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By Samantha Thomas, November 18, 2010

For those of you following my foray into the world of personal trainer privilege,  I am please to announce that today I had my 2nd session with my fitness buddy Luke.

So here is the low down. I didn’t break a sweat. I didn’t do any running or jumping or jiggling about.

I may have smiled a bit. And I may actually have even had a bit of a laugh. I may have found it a bit tricky to stop chatting and to focus on what he was telling me to do  (but I’m going to work on that).

The first thing Luke did was some kind of flexibility test. I don’t really understand what he was looking for, but basically my flexibility isn’t fabulous. So that is my outcome measure over the next few weeks. And as I get more flexible then I will be able to start to work on my strength. So last night we did lots of stretchy type activities. Academically it’s kind of like learning a new language. It’s helping me to listen to my body, by showing me what I should be listening for (if that makes sense).

We also had a great chat about making gyms a more friendly space for people with all different body shapes and sizes. I would say I was probably in the top 15% of fattest people at my gym yesterday. And when everywhere you turn in the gym there are messages about thinness (in the bathrooms where there are ads for bread telling you to get rid of rolls and have slices instead, and in the gym magazine where most of the ads are for slimming supplements). It isn’t hard to see why a) people go to the gym wanting drastic weight loss, and b) why many people find gyms some of the most stigmatising spaces for people who don’t conform to the thin ideal. Personal trainers are also pretty expensive for the average person, so maybe without subsidies for this type of help, we might just be exacerbating health inequalities between people like me who can afford a trainer (even for a short while) and those who will always find this an incredibly expensive luxury.

Physical activity is the most important thing you can do for your health and wellbeing (apart from not smoking) – no matter what your size. A recent study which reviewed the results of 40 studies on physical activity just released in the International Journal of Clinical Practice showed that even 30 minutes of moderate activity (like walking) five days a week is one of the most powerful “lifestyle choices” you can make. That’s not running a marathon or pounding it out on the treadmill to nowhere… it’s just about getting your body moving. And it doesn’t have to be in the gym either! And this isn’t the first study that has shown this. You all know the ‘fit and fat’ vrs ‘thin and inactive’ studies. And the ones which show that physical activity is sensational for your mental health, and the latest studies which show how awesome physical activity is for your immune system too!

So… if I know that physical activity is sooooo good for me, why do I read studies like this and come up with a bunch of excuses about why it is just way too difficult to fit in that 30 minutes a day into my life.  I don’t have time. I’m tired. I can’t be bothered. I’ve had a bad day…  etc etc etc.  If we know that something is SO GOOD for us, why do we find it so hard to act upon it? Most people are far more supportive of physical activity than commercial dieting as a way of improving health, and yet most will still turn to dieting rather than activity as a way of improving their health.  Is it that we just don’t care enough about our health? Is it that we have so many other priorities in our lives that things just drop down the list of things we need to do? Is it that we have just received so many mixed messages about what is important in terms of health outcomes (ie being skinny) that we just don’t listen to the messages any more, or take up unhelpful solutions (like dieting) which actually have no benefit for us at all? Is it a question of stigma (which you all know is one of the main reason I think some people don’t get involved in activity).  Maybe it’s that we have been constantly sold that we have to be thin to then get involved in activity? Am I just totally fatigued by people telling me what to do with my health all the time?

So, what do you think? Why is it hard to incorporate physical activity into our lives?

In the meantime, I will keep working on my flexibility, and hopefully in a few weeks I might just be able to touch my toes !