Pain-Free Athlete's Podcast
Are you tired of feeling pain? Are you recovering from a surgery? Do you want to learn how to stay active and pain-free? I'll share tips and strategies that can help you stay safe and pain-free while you're working out. I'll also interview experts in the field of fitness, rehabilitation and pain management.
Pain-Free Athlete's Podcast
Evolving Athleticism and Body Acceptance at the Olympics
What if the evolution of body standards in sports could transform how we view athleticism and representation? Join me, Dana Jones, on this captivating episode of the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast as we journey through the dramatic changes in gymnastics from the 80s and 90s to today's stronger, healthier physiques. We’ll explore the physical demands of sports like water polo and celebrate the incredible stories of diverse athletes breaking barriers, such as the rise of black athletes in aquatic sports. This episode sheds light on the crucial role of tailored fitness and the ongoing efforts to ensure access and education for nurturing diverse talent. Tune in for an episode filled with inspiration, diverse voices, and a heartfelt exploration of the evolving world of sports and body image.
The tweet that started it all: https://x.com/LaLaFitzgerald1/status/1818345719557722499
Ilona’s Clapback: https://www.tiktok.com/@ilonamaher/video/7390092986396233002
All Body types at the olympics: https://www.tiktok.com/@ilonamaher/video/7395890001923280170
Hollie Holden’s Poem:
'Today I asked my body what she needed,
Which is a big deal
Considering my journey of
Not Really Asking That Much.
I thought she might need more water.
Or protein.
Or greens.
Or yoga.
Or supplements.
Or movement.
But as I stood in the shower
Reflecting on her stretch marks,
Her roundness where I would like flatness,
Her softness where I would like firmness,
All those conditioned wishes
That form a bundle of
Never-Quite-Right-Ness,
She whispered very gently:
Could you just love me like this?'
2024 DJFE Triathlon Race Series
Podcast Disclaimer:
The Pain-Free Podcast is presented solely for general information, education, and entertainment purposes. Any information presented in this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional diagnosis. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast or website is at the user’s own risk. As always, users should not disregard or delay obtaining medical advice for any medical or mental health condition that they may have and should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions.
@djsfitnessevolution
Welcome to the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast. I'm your host, dana Jones. I am a certified personal trainer and I'm here to help you achieve your fitness goals without pain. In each episode, I'll share tips and strategies that will help you stay safe and pain-free while you're working out. I'll also interview experts in the field of fitness and pain management. So if you're ready to learn how to stay active and pain-free, then subscribe to the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast today. Hi everyone and welcome to the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast. I'm your host, dana Jones.
Speaker 1:So it's still Olympics. I know last week I talked about Olympics, but I'm a sports fan and it's been fun as hell to watch all the things that are happening and all the drama. It's like one big long sports soap opera. For those of you who don't understand why people watch sports, it's very dramatic. It can be, anyway, as I was watching, and if you haven't watched or you're recording stuff and you may be worried about spoilers, you're going to get some, so you might as well just be aware. Anyway, I was scrolling through Twitter because whenever there's some big sports event, it's always nice to go to Twitter because everybody's reporting on it like every 30 seconds or something, so you can get some really quick updates, know 30 seconds or something, so you can get some really quick updates.
Speaker 1:And I found this one post that I thought was very interesting and it was from uh, agarvan sales, I believe, is the doctor's name, and the um she says is it just me or for those of us who grew up watching gymnastics in the 80s and 90s, is it healing to now see gymnasts who are not overtly looking like they may be starving? And she had a picture of the Olympic team, you know, in the early 80s, and then the Olympic team now, and when you look at them side by side, it's very interesting because it's, you know, these um, females look like they've eaten. I mean it's, and it's really. You know, and I understand right, you know, gymnastics is an insanely um, I don't know, challenging sport would probably be the thing. Like I mean, there's a muscularity that is unmatched, I mean, whether you're male or female. It is just insane, like how strong these bodies appear to be and just because of the rigorous training that they put themselves through. And I think that it's sending a good message.
Speaker 1:And you know, when I started, like looking at what other people are saying in the comments, and you know someone says. You know, like the women now are showing like this is the ideal body for gymnastics, right? You know, being too thin is not going to get you anywhere in the sport and it's really about strength and muscles, you know, and it's about being short and built rather than tall and skinny. I don't know, I'm not a gymnastics person so I can't really say that, but someone else said they thought they were impossibly skinny back then and being told, right, there was another comment that said something about them. Imagine being told you were too large to compete, and just the feeling. Imagine being told you were too large to compete, and just the feeling.
Speaker 1:And you know there's always a weirdness about body shaming and you know what people think about bodies and you know not everybody's the same. And if you look at certain sports, you know they are strong based off of what they're doing. When you look at the women's polo team, you know those are strong chicks, you know, and it's, it's weird. Have you watched water polo? It's, it's a very odd sport Because you know, aside from the people that are passing the ball back and forth, the ones that are like probably the scorers, are getting like drowned.
Speaker 1:It's like hanging on them, shoving them down, you know. And then they have the underwater camera and you're watching them wrap their legs around them and shove them, you know, like, grab their arms and, do you know, like, so, essentially, somebody is trying to drown you while you're trying to score a goal. Keep yourself, you know, your head above water. And then two, you know, stop some, you know, person from dragging you under just so that they can say, yay, they won. You know, whatever, I don't know, it's kind of nuts, it's just definitely.
Speaker 1:But you know, again, when you look at these sports, different body types work for different things. Right, soccer players, right, it's all about the legs, because all they're doing is running back and forth nine million times. Right, and that's a big deal is to, you know, be able to have that, um, fitness for your particular sport, um, but there's, there's been some interesting stories. Uh, you know, the and I, you know, talked about water polo because they have a black goalie, and you know, she talked about like, hey, there's nobody like me, there's just me out here, you know, and, and whenever we go to meets or whatever, you know, there's nobody like me, there's just me out here, you know, and whenever we go to meets or whatever. You know there's not a lot of black people and it's kind of neat. Swimming has kind of kicked up right. We have more black swimmers than we've had in the past.
Speaker 1:Obviously, gymnastics has been like back and forth, but it's just cool to see people. I would really love for it not to be like you're the only one and I'm really hoping that that changes in the future. But that really has to do with access and education and probably going back again to access, right. You know it's like not everybody can afford to go and you know, drop millions of dollars on gymnastics fees and private coaching and all the things you need to do, and that's the same thing for ice skating and you know whatever. And not everybody's got Flavor Flav to pay your way and you know he's only, you know, supporting the team during this time, right. So allow them to train so that they can have their heads in the game and not worry about having to pay bills or put food on their table.
Speaker 1:But you know there's something to be said about. You know how much money Olympic athletes make. You know now they get endorsement funds, which is very different than in the past, right. So you know, because before they were amateurs and they weren't allowed to receive any money for anything. And you know there's a tremendous amount of dedication that these athletes have to part, you know, partake in to be ready, um, to participate in their sport and that requires time and money and if you don't have those things then that's probably not going to be you and that's the sad thing about it is access is everything.
Speaker 1:So a couple of things that definitely the gymnastics thing stood out for me. But where I want to kind of go deep is Alana Mayer, and if you don't know who she is, she is a rugby player and she's frigging phenomenal and I wanted to share and I need to, you know, find that or I'm going to link it in there. But there is a response that she gave to someone who made some kind of comment about her body size and they said something to the fact of like, oh, I bet she has a 30 BMI and she responded to that and it was lovely because she totally like she was really sweet about it. And she talked about the fact that she has struggled and that ever since she was a kid she's always been a little bit bigger because she's stronger, and that it's really been an issue for her and you know, obviously, like this, whoever this person was, is not the first person to point out that her BMI is, or you know that she's that size and you know, one of the comments that she made was like I do have a BMI of 30. And I think she says, well, actually it's like 29.4. And she said I'm considered overweight. She goes, but I'm going to the Olympics and you're not. And that was probably the best, like you know, clap back that you could ever hear from. Somebody is like, yeah, you can talk all your shit, but you're sitting on your you know couch eating chips and I'm here and I'm going home with a medal, and you know, and she's doing something which she really wants to do, which is advocating for her sport. And I've known about rugby because rugby's not. It's pretty big in New Jersey and I had friends that played and it was always fun to watch and the common bumper sticker was give blood, play rugby. And it's a tough sport and especially if you're one of the people that's in the middle in the scrum. I've had students in the past who have played and I love going to watch them play because it's football without pads and it's a pretty tough sport. You've got to be a tough human being to want to participate in it.
Speaker 1:What I like about her aside from the fact that she's just a goofball her aside from the fact that she's just a goofball, um, you know she was saying that she thought like the olympic village was like love island and went into the whole big thing about trying to get herself somebody and trying to like badly flirt and, um, you know, and helping her teammates, you know, hook up with people and all this other stuff and it's it's pretty funny and and she has, if you know, if you have the time to scroll through nine million minutes of TikTok, go ahead and follow her because she'll give you some good information. But on the positive side, she really does really talk about body positivity and really being in touch with who you are and being okay with it and how she just really feels. Like you know, you need to understand right, like you need to have a better understanding of who you're talking to and how that does impact people. And she really does want to promote self-acceptance and I love it, you know, and I think it's pretty neat that she's doing the thing and you know, of course, I just love seeing what other people are doing for their sports, the different advocates, and you know, and just, there's another person that I, you know, see on TikTok and she was talking about, like, look at the shit women are doing.
Speaker 1:You know, like, obviously, simone Biles is a rock star. Obviously Simone Biles is a rock star, and the fact that she went through all the challenges that she went through in Tokyo and really got called out for, you know, some idiots called her a coward. You know, because she was addressing her mental health and you know, and having actually, like, a physical response, right, you want to talk about TMS. You know all the stress that you're under and then, on top of it, having this, this you know physical thing that you is very real, right, you know, having this idea of I don't know where I am when I'm twisting in the air. Have you seen some of the shit that she's doing? You know, do you really want her to be confused when she's twisting in the air on top of a friggin um, what is it? The beam that I can't watch because it stresses me out watching them? You know, do backflips on the beam, um, or even on the floor routines, it doesn't matter, right, like if she fell, like everybody be like, oh shit, you know she's, that's a horrible thing. So, but the fact that she was so public about it and you know she's not the first person, right, there's been other, you know, no, naomi osaka was a tennis player who refused to talk to the french media. Right, she got, they didn't like that, um, but they were abusing her, you know, and it's it's.
Speaker 1:I think that these people who are standing up for themselves and saying, no, you, you know, yes, I know I'm in the public eye, but no, you don't get to talk shit about me, you don't get to shit on me for a mistake I made, you know, especially tennis, it's like there's nobody else to blame, it's all you. Same thing with gymnastics, right, you know, at least having a team, you can be like, oh, we tried really hard. But you know, when you're by yourself, the immense amount of pressure that these athletes are under, and then the constant, you know, bullshit that comes from social media. You know, I'm talking about the good aspects of it that I'm seeing, and you know, isn't it fun to see the stories, and you know their little clips and all that kind of stuff. But on the other end of it, it's like you know people calling them names and being so hurtful because they can, because they're not there, they're not in the room, they're not doing the work or they don't care. They're just mean ass people who have nothing better to do and don't feel good about themselves, so they decide they're just going to shit all over the world and public people are the easiest targets, right? Because they're already out there.
Speaker 1:And you know, I give Simone Biles credit. She got her shit together, she did the work. It's never easy to do that kind of work as somebody who's done work with TMS and dealt with that stuff. And it's never a quick assignment, right. It's like you don't do the work and it's done, right, it's an ongoing thing. And she kicked ass and you know she's feeling her feelings, she's being nervous, she's doing all the things and she's still performing and that's a high class athlete. And you know Naomi Osaka's back and she's doing her, and that's a high class athlete. And you know naomi osaka's back and she's doing her thing too. And you know these people that have overcome their mental health challenges and they're still showing up. It's really something impressive and you know so if you haven't had a chance to watch. You know, give it a watch, right? Take a look, go back and watch.
Speaker 1:You know rugby. It's like you know you want to talk shit about these women, you know, or men who play rugby, or anybody who plays rugby. It's like, knock yourself out, go ahead and put yourself in the middle of the scrum and let me know how it works out for you. Right? There's a reason why you see the people in the middle they were wearing headbands and stuff. Cause you get cauliflower ear, cause you got people that are hundreds and hundreds of pounds squeezing your ass trying to get to the ball.
Speaker 1:So you know again, every, every athlete has their challenges and I think that judging somebody on their performance really, um, I don't know shitty. You know, it's like you know, especially when you're talking about Olympic athletes, because a lot of them are working. You know to show up every four years and that's a long ass time to you know to practice your sport so that you can have this one moment to show up, and a lot of people crack, right, we don't talk about the crackers unless they're oh, sorry, not the right word. We don't talk about the people who can't stand the pressure, unless they're American, and I mean maybe other countries do too, but it seems like in America we want you to win, otherwise you're not successful. Shout out to Katie Ledecky who says win everything by. You know almost a whole pool length Kind of insane. And she kicked ass too, and you know people talk shit about her, and it's you know.
Speaker 1:So I guess the ultimate message is stop talking shit about people. Unless you can go out and do it better than them which 99% of you can't then just celebrate them and cry with them when they lose and celebrate with them when they win. And when they lose, pick them back up. Say you got this next time or you know whatever, or you got whatever. It takes for you to Embrace these people. And stop picking on women for their fucking bodies, right, unless you're a woman and you shouldn't even pick on yourself. So if you are a woman and you're picking on, pick on yourself. So if you are a woman and you're picking on yourself and you got negative self-talk, cut that shit out. You know, work it out. Find something. Get yourself a therapist, do the work. Stop shitting on yourself, because for our daughters and for other people who are seeing us, they get that right. They see that message and that is not the right message to send to anybody, right? It's like we have to embrace who we are.
Speaker 1:And so I want to cap this off because I got this poem and I thought it was really kind of interesting because it wasn't, you know, just was scrolling and kind of found it and said today I asked my body what she needed, which is a big deal considering my journey of not really asking that much. I thought she might need more water or protein or greens or yoga or supplements or movement. But as I stood in the shower, reflecting on her stretch marks, her roundness where I would like flatness, her softness where I would like firmness, all those conditioned wishes that form a bundle of never quite rightness, she whispered very gently could you just love me like this? And that is a poem by Holly Holden, and that's all I got for you. So thank you so much for joining and listening and entertaining me, or being entertained by me, however it may go, anyway, and I will catch you next time.
