Generation Xercise
In the early fall of 1981, the kids of Generation X were enticed to get in shape, or just pay attention to fitness, or at least entertain our adolescent selves watching others get sweaty. Oh, sure, we’d had the first two Rocky movies to get us up and moving, and the third film revolutionized the training montage for sports films in 1982. I know I had at least a few weeks of sprinting around the neighborhood and lifting make-shift weights in the basement after Rocky kicked Clubber Lane’s butt. But it was the early days of MTV that first got us going, or at least thinking about going. For that September featured the release of Olivia Newton John’s “Physical,” and both music videos and adolescent boys were never the same.
Now, as we head into our fifties and even approach retirement age, perhaps it’s time to remember that Aussie’s advice. It’s time for Generation X to get physical, to become Generation Xercise. I hate to say it, my friends, but we’ve gotten soft, and fitness is no longer optional. This is mandatory. We’re running out of time, and our waists can’t wait. A recent study out of England on the health of people in their 40s and 50s — yeah, that’s us Gen X — found we may live longer than the Boomers in front of us, but our overall health will be poorer. The sixty-plus age group was actually in better shape physically than we are at the same age. That’s not good. Living longer, but living in pain and sickness is a really cruel trick of the contemporary age, and we need to flip the narrative. Remember the dean from Animal House: “Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life.” Well, overweight, out of shape, lethargic, and generally grumpy is no way to go through retirement.
And, it’s not like health and wellness is new to us. In fact, it’s as if we were born for this moment. Like so many cultural turning points with Generation X, the fitness craze arose with our coming of age. Home videos like Jane Fonda’s workouts, which also premiered in 1982, certainly played a role in our health consciousness, even if Jane was ten years older and not necessarily appealing to adolescents and teens. For the retro nostalgic types, her workout program is still relevant and available on Amazon Prime, as noted by Vogue culture writer Patricia Garcia who says it not only holds up but is still “the best exercise class out there.” Heck, Jane Fonda looks great at 82 and recently put out a new workout video that is trending on TikTok. So, if Jane can stay fit and active into her eighties, well … take note.
We were made to stay fit and healthy, coming along just as Nautilus centers and machine weights took off in the 80s. And when Bowflex premiered shortly after, we couldn’t escape those ubiquitous commercials, direct marketing to us dreams of the perfect, or at least passably appealing, spring break bodies The world’s been enticing us, if not outright begging us, to work out, while making it seem all too easy. We headed into our adult lives by stretching our pilates in the 90s, and we laughed as it morphed into yogalates by 2003. We kicked it up a notch about the same time as CrossFit hit the market, invented by a Boomer and marketed to Millennials but squarely in Gen X’s wheelhouse as the group most likely to have a gym membership. Now, we’re in the age of Peloton, which appeals to all us stuck at home during the pandemic, as well as those of us who prefered to stay at home anyway. Face it, we’ve seen every possible fad in our fifty years and have had plenty of time to test them all.
Now, it’s time to make peace with our preferred church of fitness. Research shows the primary target of the fitness industry is people in their fifties, with age 55 being a prime consumer. It’s time, Xers. We literally can’t afford to not get moving. In our fifties, we should be hitting the U-curve in terms of overall well being and satisfaction. The kids are older now, we’re settling into the sweet spot of career arcs, and we have time again to pay attention to ourselves. Try the 9-minute workout, or heck, even the 7-minute workout. Walk for thirty minutes a day. Get your stretch on. Take the pushup challenge, or just do some pushups every day. It doesn’t matter what we do, as long as we’re doing something. If the Covid pandemic did anything, it hopefully made us want to get moving, get out of the house.
There won’t be a better time for people of a certain age to get back in shape. Reminders are everywhere, as so many of us are also in the midst of caring for aging parents and getting a good view of where we’re headed healthwise. We have concerns about midlife crises and the added stress of caring for our growing kids and our aging parents. Being the sandwich generation in prime sandwich mode facing a generational tug of war is not easy. A commitment to physical and mental health and wellness can help. It will help. At this point we need all the positive endorphins we can get, and we’ve known for years about the link between exercise and mental health. Thinking forward, the finance of fitness cannot be discounted either. We should not ignore fiscal arguments for physical fitness, especially in an ever increasingly perilous health care environment. The greatest expense Americans have on personal, state, and federal levels is the rising cost of medical care. The best thing we can do for our country and ourselves is to spend as little money as possible for illness.
So, Olivia Newton John looks and feels amazing at the age of seventy-two, even as she battles breast cancer again. And Jane Fonda is still as stunning and fit as always, and still working out, at the age of eighty-two. So, let’s do this. This is not a drill. This is not optional. This is what has been waiting for us. As we move out of child-rearing and career-building and into our Act III, it’s time for Generation Xercise.
Let’s get physical.
