A Different Approach

Excerpted from
Real Fitness for Real Women: A Unique Workout Program for the Plus-Size Woman
By Rochelle Rice

By now you've probably tried every diet and fitness program out there, only to be disappointed every time they fell short of your needs. You've put down your money for a gym membership, never to return. I am here to tell you the truth about why the diet and fitness world fails plus-size women-not why you fail them.

Like many other plus-size women across America, you recognize that the fitness industry, with its relentless focus on getting thin to be healthy, is not equipped to help you. But I can. My program is accessible and achievable. The exercises are based on an anatomical approach, which lengthens and strengthens the muscles that may be affected by size. Real Fitness for Real Women was written specifically for you, the large woman-physically, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually.

Be assured that my program is different from the rest. I will not tell you to count calories or perform punishing exercises that are uncomfortable or physically impossible. If you follow my program, by the end of just six weeks your body will feel immeasurably better, your spirit will be uplifted, and your fitness level will have improved to such an extent that you will be performing, with ease, tasks and activities you previously thought impossible, such as climbing stairs, being able to walk distances without shortness of breath, or even riding a bicycle.

If you feel like a refugee of the fitness industry, that is, completely alienated by the idea of working out, don't worry-the majority of my clients come to me feeling the same way. Having spent seven years studying the biomechanics of plus-size women, and having worked closely with thousands of women of size, I provide a program that makes sense. The proof is in my many plus-size clients who have been with me for years. There is passion in the eyes of a woman as she awakens to the youthful memories of movement she holds close to her heart. I have watched countless women move from sedentary lifestyles into healthful activity once they have made this connection. The level of mastery that can be achieved is truly extraordinary.

I can make these promises because I have seen it happen time and time again. Thousands of women have come to me as a last resort, after everything else failed, only to find that the program in Real Fitness for Real Women is what they've been looking for all along. By embarking on the program, you are part of a sisterhood of women who are fed up with receiving second-class treatment when it comes to fitness and health.

Women of size have never been understood, affirmed, validated, or appreciated by the fitness industry. Until now. How many of you have decided to wait until you've lost weight before you venture into a gym, or maybe you've put your money down for a membership, only never to return? In an ideal world, the gym is a place to get fit, a place without judgment or competition, where one can learn proper physical conditioning and technique. But with its relentless focus on thinness, the typical gym attitude pushes real people further and further away, intimidating them into staying at home.

It takes a tremendous amount of effort to walk into the typical health club as a plus-size woman and face a staff of size 4 "gym cuties" in skintight leotards and a studio of confusing equipment. The walls may be decorated with pictures of women with unrealistically buffed and pumped-up bodies. And because most trainers are small, large women are not given the option of working with real trainers-trainers who are more likely to show, by example, what a plus-size body is capable of achieving.

The very presence of a larger woman seems to make the trainers and other members uncomfortable. Skinny women who have bought into society's beauty myths and are obsessed with losing 5 or 10 pounds may look at you with fear or prejudice.

While the fitness industry would like women to blame themselves for failing to look like Hollywood superstars, I know better. In fact, much of the blame rests on the fitness industry itself. In the gyms, fitness programs have not been properly designed for you-the majority of American women! Many-perhaps most-trainers simply do not understand how to move a woman of size through space. Larger women's bodies may not produce the same speed, biomechanics, and functions as a smaller frame. Therefore a program designed for smaller clients cannot be applied to all body types.

For example, exercises that require a client to get down to and up from the floor may be a hardship. A trainer who understands how the large body moves should offer the plus-size woman a program optimally beneficial to her. However, most trainers simply ask her to do the same series of exercises he or she would teach anyone else. When the woman discovers she cannot do these exercises, she feels she has failed. How can your self-esteem be enhanced through fitness, when the programs out there are set up to make you feel like a failure?

When most trainers begin working with a woman of size, they relentlessly focus on weight loss, ignoring the most important part of her-her spirit. Their goal is to make her thinner, and they neglect the more important goal of overall health and fitness. They're trying to get your body to fit their program, rather than devising a program to fit your body. These routine disappointments with the very institutions purported to improve your health do little to nurture your spirits. Thus through physiological and psychological neglect, the fitness industry continues to drive larger women further from health.

The medical profession often colludes in this neglect by subscribing to myths about plus-size people, and allowing a focus on weight to eclipse issues of health. Many large, healthy women are told they must lose weight, even when all other indicators such as blood pressure and cholesterol are normal. As a result, many of you put off routine medical checkups because you do not want or need to be chastised about your size.

That was certainly Marie's experience. At approximately 300 pounds, Marie was extremely fit, working out at least three days a week and playing racquetball every weekend. But during an annual checkup her doctor reviewed her statistics three times, shaking his head each time with disbelief that the numbers for her blood pressure, heart rate, and cholesterol were so good. Finally he told her, "Well, you appear to be healthy, but you really should lose some weight."

When new clients come to me, I explain that this alienation has created a disconnection between bodies, minds, and spirits. My goal and passion is to unite them during the six-week program. Slowly, through successive workout sessions, we reawaken the senses of the body as well as create a sense of connectedness physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

For many of you the prospect of embarking on a fitness program and getting in touch with your body is terrifying. The Real Fitness for Real Women program is designed to take those hesitations into account. Any woman, at any fitness level, can benefit from this program, from the woman who walks a mile every day to the one who has trouble walking a single city block. This program is not about seeing how hard you can push yourself, or performing punishing routines. It's not about "no pain no gain" or "feel the bum." It's about gently reconnecting you with your body and increasing the number of daily activities you are able to perform. This increased movement will often result in weight loss, but again, that is not the ultimate goal of the program-it's an added benefit.