Another book review, of sorts.
From page 3 of Christine Yu's Up to Speed: The Groundbreaking Science of Women Athletes: "Scientists didn't begin to study women athletes in earnest until the 1980s and 1990s." As an post-menopausal athlete, I feel this — literally and figuratively, I guess — in my bones.
I mentioned the book to one of my fellow donut runners this morning as she'd said she'd been experimenting with intermittent fasting, and I told her that the book had indicated that this diet didn't work well for women endurance athletes. "Does she cite any research?" my friend — a scientist herself — asked. And it's a damn good question. There's a whole litany of things we're supposed to do to stay healthy (as athletes or otherwise); but then, upon closer scrutiny, few of these are grounded in science at all; and if they are, it's rare that that science has looked at older women. Rather, these prescriptions come from a small study of college-age male athletes, or some such cohort. Often unstated is that when we judge women athlete's bodies, we're as concerned about their appearance as we are about their performance. (Lauren Fleshman's recent Good for a Girl really underscores the devastating impact this has on girls who run.)
It's all incredibly frustrating, and I blazed through Yu's very readable book, with particular anticipation for the final chapter when she promised she'd examine the research on post-menopausal athletes like myself. But when I reached the end of Up to Speed, I was disappointed — and not simply because there remains a dearth of scholarship on the topic. Yu writes about her own fears of aging and of menopause, which didn't make me feel so great, truth be told, as I don't need to be reminded about our culture's revulsion, about its low expectations for what old ladies can do in the gym, on the track, etc. Once again, I felt very written out of sport. Furthermore, this penultimate chapter draws on the work of Stacy Sims, which — sound the Stanford entrepreneurship klaxon! — relies so heavily on consumption as the path towards life-long fitness and health. Supplements anyone? One of the criticisms of Sims work — Roar and Next Level namely — is that they're a little light on citation.
"Does she cite any research?" my friend asked. And yes, Yu does. But I think we're still stuck with the dilemma: the scarcity of research about women athletes makes it hard to say things with certainty. And thus, into that gap come those, like Sims, who are eager to peddle products that promise to keep our bodies looking like athletic — that is (thanks in part to diet culture and white supremacy), thin. Strong's the bonus; but thin is the point.
We have a long way to go to get, as the title says, "up to speed." It's not just about adopting more science; it's about undoing a lot of the cultural baggage that plagues even the science we have.
