Summary
Casey Johnston shares her journey through the world of weight lifting. Initially inspired by the desire to be thin and conform to society's perceptions and standards of beauty, Casey abandons running as it was not getting her the results she wanted and starts lifting heavy things and putting them back down.
Reflection
I absolutely devoured this book. I myself never got into the running/dieting craze (luckily) but Casey's descriptions of running for hours and then still trying to watch waht she eats made me feel physically ill. When she finally went to a weight lifting gym and started feeling the accomplishment that comes along with increasing weight? Chef's kiss.
Her description of how her relationship with food and her relationship with her perception of her body changed has really stuck with me. She went from focusing on thinness and eating just enough to stay alive but not too much to lose the 'progress' she made on a run to eating in order to fuel herself and viewing her body as strong and capable. You can hear the change in her own perceptions and self confidence throughout her journey and it made me wish everyone would read it.
Some stand out bits:
- fear of going to a gym and lifting the weights wrong - so true. So valid. And you gotta start somewhere.
- people are generally quite nice and willing to help - the gym is a community. Highlighted by her relationship with an older gentlemen throughout the book and a creepy dude incident that the front desk handled swiftly and with consequence. Love to see it.
- our current definitions of what 'strength' means caters to men (shocker) - a single rep max effort. But women have a slight edge in type 1 muscle fibers, more blood flow, faster recovery, and better endurance under fatigue. If we were to factor in total work, recovery, and resilience in our perceptions we might see just how similar women and men's strenght abilities are or how many ways women are more capable than men in the physical realm.