Social Workout

My Body

Patricia Starr on Pedaling Over the Rockies and Changing Your Life in Your 60s

Patricia Starr, age 71, was Ms. Senior California in 2006 and Ms. Senior Nebraska in 2008, and in 2005 she pedaled across America wearing short short and pantyhose to raise money for music scholarships at her local college. Her new book, Angel On My Handlebars, chronicles her ride. 

Before I started, I’d never ridden more than 62 miles in a day. I’ve been walking two miles a day for about 30 years, so I had strength from that, but everyone thought I was absolutely nuts. I was 67 at the time, so people were just laughing at me. Once I got on the road and they saw what was actually happening, though, they though it was wonderful. Some days it was 120 miles. That is so far. I live in Santa Barbara, and it’s like from Santa Barbara to Disneyland. 

My Body

Gina Bradley on Lifting Your Own Board and Moments of Independence from Everything

Gina Bradley is a Stand-Up Paddleboarder and the founder of Paddle Diva in East Hampton, New York. 

I am definitely a water person. I’ve always loved the water. I'm an Aquarius — I was born under the sign! I used to be a wind surfer, but one of the things with windsurfing, the wind has to be just right in order for you to go out. The thing I love most about paddleboarding, you can always go out, in any condition. The other thing I love about it is the six pack abs. It’s an incredible core workout done properly. You're constantly balancing. You don’t even realize, but you’re working every single muscle in your body. My whole philosophy is that I find sports I like doing, and then, oh by the way, they also get me in shape.

My Body

Sage Rountree on Organic Running and Dialing Back the Yoga Intensity

Sage Rountree is the author of The Athlete's Guide to Yoga and The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga. She teaches yoga and holds coaching certifications from USA Triathlon, USA Cycling, and the Road Runners Club of America.

I came up as a couch potato. I smoked and played in a band. And I was an English major, and then I got a PhD in English Literature, so I spent a lot of time sitting on my butt reading books. But I had a very big dog, a 95 pound chocolate lab, and I started running because I would chase the dog. I'd take him off the leash on the trail, and he'd go running, and I'd have to catch him. That's how I came to running, really organically. Just chasing the dog. And I wish that for everyone. A lot of people decide they’re going to get in shape, and they start from nothing, and they make it through the cycle of the event, but then they're burnt out. For me, I was running a little bit more and a little bit more. That’s how I came into endurance sports.

My Body

Maura Barclay on Sublimating Your Urge to Run

Maura Barclay is a former two-time Junior Olympian gymnast and a former professional fire fighter. She's also the creator of Unbreakable Woman, Awesome Arms, and a Yoga Tuneup teacher and teacher trainer.

I’ve evolved from being a posing weight lifter to being a yogi who's changing the world one body at a time. The truth is, I grew up with dangerous men in my family, and I’m a survivor of that. Because I grew up in a dangerous environment, it usually goes one of two ways. Girls have very bad boundaries, because your boundaries are trespassed again and again. So women are very flirtatious and are looking for protection. Or my route, I became my own protector. I became a warrior. The weight lifting was to protect me, to make me strong. Because I grew up feeling like at any moment something was going to happen to me, I grew up always feeling like I had to be careful. The weight lifting was a function of that mindset.

Poet Laureate

Victoria's Secret Loves Your Body (If You've Got Big Boobs and No Hips)

You've almost certainly seen them: The commercials featuring Victoria Secret nymphs writhing like a full-on, full-body Herbal Essence hairgasm ad, talking about how they love their bodies. “My body, my body, I love my body” each woman in the ad repeats while Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” (sans vocals) blares in the background. Among the numerous and consecutive shots of the models' glossier-than a polished Barbie doll bodies clad in black and flesh-tone brassieres and boy shorts, special attention is given to the push-up bra and the razorback. VS seems to have forgotten that a razorback is actually a European hog.