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Leftists in Fitness? You Better Believe It!
There is a perception with many folks that left-wing folks folks are not focused on fitness. If you look at health and fitness circles online, many tend to be either apolitical, “moderate”, or right-wing.
There is a lot to discuss regarding the connection between the Right and fitness spaces and we invite y’all to read this article from WorkingClassWhole.com for more info. Also, we suggest y’all check out the “works cited” section of it as well. (“SWOLETARIAT”: THE IMPORTANCE OF LEFT-WING FITNESS CULTURE).
There are also a couple examples of leftist fitness efforts that we believe are worth checking out.
*From the site “Decolonizing Fitness is not a gym, but an incredible educational resource for coaches, trainers, studio owners, and anyone who is interested in unlearning toxic fitness culture. Decolonizing Fitness as a practice is about providing a supportive environment to individuals who have historically not felt welcomed in fitness spaces i.e. people in larger bodies, people with disabilities, people with chronic pain, people over the age of 65 and people who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community.”
The Swoletariat This is a openly communist private Facebook group that is very positive and supportive. In it, people share their progress, support each other, share relatable memes, and so on. They strongly oppose bigotry and body-shaming among other forms of toxicity associated with many “typical” fitness spaces. Those who struggle with gymtimidation need not worry if they join this group.
As a bonus, we also believe it’s worth sharing Athletes Versus. While it’s technically focused on athletes, not necessarily those simply focused on personal fitness, we feel it’s worth sharing as their goal is to help athletes more easily express their support for marginalized people like women, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ folks (they even bring up the infamous “shut up and dribble” line).
Everyone’s health journey is different. People have different goals. Different abilities. Different obstacles. Hopefully being in a left-wing fitness space allows you to have a better outlook on health and fitness if you’ve been in toxic right-wing fitness spaces online and/or in person. There is better out there.