Movement Logic: Strong Opinions, Loosely Held 63: Dismantling Long and Lean Part 2
Welcome to Season 4 and Episode 63 of the Movement Logic podcast! This is part 2 of a much requested series titled Dismantling Long & Lean. In part 2, Laurel and Sarah discuss the phrase "long and lean" from a science-based, as well as sociological and racial perspective. They cover whether or not you can actually make anyone’s body “longer” and/or “leaner” through formats like Pilates and barre. Additionally, they unpack the harm that appealing to this narrowly, aesthetically-idealized body shape has on students and teachers.
You will learn:
- Common code words used to show preference for thinness in exercise.
- Is there a way to make limbs or muscles longer?
- How do we change the shape of muscles?
- Can we make muscles tone without making them bulky?
- How hypertrophy works and whether or not Pilates or barre are particularly effective for building muscle.
- What does it mean to be bulky versus lean?
- The constrained energy model for metabolism and how it explains why exercise is a poor tool for weight loss and why it’s more complex than calories in and calories out.
- How human metabolism is a product of evolution, not engineering and more like a business on a budget rather than a car that runs on fuel.
- How the science of metabolism explains why exercise is so important for long term health and longevity.
- Whether building muscle makes you burn more calories at rest.
- That fast and slow metabolism doesn’t mean what people think it does.
- Whether or not you can burn fat specifically from “problem areas” on your body.
- How the transatlantic slave trade and the rise of Protestantism influenced the way we think about fatness and thinness.
- How fatphobia and a preference for thinness has been used to craft and reinforce racial, sexual, and socioeconomic hierarchies over the centuries.
- Why “long and lean” is to the 1990s and 2000s as “white and nordic” was to the 1800s and 1900s.
- Why using "long and lean" as a marketing ploy does harm to the teaching profession of Pilates and barre.
And more!
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Reference links:
Episode 60: Dismantling Long & Lean Pt. 1
Burn: New Research Blows the Lid Off How We Really Burn Calories…
Episode 43: Nutrition Facts vs. Fiction with Dr. Ben House, PhD