NBSV 226: Pull-ups, protein, and the myth of the apolitical gym, with andrea bennett
- Karina Inkster
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Gym culture likes to pretend it's apolitical: just protein, PRs, and personal responsibility. My guest this week isn't buying it. andrea bennett is a senior editor at The Tyee and the author of several books, including Hearty: On Cooking, Eating, and Growing Food for Pleasure and Subsistence, which won a Taste Canada Gold Award. andrea also happens to be my open water swim buddy of several years, and the author of a recent Tyee piece on how MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) is trying to co-opt fitness culture, and why progressives shouldn't let it.
We get into the difference between training for aesthetics and training for your actual life, and why so much of commercial gym culture is coded white, male, and able-bodied by default. andrea also walks me through their 10-month journey to a first unassisted pull-up (I may have had a hand in the programming), and why representation of bigger bodies in fitness matters. We also talk protein hype, the class and access issues underneath population-level "under-muscled" stats, and why choosing a goal that feels borderline impossible is worth doing at any age.
Important topics we discussed:
>> MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) and its pull-up/push-up challenge — masculinity, anti-fatness, ableism, and whiteness embedded in that messaging
>> Open water swimming as an accessible, non-aesthetic-driven, mental-health-centred sport
>> andrea's 10-month journey to a first unassisted pull-up: nonlinear progress, illness setbacks, home equipment, training frequency
Connect with andrea:
>> andrea's website
>> andrea on Instagram
Mentioned in this episode:
>> andrea's article in The Tyee: 'Gym Culture Has Always Been Political'
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>> Comment on the episode's Facebook post.
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