You may be thinking, the title of this article is a bit dramatic; you’d be both right and wrong in two different senses. The answer to the question of whether everything is inherently political depends on the context used. In the case of movement, however, there are significant reasons why your love for exercise may invoke a need for recognition of the politics behind the sports you play.
The rationale for why your 9:00 AM pilates class should segway into a mid-day protest is rooted in what exercise really is. Every exercise, short of simple movements like walking or waving your arms around, was invented by a person. That very person lived in a specific time in history with a specific lens which they viewed the world. For some, exercise was a form of protest, and for others community or expression. Nevertheless, when doing someone’s exercise, it’s appalling that we seldom stop to think about its creation, or the era it was born in.
Take soccer, for example. FIFA describes “cuju” – a Chinese Han Dynasty game used for military training – as the predecessor to soccer (https://www.fifamuseum.com/en/explore/fifamuseumplus/blog/origins-cuju-in-china). The sport was said to be a positive morale booster for the army. However, when the Ming Dynasty came into reign, the sport was entirely banned with the punishment of losing a foot for playing it. This example demonstrates how soccer/football has origins in the gamification of training, which is most certainly political.
Another example is how baseball was shaped by colonist migrants to America. While the original sport has origins across Europe, blending various traditions (https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2023/02/07/who-invented-baseball/8124497001/), America played a distinct role in the influence of baseball, and baseball in America was more than a game. Baseball became a way by which politics interacted with sports. Take the Civil Rights Era. Jackie Robinson was so distinctly recognized in baseball that his calls for equality greatly influenced the success of Martin Luther King Jr. (https://baseballhall.org/baseball-history-american-history-and-you)
If that isn’t enough of a reason to seek education on your chosen sports’ history, here are the other facts. Your movement is a privilege. One study published under the National Library of Medicine in 1990 found that amongst San Diego residents surveyed, those who exercised more than three times a week were likely to have exercise facilities near their homes (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1580056/). This was reconfirmed in 2010 by a study published under the Journal of American College Health which found that college students were more likely to exercise when they had close facilities or more home exercise equipment (https://doi.org/10.3200/JACH.53.6.285-290).
Next time you partake in exercise, think about the history of your activity, and what allows you to do it today. Whether it’s legal rights, privileges, or accessibility, there’s more to your physical activity than you think.
