Fit Nation : The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession

How is it that Americans are more obsessed with exercise than ever, and yet also unhealthier? Fit Nation explains how we got here and imagines how we might create a more inclusive, stronger future. If a shared American creed still exists, it’s a belief that exercise is integral to a life well lived. A century ago, working out was the activity of a strange subculture, but today, it’s almost impossible to avoid exhortations to exercise: Walk 5K to cure cancer! Awaken your inner sex kitten at pole-dancing class! Sweat like (or even with) a celebrity in spin class! Exercise is everywhere. Yet the United States is hardly a “fit nation.” Only 20 percent of Americans work out consistently, over half of gym members don’t even use the facilities they pay for, and fewer than 30 percent of high school students get an hour of exercise a day. So how did fitness become both inescapable and inaccessible? Spanning more than a century of American history, Fit Nation answers these questions and more through original interviews, archival research, and a rich cultural narrative. As a leading political and intellectual historian and a certified fitness instructor, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is uniquely qualified to confront the complex and far-reaching implications of how our contemporary exercise culture took shape. She explores the work of working out not just as consumers have experienced it, but as it was created by performers, physical educators, trainers, instructors, and many others. For Petrzela, fitness is a social justice issue. She argues that the fight for a more equitable exercise culture will be won only by revolutionizing fitness culture at its core, making it truly inclusive for all bodies in a way it has never been. Examining venues from the stage of the World’s Fair and Muscle Beach to fat farms, feminist health clinics, radical and evangelical college campuses, yoga retreats, gleaming health clubs, school gymnasiums, and many more, Fit Nation is a revealing history that shows fitness to be not just a matter of physical health but of what it means to be an American. **How is it that Americans are more obsessed with exercise than ever, and yet also unhealthier? __Fit Nation__ explains how we got here and imagines how we might create a more inclusive, stronger future.** If a shared American creed still exists, it’s a belief that exercise is integral to a life well lived. A century ago, working out was a strange subculture, but today, it’s almost impossible to avoid exhortations to exercise: Walk 5K to cure cancer! Ignite your inner sex kitten at pole-dancing class! Sweat like (or even with) a celebrity in spin class! Exercise iseverywhere. Yet the United States is hardly a “fit nation.” Only twenty percent of Americans work out consistently, over half of gym members don’t even use the facilities, and fewer than three out of ten high school students get an hour of exercise a day. Sohow did fitness become both inescapable and inaccessible? Spanning over a century of American history, __Fit Nation__ answers these questions and more through original interviews, archival research, and a rich cultural narrative. As a leading political and intellectual historian and a certified fitness instructor, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is uniquely qualified to confront the complex and far-reaching implications of how our contemporary exercise culture took shape. She explores the work of working out not just as consumers experienced it, but as it was created by performers, physical educators, trainers, instructors, and many others. For Petrzela, fitness is a social justice issue. She argues that the fight for a more equitable exercise culture will be won only by revolutionizing fitness culture at its core, making it truly inclusive for all bodies in a way it has never been. Ranging from the stage of the World’s Fair to Muscle Beach to fat farms to feminist health clinics to radical and evangelical college campuses to yoga retreats to gleaming health clubs to countless school gymnasiums, and much more, __Fit Nation__ is a revealing history of fitness that shows it to be not just a matter of physical health but of what it means to be an American. Contents 8 Author’s Note 10 Introduction: What Is the Fit Nation? 18 Part One. When Sweating was Strange 30 1. Performing Civilization 32 2. No More Fat Cats or Ladies of Leisure 48 3. Sanitizing—and Selling—Fitness 60 4. The California Beach Body Is Born 76 Part Two. Slimming the Soft American 84 5. White Plains, the White House, and the Paradox of Prosperity 86 6. Fitness Makes Us Strong, Not Soft 96 Part Three. From Margins to Mainstream 112 7. The Future Belongs to the Fit 114 8. Training for Life—Body and Mind 122 9. The “Tanny Touch” 132 10. Slimming on the Small Screen 142 Part Four. Movement Culture, Redefined 154 11. Yoga and the Counterculture 156 12. Kenneth Cooper and Aerobics Universalism 164 13. Run for Your Lives! 170 14. Title IX and Its Limits 176 15. Swap the Fat for Your True Self 206 Part Five. Feel the Burn 220 16. Daytime Disco 224 17. The New Gospel of Fitness 238 18. Turning Up the Intensity 256 19. Not Quite Sports 270 Part Six. Hard Bodies and Soulful Selves 280 20. Beyond Aerobics with Chanting 282 21. Strong Is the New Skinny? 296 22. It’s Not Fitness, It’s Life 308 Part Seven. It’s Not Working Out 324 23. Exercising in an Age of Uncertainty 326 24. Eat, Pray, Buy 332 25. The Limits of “Let’s Move” 340 26. The Pandemic and the Peloton 346 27. Broken Equipment 352 Acknowledgments 362 Notes 366 Bibliography 406 Index 452 "Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a leading scholar and proselytizer for physical well-being, elucidates the political and social implications of America's exercise cult(ure). Delving into the paradox of why so many Americans are physically unfit, despite the power of the exercise industry, Petrzela shows fitness to be both a product and a marker of education, social class, wealth, power, and more. Like much in postwar American life, fitness has been privatized, and the resulting dominant ideology of exercise is a product of neoliberal political and culture choices. Petrzela reveals a story that puts Charles Atlas, Jane Fonda, the Chippendales, and so many lesser-known people at the center of American culture, media, and politics."-- Provided by publisher