85. Diet Culture in Pilates, with Jade Ritchi and Raphael Bender

Pilates Elephants

TW: This episode contains content about disordered eating & body dysmorphia.

We acknowledge that this may be difficult and encourage you to care for your safety and well-being by talking to your healthcare professional if any of the issues in this show have affected you.

Diet culture has infiltrated Pilates and is evident in many of the usual practices many of us do, like cueing, marketing our services and even encouraging our clients.

Jade and Raph try hard to disagree but basically fail; they talk about:

• What are diet culture and fatphobia
• Why fitness is a better measure of health than body shape or fatness
• Why fitness (or Pilates) challenges can be problematic, and how to reframe your fitness challenge so it’s body neutral
• Why we don’t need to focus on working individual body parts, how it can be problematic, and what to do instead to motivate your clients
• How to change your language to be more body neutral
• Why Pilates instructors shouldn’t be giving dietary advice
• The many incredible benefits of exercise that aren’t related to how you look
• And more

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Tally Rye book Train Happy here
• Meet physical activity guidelines and halve your chance of dying of any cause in the next 10 years here
• Meeting physical activity guidelines reduces your risk of diabetes 39% and cardiovascular disease 60% here
• Fitness is vastly more important than fatness for heart health here
• Fitness is more important than body mass index for predicting someone’s risk of dying at any age here
• Run app link here
• Wendy Suzuki TED talk: The Brain-changing benefits of exercise here
• Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia here
• The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women here

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About Jade Ritchi:

Jade Ritchi is an Australian Pilates Instructor living in Los Angeles and is a current Breathe Education Diploma of Clinical Pilates student. Jade worked as a hairdresser for the majority of her career, but she has always had a passion for exercise and loves making people feel good. She described herself as a feminist, movement optimist and coffee snob.

Jade has struggled with disordered eating for more than half her entire life and is passionate about making people aware of the perils of diet culture.

How to Connect with Jade:

• Find Jade on Instagram and Tiktok

About Raphael Bender:

Raph believes everyone deserves the opportunity to transform into a better version of themselves. His main strength as a teacher and movement professional is the ability to distill complex research findings into a simple, science-based approach to help people move fearlessly, thoughtlessly, and painlessly. He LOVES running, weights, cycling, and Contrology.

Raph holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Exercise Physiology (Rehabilitation), a Bachelor’s degree in Exercise and Sports Science, Diploma of Pilates Movement Therapy, and STOTT PILATES full certification.

How to Connect with Raphael:

• Find Breathe Education on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, and Twitter
• Find Raphael Bender on Instagram here: @the_raphaelbender

Purchase Raph's new book:

Strengthen The Person Not Just The Body Part here

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