Accessibility to fitness

Throughout the years of engaging in a range of different sporting activities, from being football mad to transitioning into a movement enthusiast, my approach to fitness has evolved drastically. I’ve recently found myself becoming interested in the topic of accessibility to fitness, especially in the context of the modern age we find ourselves in today.

It’s raised many thoughts on how we approach fitness in our everyday lives, the standards set by society, how we’re being sold this ideal, and how this all ties into making fitness inaccessible. I thought to dedicate this post to explore some of these reflections that have been bubbling around in my head.

Before we begin, let’s start with the definitions.

What is fitness?

According to the etymology, the term “fitness” is derived form the word “fit” which back in the 1500s meant a “state or quality of being suitable”. It wasn’t until the 1930s that the meaning shifted from being “suitable” to “physical” with fitness becoming a “state of being physically fit”.

I’d say my definition of fitness would run along the lines of:

Ability to perform physical tasks efficiently without excessive fatigue, all while maintaining overall health.

So it could be viewed as a condition we achieve through repetition and practise. Note that I’m not attaching it to a specific practise as fitness can be separated from the means by which it is achieved. For example, just because you go to the gym doesn’t inherently make you fit, as fitness isn’t determined by the practise itself. We’ll dive a bit further into this later in the post.

What is accessible?

Looking again to the ethology, the term “accessible” derives itself from the Old French term accessible, “affording access, capable of being approached or reached” and directly from the Late Latin accessibilis, the verbal adjective from Latin accessus “a coming near, an approach, an entrance”.

So based on the etymology, it’s safe to define accessible as:

Something that is easy to approach or reach.

We typically associate something as being accessible by having few obstacles, readily understood, capable of being approached or reached. At its core, accessibility is about making something easy to access.

Grand, so we’ve laid out the definitions, now it’s time to ask the main question, which is:

Is fitness accessibile?

To give a short answer I’d say, well, it should be.

When we look at the essence of fitness, it’s easy to see how it’s accessible to everyone. I say “should be” because I can’t help but notice some aspects of it are becoming increasingly inaccessible.

These can range from setting unrealistic standards for the idealised physique to selling us overpriced products and services to feed into this ideal and everything in between.

We’ll dive more into those sections in a bit, but first, let’s start with the question:

What does it mean to be fit?

If we return back to my definition, I would argue that a fit person is someone who has the ability to perform physical tasks efficiently without excessive fatigue, all while maintaining overall health. But, does this viewpoint hold up in the wider scope of our society?

We could label someone as fit through quantitative measurements, such as, daily step count, body mass index, resting heart rate, and so on so forth. These numbers can give us an indication of how efficiently an individual can perform certain physical tasks. However, if we focus our attention on a subset of these metrics, we’ll soon lose track of the bigger picture.

Say, for example, someone might have the optimal health metrics on paper but yet struggle to run halfway down the road. Would you consider them fit? Or even the other way round, say if someone could run a marathon but have some health metrics that, on paper, would classify them as unhealthy, would you still consider them as fit?

It becomes difficult to pinpoint exactly what we mean by being fit especially when we base our judgement purely on a subset of quantitative measurements. Like with most statistics, it comes down to how you interpret the data relative to the context. By honing in our vision we can classify someone as being fit in a certain context but as soon as we start broadening our scope, we’ll start to uncover issues that could contradict our statement.

We could dive further into this topic but for now I’ll bookmark it here.

Setting the standard

As I’ve discussed above, what it means to be a fit isn’t something that can be easily defined. Instead, it can left open to the individual in terms of where they want to set the standard, which if this were the case, would make fitness readily accessible to everyone. But is it? If we were to step back for a second, we might ask ourselves whether our society, in some ways, already sets that standard for us.

This general standard can differ greatly based on gender and cultural background. Whenever this is a condition, it not only suggests that fitness could be a social construct, but that it’s also worth diving in further to understand why.

Let’s take the average lad Bob for example.

Bob wants to be fit. He looks around at the other lads for a blueprint. He starts to notice that the majority behave in certain ways, so Bob decides to act in accordance with those traits, i.e., be good at football, lift a decent amount of weight, dress a certain way, etc. Bob is convinced this is the way to achieve his goal of becoming fit, therefore embraces this idealised standard of fitness.

The issue here stems not from the fact that Bob embodies the image but from the image itself. We shouldn’t blame him for wanting to be like the rest, actually, it’s quite natural for us to want to fit in with the group. What’s happening here is he’s constantly being fed this standard and doesn’t have time to question or digest it.

This is exactly what is expected from us. Once we’ve accepted it, we’ll structure ourselves in the direction of obtaining it without even second guessing. We may even end up striving for something that, to some extent, could be unattainable.

Because this standard of fitness can be set high, it may discourage people from even wanting to pursue it, which in turn makes fitness less accessible.

Fitness for sale

In order to embrace this idealised standard, we find ourselves surrounded by products that reinforce it. These come in the shape of expensive clothing, overpriced branded plastic, gym memberships and so on so forth. All these products serve the purpose of adhering to the ideal. Everywhere we look we can find examples of it. It’s hard to enter any sports related establishment and not be overwhelmed by the imagery.

It’s like these seeds have been planted within our minds to make us feel that we need these products and services. I’ve noticed that once I stopped watering a few of them, it became apparent to me that they were just using resources that could’ve been spent elsewhere.

Take the gym for example.

Did you ever ask yourself, why do you go to the gym? Maybe it’s for aesthetics, strength, confidence, functionality, or whatever it may be. Just ask yourself the question. It sounds simple at first but the more you dive deeper the more you discover how entangled your vision is with the societal ideal.

I asked myself the very same question and realised something.

I was being sold an image of fitness that didn’t align with my values. Why should I move my body in a predefined set of motions to strive for an idealised physic? I felt that it went against the natural flow that my body was seeking so I decided to drop it in search of other practises.

I’m not saying we should burn down all the gyms, don’t get me wrong, they have their purpose. What I would argue for is that we question our motivations towards what it is we’re striving for, and ask ourselves, is this coming from within or are larger external forces manipulating us into striving for it.

To tie this point back into why this is making fitness unaccessible is that it goes without saying that the higher the economic entry point is, be it a gym membership or piece of equipment, the more inaccessible it becomes. If you have to pay though the nose for it, you’d definitely think twice before making the investment. For some people, unfortunately, that initial investment could be well over their budget, therefore, making it inaccessible.

But the irony is that most of what’s placed behind a paywall is often accessible for free, well, maybe not everything but close to it.

When you think about it, we don’t actually need that much when it comes to training. You can do a good amount with a decent pair of runners, shorts, and a top. The issue here is that these items won’t satisfy the profit margins of the big companies within the industry. So, we’re being sold fitness as a product when in reality it’s accessible at any given time in any given place.

Changing approach

As I mentioned in the introduction, my approach to fitness over the past few years has changed drastically. I went from being football mad, to a gym rat, then into a body weight enthusiast, and now leaning more into a movement focused style of training.

Fitness is often times viewed as a means to an end.

Whether that be to look a certain way, lift a certain amount of weight, or perform a certain movement, all these require us to reach an end goal. We end up restricting ourselves in order to achieve these end goals.

Once I realised that fitness encapsulates our entire lifespan, I began to lose the longing for the short, unmaintainable goals that I set myself.

I started to incorporate fitness into my everyday life. It wasn’t anymore about training hard for that one hour then slacking off for the rest but about focusing more of my attention into my daily movements. I’m still unravelling this hidden potential that the human body has to move through space and time. It’s a journey that’ll last a lifetime and I look forward to playing and trying new things along the way.

I believe that we all have the same potential but we’ve become so accustomed to the fitness structure set by our culture that we don’t even try to dip our toes into the possibilities.

I’m sure i’ll write more on this topic in the coming future, but for now I’ll bookmark it here.

I hope the arguments raised in this post make you step back and question how you approach to fitness, whether you thinks it’s accessible or not, and the general assumptions we have towards fitness in our culture. As always, I’m open to discuss this topic further so don’t be shy to reach out.

Le grá.

Fancy supporting the club?

If you're enjoying what we're at, why not chip in and help keep things going!

Supply the tea