Work Out, Friedman, Danielle

For American women today, working out is as accepted as it is expected, fueling a multibillion-dollar fitness industrial complex. But it wasnt always this way. Seven decades ago, sweating was unladylike and girls grew up believing that physical exertion would cause their uterus to fall out. Most hid their muscle under sleeves and skirts. It was only in the Sixties that, thanks to a few forward-thinking fitness pioneers, women began to move en masse. When they did, journalist Danielle Friedman argues, they were participating in something subversive: the pursuit of physical strength and personal autonomy.

In Lets Get Physical, Friedman reveals the fascinating hidden history of contemporary fitness culture, chronicling in vivid, cinematic prose how exercise evolved from a beauty tool sold almost exclusively as a way to reduce to one millions have harnessed as a path to mental, emotional, and physical well-being.

Inspired by Friedmans viral article in New York Magazines the Cut that unearthed the little-known origins of the popular barre workout, Lets Get Physical takes us into the workout studios and onto the mats of 20th century America to reclaim these forgotten origins. Each chapter uncovers the birth of an exercise movement that laid the groundwork for working out today: the radical post-war pitch for women to break a sweat, the invention of barre in the Swinging Sixties, joggings path to liberation in the Seventies, the explosion of aerobic dancing in the Eighties, the rise of weight-training and yoga, and the ongoing push for a more socially just fitness culture--one that is inclusive of every body.