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“Muscles are for men” and other reasons I care about making fitness inclusive

justchristinatong.com · 760 words · saved by 1 readers

My favorite emoji is 💪. It’s got two meanings to me: an unashamed “look at my strength!” and a bold “we can do it!” Both of these reflect my personal journey with fitness, and my aspiration that we can make fitness more inclusive. I fell in love with lifting almost a decade ago. After sustaining a cardio-overtraining spinal stress fracture in high school, I started college without a habit of regular physical activity. Purely to knock out my PE requirement without having to do cardio, I took an Intro to Strength Training class. Instead, I found myself getting addicted to squatting and benching and my numbers going up and up. And having been really short (I’m 5 feet tall!) my entire life, Moving Big Weight was one of the first times I’d felt really physically empowered. I felt proud of my body – and even more so because I was doing it in a space and way that defied traditional expectations 💪. I can’t even count the number of times people have: Luckily, I’ve always been kind of contrari

My favorite emoji is 💪. It’s got two meanings to me: an unashamed “look at my strength!” and a bold “we can do it!” Both of these reflect my personal journey with fitness, and my aspiration that we can make fitness more inclusive. I fell in love with lifting almost a decade ago. After sustaining a cardio-overtraining spinal stress fracture in high school, I started college without a habit of regular physical activity. Purely to knock out my PE requirement without having to do cardio, I took an Intro to Strength Training class. Instead, I found myself getting addicted to squatting and benching

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