Mobility, Justice, and Representation in the Fitness Industry w/ Rich Thurman

If you are someone who is not strength training yet or are looking to get back into activity, you might be nervous. Getting back into movement in a way that keeps you safe and healthy starts with understanding your foundation and finding mobility practices that meet you where you are now.

Key Takeaways

If You Want To Encourage Mobility, Representation, and Justice In The Fitness Space, You Should:

1. Get assessed to find out where your body is at and what mobility practices could benefit you
2. Stop viewing mobility practices as an optional extra and start including them in your daily routine
3. Work to view people in the fitness space as whole people, not just exercise machines
4. Seek out voices other than your own to find out how you can increase representation in the fitness space

Taking Care Of Yourself as a Whole Person

Rich Thurman, better known as Coach RT3, is a mobility specialist who is passionate about sharing his experiences as a black man in the fitness industry and advocating for coaching in a way that takes care of your body, mind, and spirit as one whole person. 

Rich knows that mobility practices are not an optional extra but something that helps you get better at what you are trying to do and is here today to share how mobility, inclusivity, and representation intersect in the fitness space.

Investing In Yourself Through Mobility Practices

Mobility is the best investment you can make for yourself. By giving time to mobility practices that will improve your longevity, and preserve, improve, and enhance your ability to do the things you love longer, you will save yourself the necessity to give it up later. 

Something as simple as preparation can help you create strength in the realms you may not have strength in anymore, save you from injury, and help you find a workout that fits your body's strengths and shortcomings. Mobility practices are the key to move better, feel better, and ultimately do more for longer.

Representation Is Power

For too long, underrepresented people in the fitness space, such as Black, Asian, and LGBTQ+ persons, have been burying themselves to make other people feel comfortable. Rich is here to say no more to that and encourage organizations, coaches, trainers, and anyone involved in the fitness space to do the work, become aware, and take steps to view someone as a whole person. 

Instead of assuming the needs of others and pushing that agenda, Rich wants to challenge you to work to improve yourself, learn about your community, and recognize the intersections between identity, representation, and fitness. It is only by working to be better, that we can include the voices that have been marginalized for too long and lift up our fellow humans.

Are you ready to give yourself the gift of time through mobility practices? How do you work to stand up for your fellow humans in the fitness space? Share your thoughts about Rich’s perspective with me in the comments on the episode page.

In This Episode

• Why mobility is an important piece to getting active again that a lot of people skip over (6:16)
• Tips for tackling mobility as part of your overall training program (21:35)
• The role of social justice when it comes to the experience of being in the fitness industry (31:07)
• How walking away from certification bodies can be liberating, challenging, and transformative (38:43)
• The importance of mental health and representation when coaching a whole person (44:32)

Quotes

“When we look at training mobility, and why it's important, it's more along the lines of preparing your body for the things that you want to do.” (10:02)

“You can spend the time now, or you can give up the time later. There are only really 2 options. So when we create more room for the things that we love, we are basically creating more time.” (22:31)

“Peripherally, all of the wealth that came as a peripheral means of those bodies, the bodies of my ancestors who survived this ordeal, to make me possible, that is carried inside of me.” (33:07)

“The onus is not on us to find out when these things happen, the onus is on the organization to say ‘this is what we want, this is what we would like, can we find the people who are doing good work within our organization who have paid us money and maintained our certification, can we find those people?’.” (41:34)

“These conversations need to be had throughout all of these organizations and need to be commonplace. Because we need to know how to best serve the people we are working with, the people in front of us.” (48:01)

Featured on the Show

Free Strength Workout Mini-Course

Upgrade Guys Mobility Membership

The Upgrade Guys Website

The Upgrade Yo Sh*t Podcast

Follow Rich on Instagram | TikTok

Steph Gaudreau Website

Check out the full show notes here!

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LTYB 327: Getting Back to Exercise Without Feeling Wrecked

LTYB 143: Inclusivity & Social Justice In Health & Fitness with Dr. Tee Williams