Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Fitness & diet
Weblink
danielle-friedman.com

LET'S GET PHYSICAL

Danielle Friedman

How Women Discovered Exercise and Reshaped the World

Danielle Friedman's LET'S GET PHYSICAL is a captivating blend of reportage and personal narrative that explores the fascinating, feminist history of female workout culture (from jogging to Jazzercise to Jane Fonda) - and how women can parlay physical strength into other kinds of power.

For women today, working out is as accepted as it is expected, fueling a multibillion-dollar fitness industrial complex. But it wasn't 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 Let's 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 Friedman's viral article in New York Magazine's the Cut that unearthed the little-known origins of the popular barre workout, Let's 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, jogging's 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.

Ultimately, Let's Get Physical tells the story of how, with the rise of late 20th century feminism, women discovered the joy of physical competence--and how, by moving together to transform fitness from a privilege into a right, we can create a more powerful sisterhood.

Danielle Friedman is a freelance journalist based in New York. Her feature writing has appeared in the Cut, Vogue, Glamour, Harper's Bazaar, TIME and other publications. In 2018, she was nominated for a Peabody Award for her role in co-creating and producing the Fusion TV docuseries Sex. Right. Now. She began her career as a nonfiction book editor at the Penguin imprints Hudson Street Press and Plume, where she acquired and edited health, culture, humor, and memoir. She lives in New York City with her husband and son.

Available products
Book Published 2022-02-04 by Putnam

Comments

Let's Get Physical is a delicious deep dive into fitness culture that features an eclectic cast of women who deviously ran men-only marathons in the 1960s, turned Jazzercise, aerobics, and barre into mainstream mega fads, and who power-lifted notions of femininity until they included muscles and strength. Author Danielle Friedman tracks exercise culture into the 21st century, debunking myths and delighting readers with diamond-sharp prose, wry humor and rigorous research.

How did we get from the notion that exercise was unladylike, even dangerous for women, to the 1980s fitness craze and beyond that has totally transformed women's lives? In this lively book, Danielle Friedman uses fitness pioneers and icons, from Bonnie Prudden to Jane Fonda to Lilias Folan, to trace how regular exercise became central to millions of women's pursuit of vitality, confidence, and happiness. Full of fun and inspiring stories, Let's Get Physical reminds us that this is not just a history of sports bras or leg warmers, but also of how feminism itself enabled and drew from women finding empowerment in the strength of their own bodies.

It's easy to critique the class, race, and gender stereotypes perpetuated by many fitness industry advertising campaigns, but Friedman reminds us how revolutionary it was, not so long ago, to encourage women to do strenuous physical exercise. An engaging account of the complicated, unconventional individuals who pioneered today's fitness culture for women.

Friedman's study of modern fitness culture is as illuminating as it is enthralling. She reveals the wild characters, political agendas, and social movements that changed not only our exercise behaviors but our understanding of exercise itself. Behind every workout there is a story, and it's usually a good one.

Don't read this book because it's 'good for you.' Read it because it's an eye-opening cultural history of the fitness pioneers who put the 'move' into the feminist movement. Let's Get Physical reminded me of why feeling strong feels so good.

"Fascinating stuff."

With lively writing and compelling storytelling - tales of bamboo swords, spandex, and a sexy gerbil included - Danielle Friedman teases out the complicated relationship between exercise culture and feminism in this engaging exploration of modern fitness history. You'll want to hit the barre afterward.

A fascinating and complicated history, masterfully shared. Let's Get Physical made me grateful to the women of the past and hopeful about the future of fitness. My favorite read of the year!

"Friedman takes a jaunt through the history of women's fitness in her astute and entertaining debut...This zippy history is bursting with energy."

It is all too easy to look at the history of women's fitness as an unconnected timeline of fads and celebrities. In Let's Get Physical, Danielle Friedman weaves together the cultural history of a movement that is nothing less than the story of the modern American woman - and she does it with fascinating and fun storytelling that will appeal to anyone who has ever wondered why thighs need to be mastered or buns should be made of steel.

British Commonwealth: Icon Books

Danielle Friedman's wildly engaging Let's Get Physical answered the questions I didn't even know I had about the origins of women's fitness (Jane Fonda sold how many copies of her Workout?!), and left me with a huge debt of gratitude to the trailblazing women who had the foresight to do things like sneak into the Boston Marathon and invent the sports bra so that we could swan into the gym without a second thought. A fascinating, meticulously researched read that left me with a much greater appreciation for the burn of barre class.

There are few areas of American culture as complicated - and as understudied - as women's exercise. Which is why I feel like I've been waiting for a book like Let's Get Physical for decades: something that takes the history and importance of fitness seriously, but is also incisive and curious and readable and fun.