#20 Taking a swipe at the sexist undertones of upper body strength
The pervading belief that women can't build a whole lot of muscle power in their arms, shoulders and so forth is actually pretty weak...
Not too long ago I found myself—arms at 90 degrees, bum pointed at the studio ceiling—in a ‘dolphin’ yoga pose pondering my total lack of upper body strength. For those who are uninitiated, despite its name, it’s a deeply uncomfortable position to hang around in if you haven’t yet built up the requisite muscle power. I used to only hold it for a matter of seconds before giving up and folding myself into a child’s pose (there are few things that feel as divine) until the class moved on.
That was until a yoga teacher friend of mine pointed out that, with a little mental determination to drive me through the initial discomfort, this pose is a stepping-stone to gradually building up my shoulder and arm strength so that I could one day fluidly tip myself into the coveted yogi headstand. Until that point, I’ll admit, cultivating my upper body muscle simply hadn’t felt like much of a priority—and I’d scan class schedules and online workouts for mention of ‘legs’, ‘glutes’ and ‘core’. But I’m certainly not alone in focusing predominantly below the waist.
Because while the messaging about how important strength training is to women has muscled its way into our workouts, the attention has largely revolved around particular areas of our physiques—where the obsession with abdominals and derrières is reflected in the 2.9 billion #absworkout tags on TikTok and ‘butt selfie queen’ Jen Selter’s 13.8 million Instagram followers. In contrast, exercises that target the arms, shoulders, chest and back seem like a nice afterthought in the female fitness space, and the true story of why we have traditionally neglected them is a gripping tale of gender inequality, feminine ideals and surprising science.