Head to any group fitness class (extra points if it’s Pilates), unroll your mat in any Yoga studio, go for a walk in any park, and one thing is certain: you’re going to see women. And lots of them. For many of them, working out is an essential pillar of self-care. And if not, it’s probably a means to an end—one that involves a future marathon, wedding, or new wellness goal. With so much focus on women’s fitness today, it’s hard to believe working out was ever considered to be ‘unfeminine.’
And that’s an understatement. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, exercising as a woman was almost entirely unheard of. It wasn’t just some kind of social taboo—official advice from medical doctors warned women that vigorous exercise would lead to exhaustion, nervous disorders, reproductive problems, and fertility issues. The cherry on top? They even advised that working out—and any intense exertion whatsoever—could make your uterus fall out. Yikes!
But wait, there’s more. Today, women make up nearly half of all marathon participants in the U.S. As little as 50 years ago, conventional wisdom held that it was dangerous—and potentially life-threatening—for a woman to run more than 2 miles at a time. Women weren’t even allowed to run a marathon before 1972! How could we, when we were so physically limited?
To honor Women’s History Month at obé (and all our strong, badass lady instructors) we’re dishing out a little history lesson to show you just how far we’ve come. Here are 5 wild facts you didn’t know about women’s fitness.
1. The Myth of “Bicycle Face”
Before there was resting b*tch face, women stood accused of the dreaded “bicycle face.” This ‘terrifying’ medical condition produced a flushed (or sometimes ghostly pale) face, complete with bulging eyes—and dark shadows beneath them—drawn lips, a clenched jaw, and a weary expression.
Doctors in the late 19th century warned that women were most at risk of developing this troubling, worrisome state whenever they—you guessed it—rode a bicycle. Exerting themselves like this wasn’t natural. Neither was balancing or staying upright on the bicycle itself. It was all taxing and generally unsuitable for women, they argued. Those who did cycle were given outrageous rules like, “Don’t refuse assistance up a hill.” Imagine what they’d think walking into a modern spin class!
Of course, bicycle face was just the beginning of the disease women’s fitness would bring (insert sarcasm here). Exhaustion, headaches, heart palpitations, insomnia, and depression could all soon follow. Ironic, considering we now know that aerobic exercise like cycling is a remedy to all those conditions.
The trouble, of course, was that bicycles were seen as an instrument of feminism. They gave women wings! The freedom to travel wherever they wish! The need to start wearing pants! Changed ideas about what femininity can and should be! And so, the backlash came from doctors and onlookers (mostly males). Who could have thought a woman’s body was made to move—and move for joy?
2. Before Women’s Fitness, There Were… Figure Salons
Fast forward to the 20th century. Nobody’s really exercising for health or fitness. Medical advice continues to instill that women are physically limited. Society suggests sweating—or worse yet, building muscle—is unladylike. Horses sweat, men perspire, but ladies merely glow, the old saying goes. In the years after WWII, it was unthinkable that any woman would openly work out to get strong.
But, the modern diet industry had begun to explode. The idea that women need to be slim to find and keep a man was born—and unfortunately, spread like wildfire. For the first time, women wanted to shape their bodies to look a certain way, but exercise was distasteful.
Enter Figure Salons, aka a spinoff of the beauty salon that hosted ‘reducing machines’ or ‘reducing belts,’ promising to help women shed weight with vibrations while they kicked back and relaxed. The most popular of these was a chain called “Slenderella,” which operated in 50+ cities and promised to slim you in all the right places without the ‘toil and suffering’ of exercise. It also happened to popularize the phrase ‘bikini body’ in 1961 (thanks a lot for that).
You might have already guessed, but science has yet to prove that electric vibration can promote fat loss or distribution. Despite that, these salons promised to eliminate inches and dissolve fatty tissues—all while championing the idea that “the less you worked your body, the better the workout.”
3. At First, Barre Was About Improving Your Sex Life
The Barre girlies probably already know. Maybe not consciously, but they know. For the rest of us—this one may come as a shocker. Lotte Berk, the former dancer who invented the ‘Rehabilitative Exercise’ technique (what would later become known as Barre) in 1959 was driven, above all, to improve women’s sex lives through her workouts.
In her London studio (one of the first-ever ‘boutique’ fitness studios), her sexual candor—radical and revolutionary at the time—would often find its way into class. Exercises that combined her previous modern ballet training with stretching and yoga would have names like ‘naughty bottoms,’ ‘the tramp’ (aka the modern pretzel), and even ‘the sex.’
After all, the foundational move of Barre is the pelvic tilt, or tuck, for good reason. Lotte was obsessed with the inner core—which for her (rightfully) included the pelvic floor. She saw her classes as “fuel for the brewing sexual revolution” and hoped to advance the state of sex, encouraging her clients to strengthen their bodies for their pleasure. In these classes, women felt, for the first time, like they could look at their bodies and appreciate what they could do.
It was Lydia Bach, an American woman, who brought the Lotte Berk Method to New York City, where it took over women’s fitness by storm. And though she initially carried on Lotte’s sexually frank legacy, calling the class “a combination of modern ballet, yoga, orthopedic exercise, and sex,” that tone fizzled out by the 1980s. Now, the sexual history of Barre is a little bit of a secret, but the fact of the matter remains.
4. Women Had to Sneak Into Marathons to Prove They Could Run
Not so fun fact: Women didn’t even have the option to run an Olympic marathon until 1984—only 40 years ago. But let’s rewind a little more to get the full story.
Remember how we said people believed that running more than two (TWO!) miles at a time could seriously harm or even kill a woman? It gets worse. Urban legend held that running could cause a woman… to turn into a man. Any type of event (like a road race) that encouraged women to push their ‘delicate’ bodies was considered disgraceful—a justification for banning ladies from any running sports.
Luckily, a few badass women didn’t let those bans stop them. The tides started turning when a disguised Roberta ‘Bobbi’ Gibb crashed the Boston Marathon in 1966—finishing the race in an impressive 3 hours and 21 minutes. Even though she ran unofficially, she was faster than ⅔ of all the men that ran that year.
Inspired by her story, Kathrine Switzer set out to officially run the same marathon in 1967. Though she was also dressed in disguise, her official bib got her in big trouble. Four miles into her run, the race’s co-director snapped at the sight of her, tackling her and attempting to forcibly remove her from the course. Despite the struggle, she still managed to finish at 4 hours and 20 minutes.
The momentum from these two women, paired with the 1968 mega-bestselling book, Aerobics—which for the first time highlighted that women could benefit from vigorous exercise just like men—sparked a movement. In 1972, Title IX was finally signed into law, and two months before that, the Boston Marathon opened its race to women. As women came of age in the 70s, the jogging craze took off, pushing running into the cultural zeitgeist.
5. The First Sports Bra Was Two Jockstraps Sewn Together
So girls could finally run. The only problem? A woman’s anatomy requires a little extra support. As the jogging craze took off, one particular woman, Lisa Lindahl, began to realize that the experience of jogging as a woman was inherently uncomfortable. The underwire, seams, and metal hooks of her bra would chafe her skin—and the straps would slip away. Having a bigger bust, she wore a size smaller to try and keep everything in place.
She wasn’t the only one feeling the friction. Others like her would try wearing two bras at once to create compression (omg, can you imagine?), while the smaller breasted ran without bras at all. Both cases were less than ideal, preventing more women from enjoying exercise. And so, Lisa tapped her seamstress BFF, Polly Smith—as well as Polly’s assistant Hinda Miller, to create a form that would follow function.
They wanted to create the ‘jockstrap’ for women. And in 1977, they did just that, literally sewing two jockstraps together to create the first-ever ‘Jogbra,’ the foundation of the racerback sports bras we all know and can’t live without today. For the first time, women’s fitness had something comfortable and supportive to sustain it.
As you can imagine, breaking into the mainstream faced a lot of ridicule from men who couldn’t understand the need to carry ‘bras’ in their sporting goods stores. But once they took a risk and ran a print ad, demand was greater than they could have ever dreamed.
Today, sports bras alone make up a $25+ billion slice of the women’s athleisure industry. We even have sports bra scientists. More broadly, 2 in 5 girls play a sport (compared to 1 in 27 before Title IX was passed). Women’s fitness is only growing—and it’s not going anywhere.
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2 responses to “5 Crazy Facts You Didn’t Know About Women’s Fitness History”
I can’t believe how recent some of this history is!!
So interesting