‘The Gym Brofication Of Running’

Chris Z (who I have previously linked to several times) wrote another great piece and introduces the English speaking world to the “Lauchs”:

Culture begins with the signals around the body. A biceps flex, showing up shirtless at the start of a race, an Instagram caption suggesting that running far or fast is simply a matter of trying hard enough — none of this stays neutral. It creates a small but steady pressure against softness, hesitation, fear, care and caution.

That is how toxic masculinity stops being an individual trait and becomes part of the culture.

There have been a lot of hot takes lately – on Substack especially – on how running is changing and how this might be a bad thing. It’s inevitable in many ways that folks wanting to add their 2 cents to the conversation and make their personal experience the defining line by which everything is measured. Cut Chris’s point is worth pondering. As running gets picked up by the fashion world the performative display of the outward expression becomes more important than the actual experience of running on trails somewhere in the mountains. That’s worth fighting for.