As you read this I am hiking in the Italiian Dolomites (thank you to pre-scheduled emails)! I am so incredibly privileged to have the resources to take this trip. It’s not just the financial ability to travel internationally but the physical strength and capacity to participate in the activities we’ll do while we’re there are also a great privilege.
Typically, in these newsletters I talk about elements of your health that are within your control. Many of us are privileged enough to have many resources that allow us the freedom to exercise and move.
The hard reality though, is that while I often talk about what is within your control, and attempt to take a motivating approach, there may also be so much more that is out of your control. Within our communities many people are experiencing immense barriers that create enormous friction between an individual and living a healthful life.
Here are a few of the things that are bigger than your own motivation to get to the gym that may affect your health, or the health of your community. I share these to acknowledge that there are real barriers in our communities to high quality health outcomes. Please, stay for a call to action at the end.
- Accessible neighborhoods. Do you feel safe walking in your neighborhood? Mine doesn’t have continuous sidewalks or street lamps. There are limited walkable ways out of my neighborhood to grocery stores, trail systems, or other amenities.
- Do you have access to a gym? How close? How would you get there? Can you afford the membership? (I do know of at least two gyms in Helena that start at $25/month but many are upwards of $50-80 a month.)
- Do you have childcare during hours that allow you to get to the gym? Does your work schedule or child’s school schedule allow you to work and take care of your physical self care needs before school pick up or your next shift?
- Can your healthcare provider provide adequate direction? Are they speaking a language you understand? I was once told by my provider that I needed to ‘exercise more’ to lower my cholesterol. This was during a time that I was climbing, lifting or running every day. As a healthcare provider myself, I knew enough to know that this was incomplete advice (that could have even been harmful) but having a high level of health literacy can not be the prerequisite to receive or understand quality direction from your provider.
- Do you have a community of people who are interested in improving their health outcomes with you? Do you collectively have time to do so? Are there resources within your community about how and what to prioritize this?
- Do mental health resources exist within your community? For years I lived in ski towns which have some of the highest suicide rates in the country. Access to crisis counseling is currently being cut for LGBTQ+ communities. Exercise is often a low priority for people fighting a mental health crisis, unless that is your coping mechanism, which has its own faults.
- Do you feel safe accessing community resources, like gyms? People of color, with vulnerable immigration status, or LGBTQ+ folks may not feel safe or welcome accessing community spaces like gyms or public parks. I have heard many people of all ages and genders say they have felt intimidated and unwelcome in gym spaces starting as young as middle school gym classes.
- Do you have access to enough food to adequately fuel workouts and injury recovery? Are you rationing to stretch your family’s grocery budget and going hungry to do so? Inadequate fueling can slow or even jeopardize injury recovery. If access to food isn’t an issue do you know what to eat while exercising or rehabbing an injury?
As a community we need to be addressing these barriers because health doesn’t start with accessing medication or surgical interventions, it starts with living an active lifestyle, and everyone has a right to their health.
It is an extreme privilege to have experienced very few of these. Where I have experienced some of these barriers, I have had so many other resources to draw on that have allowed me to bolster myself through the challenges.
What can you do if you or your community are experiencing a lot of these? This list can feel overwhelming.
First, take care of yourself. Ask yourself, which of these barriers are true barriers, and which do I have control over or can I influence?
Taking control of these circumstances is challenging and will look different for everyone. By nature, they add resistance and friction to making healthy lifestyle changes. Give yourself credit where and when you can make change.
If finances are truly a barrier to a gym membership can you borrow the 15 lb weights that have been collecting dust in a parent’s house for the last few years? If a busy schedule is the barrier do you have 10 minutes a day for a quick workout at home? What resources do you have that will help you be successful?
Next, if you have the capacity, take care of your community. This is something I am trying to do more of with this newsletter, and with this business. My goal is to help introduce more people to one of the biggest things we can do to improve health outcomes, physical activity. With programs and funding being cut for important programs, addressing health from a systemic perspective is more important than ever. If you find my newsletter helpful, please share with someone you think should read it.
I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t overwhelmed and unsure how to go about making these changes on a meaningful level. As a small business owner, how can I expect to impact the health of Americans when there are so many existential threats to it right now?
Please share what you or your community is doing to help improve the health outcomes of the people around you. If I get enough responses I will share them in their own newsletter. I’d love to share a list of ideas or resources!
Grazie mille,
Katy Kelly, PT, DPT