Episode 63: Dismantling Long and Lean Part 2

Movement Logic: Strong Opinions, Loosely Held

Welcome to Season 4 and Episode 63 of the Movement Logic podcast! This is part 2 of a much requested series titled Dismantling Long & Lean. In part 2, Laurel and Sarah discuss the phrase "long and lean" from a science-based, as well as sociological and racial perspective. They cover whether or not you can actually make anyone’s body “longer” and/or “leaner” through formats like Pilates and barre. Additionally, they unpack the harm that appealing to this narrowly, aesthetically-idealized body shape has on students and teachers.

You will learn:

• Common code words used to show preference for thinness in exercise.
• Is there a way to make limbs or muscles longer?
• How do we change the shape of muscles?
• Can we make muscles tone without making them bulky?
• How hypertrophy works and whether or not Pilates or barre are particularly effective for building muscle.
• What does it mean to be bulky versus lean?
• The constrained energy model for metabolism and how it explains why exercise is a poor tool for weight loss and why it’s more complex than calories in and calories out.
• How human metabolism is a product of evolution, not engineering and more like a business on a budget rather than a car that runs on fuel.
• How the science of metabolism explains why exercise is so important for long term health and longevity.
• Whether building muscle makes you burn more calories at rest.
• That fast and slow metabolism doesn’t mean what people think it does.
• Whether or not you can burn fat specifically from “problem areas” on your body.
• How the transatlantic slave trade and the rise of Protestantism influenced the way we think about fatness and thinness.
• How fatphobia and a preference for thinness has been used to craft and reinforce racial, sexual, and socioeconomic hierarchies over the centuries.
• Why “long and lean” is to the 1990s and 2000s as “white and nordic” was to the 1800s and 1900s.
• Why using "long and lean" as a marketing ploy does harm to the teaching profession of Pilates and barre.

And more!

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Reference links:

Episode 60: Dismantling Long & Lean Pt. 1

Burn: New Research Blows the Lid Off How We Really Burn Calories…

Episode 43: Nutrition Facts vs. Fiction with Dr. Ben House, PhD

Fearing the Black Body…