Category: health and fitness

Gym shorts and sweat pants in the 1980s?

From my personal Facebook feed this morning, someone has a question about athletic fashion during the 1980s:

“What exactly was the point of wearing athletic shorts on top of sweatpants [in the 1980s]?”

From my personal Facebook feed, a question about 1980s athletic attire…

I was a teenager in the 1980s, and an avid runner. I don’t really remember seeing this all that much. I do remember seeing it on occasion, and thinking that it was a little odd, or pointless.

I can say with 100 percent certainty that I never went running with gym shorts worn over my sweat pants.

I did, however, often run with gym shorts over my tights. Athletic tights, then as now, were much more form fitting and much less modest. (Athletic tights are also far better suited to running.)

If you didn’t actually experience the 1980s (or any historic period, for that matter), there is a danger in conflating the anecdotal with the common. 

And even some common things weren’t all that common. For example, I never wore my hair in the style that is now called a “mullet”. (We didn’t call those hairstyles “mullets” back then, either.)

-ET

Suzy Favor Hamilton: Gen X ‘Fast Girl’

Suzy Favor Hamilton and I have two things in common: we were both born in August 1968, and we were both drawn to running at a young age.

That is where the similarities end. Hamilton made it to the Olympics in 1992, 1996, and 2000. I made it only to the Ohio State Cross Country Championships in 1985—where I placed about midway through the pack.

After her running career ended, Hamilton also worked as a high-price escort in Las Vegas for a while. As in running, her competitive instincts took over. She explains in an interview (above) how she became fixated on achieving a top ranking on The Erotic Review, a website where clients review escorts.

By this time she was also a wife and a mother. Hamilton’s husband was aware of her activities. Whether this was some kind of a kink for him, or merely something he tolerated, is unclear. But he knew what she was doing.

One thing is clear: she got careless. By 2012, Hamilton was in her 40s, and her Olympic career was in the past. She was never a household name or a major celebrity, in the way that Bruce Jenner, Michael Phelps, or Kristi Yamaguchi were. Nevertheless, she was a public figure of some renown, and she was asking for trouble when she revealed her identity to several clients. Continue reading “Suzy Favor Hamilton: Gen X ‘Fast Girl’”

A  Zoomer moment at my gym

I belong to a gym in suburban Cincinnati. Over this past summer, the gym ran a 3-month membership special for college students. It was a good deal, apparently. My gym was overrun with baby-faced, tattooed moppets from June through August.

I have nothing against our youngest generation of adults. Except for one thing: they all become catatonic when staring at their cell phone screens.

I have nothing against cell phones, either. I carry one with me just about everywhere I go.

But most of the time, it’s in my pocket.

Not the Gen Zs, however. Everyone born after 1995 seems unable to function unless the cell phone is constantly in hand. Sometimes they appear to be texting. Most of the time, though, they are simply scrolling through the screen. (Waiting for a text, perhaps?)

But what does an old man like me care about such things? The problem is that in a gym, Gen Zs take twice as long as everyone else, because they park themselves on exercise machines, immerse themselves in their phones, and tune out the rest of the world.

Absorbed in his cell phone, a Gen Z zones out while seated on an exercise machine, thereby inconveniencing everyone else

I will also note that Gen Z males are worse about this than Gen Z females. (I suspect that these young guys are looking at young women on social media, or desperately hoping that a young woman will text them.) Continue reading “A  Zoomer moment at my gym”

Runner’s high is real; I’ve known this for 40+ years

This week the Cincinnati area is under an oppressive heat wave, so I went for a morning run today, instead of delaying until the afternoon.

It was nevertheless about 80 degrees Fahrenheit and muggy. Bad air quality. Not ideal weather for running.

I pushed through, though, and completed my miles. (This morning, I did a light run of only 3 miles.)

Afterward, I was suffused with feelings of euphoria: a sense of centeredness and relaxation. My thoughts were crystal-clear and focused.

I was peacefully floating.

This is, I believe, the feeling that many recreational drug users search for.

I know a young woman, almost thirty years my junior, who begins each morning by smoking marijuana. She claims that the marijuana helps her anxiety.

I have told her many times: “Quit smoking weed, like a total f—cking moron, and start running.” (She is in perfect health, and there is nothing to stop her.)

Runner’s high is real. There are others who can better explain the science behind it: running’s effects on the hippocampus and whatnot. I can give you 40+ years of experiential testimony. Running makes you feel good, like no recreational drug or intoxicant can.

And unlike recreational drugs, running is also good for you.

-ET

Cloudsurfer: my new running shoes

I have been an avid runner since 1984. In more than 40 years of running, I have had relatively few injuries. But all of the injuries that I have had have involved my feet.

As a result, my quest for the perfect running shoe has lasted for 40 years, too. I’ve tried all the major brands at one time or another: Nike, Adidas, New Balance, etc.

I recently acquired this pair of Cloudsurfers, and they are like no running shoes I have ever owned. They are light for speed, but also provide extensive support.

My new Cloudsurfer running shoes

Regular readers will know that I often wax nostalgic about the 1980s. I’m a curmudgeon when it comes to most social media—and don’t even get me started about AI.

But sometimes, the more modern, high-tech solution represents an improvement. Cloudsurfers weren’t available for me to run in back in 1984. I wish such shoes had been on the market in my salad days.

-ET

***Save on Cloudsurfer shoes at Amazon

Sex appeal and cigarette ads: my 1970s/80s youth

During the 1970s and throughout most of the 1980s, it was common to see full-page cigarette ads in glossy magazines. Advertisements for cancer sticks had already been banned from television, but print ads were still legal, and considered fair game.

Camel ad, circa 1978 to 1983

Much has been said about the “Marlboro Man” over the years. But the Camel Dude (shown above) got a lot more female attention. I remember seeing variations of the above ad in a number of magazines that ended up in my hands during the late 1970s and early 1980s, including Field & Stream, which I read with some regularity.

We can assume that the Camel Dude got lucky on the day presented in the above ad. But one wonders: is he still alive? Perhaps not, with that smoking habit of his.

I was a pre-adolescent and adolescent in those days; and I may have been slightly influenced by the marketing message. A “great-tasting blend of Turkish and domestic tobaccos”, and hot women on the beach? Count me in, said the adolescent version of me.

Speaking of which: I haven’t smoked cigarettes at all as an adult; but I did smoke them on occasion when I was 12 to 13 years old. Another thing about the 1970s/80s: cigarette vending machines were everywhere, and underage people had no difficulty accessing them.

I certainly tried Camels. The hot blonde, as I recall, was not included.

-ET