental health: why my workouts aren’t for my body, but for my mind
By Chloe Gray
5 years ago
What we look like should have no impact on our workout routine. We should all be moving for reasons bigger than that, says Stylist’s fitness writer Chloe Gray.
The 25 July was a Saturday, but I still woke up at 7AM. I was in my black high-waisted leggings and Nikes with a coffee in hand within minutes, and had left my flat before it was even warm enough to head out without a hoodie on. I was heading to the gym, for the first time in four months.
Upon my return, my housemate asked me how it felt to be back at the gym. “I feel like a new woman!” I exclaimed. “I really needed that workout.”
“But you don’t need to workout,” he replied. “Look at you, you’re fine.”
What was it about this line that made my mood come crashing down? Why was I so annoyed that I was being told I didn’t need to move my body? I’ll tell you why: it was his assumption that going to the gym (or working out in general) was to see physical change. “Look at you” being the words that really deafened me.
It’s taken me years to break the mindset that was drummed into me as a 90s child that exercise, especially for women, was about changing my body to carve it into society’s expectations of what a body should look like. It’s 2020 and now more than ever I know that’s not why I work out. So how did he get it so wrong?
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