This new fashion for fitness can be sexy

Press, 4 September 1982, Page 10

This new fashion for fitness can be sexy

A new beauty fashion for women has arrived. It’s called “fitness.” The home of this new phenomenon is the United States, where women of all ages, especially those heading towards mid-life have begun to reshape their bodies, in a way their mothers would never have understood.

The "Twiggy” cult has faded further into fashion history. Although the desired silhouette remains slim, it is also strong — never masculine, always graceful, feminine and well-toned.

Women who are swept into this new cult have stripped the extra, aging layers of make-up in favour of more natural, healthier looks.

These they achieve through minimum and controlled exposure to the sun (heavy sunbathing is out), corrective exercise, supervised weight lifting, and recommended diets. This should be a slowly built-up, controlled programme.

The fitness boom has spread through the United States and Europe like wildfire. According to "Time” magazine those who live its message say: “With exercise you get strength and grace. The strength makes you selfassured — the grace makes you feminine. Just being thin isn’t pretty any more. Now, beauty is the vibrancy of someone who’s got blood rushing through her body from exercise. To be beautiful you have to be healthy, and to be healthy you have to exercise.” So now it has become

more desirable to have muscle on the bones rather than fat.

This new concept of the beautiful woman has to some degree been influenced by the fitness habits of stars like Bo Derek, Olivia Newton John, and Jane Fonda. Those women caught up in the fitness boom also swear that this new-found physical exercise makes them feel good. Many make it their hobby — buying fitness literature, studying body tone and warm-up methods. Others knock smoking and previous diet habits likely to inhibit their physical progress, and replan their daily activities to accommodate their chosen fitness routine.

American “Vogue” recently reported: “We make time for what’s important — and family and career come first. Women are now realising the equal importance of a commitment to. fitness, a time for self. That attitude, whether it means three mornings a

week at the gym or a renewing week at a spa — or both

— is what maintains our energy, sets the quality of our lives.”

However, you may well say, “Yes, well, I’ve tried regular exercise, tennis, cycling, weight-lifting, yoga, but I don’t have the stayingpower. After a short time the novelty wears off, winter sets in, I get lazy, sliding wilfully back into a routine of sloth.” Dr Robert Arnot, American National Medical Director of the Emergency Service (who devised a series of spot-matching tests during his work with 1980 athletes) says: “By choosing a fitness programme that makes the best use of her own natural strengths — and places less emphasis on those areas in which she is weakest — a woman will make herself more likely to stick with it.” Dr Arnot has developed these simplified at-home tests to find the area where you’re likely to excel: TO MEASURE ATHLETIC

“IQ,” use masking tape to mark a hexagon on the floor that measures fourteen inches each side. Use a stopwatch to time how long it takes for you to make a complete circuit of the hexagon by jumping into the centre and back out again over each side. Twelve seconds is Olympic calibre; fourteen is excellent; sixteen good; eighteen average; more than 20 not so hot!

TO MEASURE LUNG CAPACITY, empty the air out of a six-to-seven-quart plastic bag, then blow it up as much as you can with one deep breath. The average woman can “fill” about half the bag, or two and a half to three quarts. If you can fill much more, chances are you’ll be good at endurance sports, have quick recovery time.

TO MEASURE YOUR SPEED walk a mile as quickly as possible without running. Twelve minutes or under is very fast, fifteen to twenty average, over twentyfive minutes, slow.

Step-Up- Stand in front ofchair, or high step, weight in each hand. Put one foot on chair, draw other leg up to it. Step down same way. t o times each leg.

TO MEASURE BODY FAT (very roughly) if you can pinch more than one and a half inches under your arm or along your sides, you have more than 30 per cent fat (over-weight) about an inch is average: one-half inch is ideal for serious athletes who are training.

In the June edition of American “Vogue” there are 12 pages relating to body condition under the heading, "New Beauty Priorities.” The August 30 “Time” magazine covered the subject as its major item, giving it front cover preference in "Coming on Strong — the new’ ideal of Beauty.”

What do men think about this new burst of energy in women? Some are bound to deplore it: others will consider it fresh, even sexy. The fact is the fitness boom is here. Now more people than ever before are engaged in some kind of athletic activity for health and happiness.