Danielle Friedman is an award-winning journalist whose writing has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine's The Cut, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, Health, and other publications. She has worked as a senior editor at NBC News Digital and The Daily Beast, and she began her career as a nonfiction book editor at the Penguin imprints Hudson Street Press and Plume. She lives in New York City with her husband and son.
A well-researched and readable account of how female pioneers broke
the taboos that stopped most women exercising until at least the
1960s. Friedman, a journalist, emphasises that fitness has remained
accessible primarily to white women with time and resources. Now
some pioneers are trying to break those exclusionary barriers
too.
*Financial Times, best summer books of 2022*
An absorbing, pacy read - and her enthusiasm for exercise is
contagious.
*New Statesman*
Fact-packed but bouncy ... Most enjoyable is when Friedman shines
light on less hallowed figures, like Judi Sheppard Missett, the
relentlessly upbeat founder of Jazzercise, whose classes "changed
the rhythm of women's days"; and Bonnie Prudden, "the lady in the
leotite" and a descendant of Davy Crockett...[Friedman's] book is
very much "pro" exercise, but for the right reasons: not slimming
down but mood management, community, spirituality in the
corporal.
*The New York Times*
Astute and entertaining ... With an emphasis on barrier breakers,
business dynamos, and exceptional athletes, Friedman explores how
physical training can be a means of personal liberation ... This
zippy history is bursting with energy.
*Publishers Weekly*
Canny and informative.
*The New Yorker*
The story of Lycra-clad feminism and how women went from being
banned at races to dominating fitness.
*Stylist, the best non-fiction health and fitness books for women
to read*
There are few areas of American culture as complicated-and as
understudied-as women's exercise. Which is why I feel like I've
been waiting for a book like Let's Get Physical for decades:
something that takes the history and importance of fitness
seriously, but is also incisive and curious and readable and
fun.
*Anne Helen Petersen, author of Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The
Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman*
Friedman's study of modern fitness culture is as illuminating as it
is enthralling. She reveals the wild characters, political agendas,
and social movements that changed not only our exercise behaviors
but our understanding of exercise itself. Behind every workout
there is a story, and it's usually a good one.
*Kelsey Miller, author of I’ll Be There for You: The One About
Friends*
A fascinating and complicated history, masterfully shared. Let's
Get Physical made me grateful to the women of the past and hopeful
about the future of fitness. My favorite read of the year!
*Kelly McGonigal, author of The Joy of Movement*
It's easy to critique the class, race, and gender stereotypes
perpetuated by many fitness industry advertising campaigns, but
Friedman reminds us how revolutionary it was, not so long ago, to
encourage women to do strenuous physical exercise. An engaging
account of the complicated, unconventional individuals who
pioneered today's fitness culture for women.
*Stephanie Coontz, author of A Strange Stirring: The Feminine
Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s*
Don't read this book because it's 'good for you.' Read it because
it's an eye-opening cultural history of the fitness pioneers who
put the 'move' into the feminist movement. Let's Get Physical
reminded me of why feeling strong feels so good.
*Brooke Hauser, author of Enter Helen: The Invention of Helen
Gurley Brown and the Rise of the Modern Single Woman*
How did we get from the notion that exercise was unladylike, even
dangerous for women, to the 1980s fitness craze and beyond that has
totally transformed women's lives? In this lively book, Danielle
Friedman uses fitness pioneers and icons, from Bonnie Prudden to
Jane Fonda to Lilias Folan, to trace how regular exercise became
central to millions of women's pursuit of vitality, confidence, and
happiness. Full of fun and inspiring stories, Let's Get Physical
reminds us that this is not just a history of sports bras or leg
warmers, but also of how feminism itself enabled and drew from
women finding empowerment in the strength of their own bodies.
*Susan J. Douglas, author of In Our Prime: How Older Women are
Reinventing the Road Ahead*
Danielle Friedman's wildly engaging Let's Get Physical answered the
questions I didn't even know I had about the origins of women's
fitness (Jane Fonda sold how many copies of her Workout?!), and
left me with a huge debt of gratitude to the trailblazing women who
had the foresight to do things like sneak into the Boston Marathon
and invent the sports bra so that we could swan into the gym
without a second thought. A fascinating, meticulously researched
read that left me with a much greater appreciation for the burn of
barre class.
*Doree Shafrir, author of Thanks for Waiting and Startup: A
Novel*
With lively writing and compelling storytelling-tales of bamboo
swords, spandex, and a sexy gerbil included-Danielle Friedman
teases out the complicated relationship between exercise culture
and feminism in this engaging exploration of modern fitness
history. You'll want to hit the barre afterward.
*Haley Shipley, author of Strong Like Her: A Celebration of Rule
Breakers, History Makers, and Unstoppable Athletes*
It is all too easy to look at the history of women's fitness as an
unconnected timeline of fads and celebrities. In Let's Get
Physical, Danielle Friedman weaves together the cultural history of
a movement that is nothing less than the story of the modern
American woman-and she does it with fascinating and fun
storytelling that will appeal to anyone who has ever wondered why
thighs need to be mastered or buns should be made of steel.
*Dan Koeppel, author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed
the World and Every Minute Is a Day: A Doctor, an Emergency Room,
and a City Under Siege*
Let's Get Physical is a delicious deep dive into fitness culture
that features an eclectic cast of women who deviously ran men-only
marathons in the 1960s, turned Jazzercise, aerobics, and barre into
mainstream mega fads, and who power-lifted notions of femininity
until they included muscles and strength. Author Danielle Friedman
tracks exercise culture into the 21st century, debunking myths and
delighting readers with diamond-sharp prose, wry humor and rigorous
research.
*Sarah Everts, author of The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of
Perspiration*
Friedman's engaging stories of the women who created and
transformed the fitness industry illustrate an evolution built upon
strong female shoulders.
*The Washington Post*
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