Did you know that since 2013 sales of woman’s activewear has increased by 50 per cent? More than $30 million is spent in Australia each year on activewear. That’s a lot of tights, tees and tops. But less than 30 per cent of this activewear is used in exercise. So what’s going on? Why has activewear become everything wear?
Have you noticed 24-hour gyms popping up everywhere? We now have more than 3000 gyms in Australia with 3.3 million Australians having a gym membership. And what about all those ads for group “personal” training? Are Australians getting fitter? Well, some are. For others, having the right active look is more important than actual fitness.
People focus on their body for a whole lot of reasons. The way and why we look after our bodies says a lot about who we are.
Self-proclaimed “philosopher” and “pioneer of active living,” Lorna Jane Clarkson claims her brand is so much more than athleisure-wear—it symbolises a whole way of life, a complete belief system that gives “a reason to exist.”1 And she has many believers: “Lorna has amassed a cult following all over the globe.”
The way and why we look after our bodies says a lot about who we are.
Her catalogues of young, slim, sculpted girls who fit the Lorna Jane image overflow with motivational religious statements about belief, transformation and strength, including a centrefold reminder that all things are possible for those who believe in active living. In a world where consumerism destroys community and undermines traditional religion, the Lorna Jane brand offers a pseudo-community to belong to. In a world crying out for something to believe in, active living offers itself as an answer—a very lucrative answer for Lorna.
Mark Sayers describes how having the right body can become a devotional practise in itself. He points out that once people used to get up early in the morning to do a daily devotional time with God. Today, people still get up early to do devotions, but they are at the gym, the object of worship being themselves.2
Often a focus on the body is part of trying to keep the look our society worships.
Often a focus on the body is part of trying to keep the look our society worships. For some, time at the gym is not so much about health but rather getting the right body so they can be sexually attractive. Magazines like Men’s Health focus on biceps, chests and abdominals so as to be more able to “get girls.” They often include a focus on which exercises to do to increase sexual performance. Where sex has become a commodity, the right body is a currency to get that “product.”
In fact, many guys go to the extremes of supplements, even illegal steroids, to get the right body. The irony is that taking these drugs to get the “healthy” look is extremely unhealthy.
In a similar way girls, even in their teens, undergo cosmetic surgery to have the right look—taking fat from one part and putting it somewhere else to fit into a social convention—or pursuing unhealthy diet regimes to get a supposedly healthy look.
Middle age brings with it the societal pressure to have a “pre-baby body” or the abbs of a surfing teenager. Consumer culture worships 25 year olds. By worshipping youth, we can ignore the realities of ageing and the hollowness ageing shines onto consumer culture. Instead, stay young and make 40 the new 20.
So our gyms fill up with people trying to hang on to a younger or different version of themselves. We buy into the reality TV message that transformation is about a new body shape. Don’t worry about sorting through your hurts, problems and worldview—simply get a new body.
For some people, exercise is a stress release; for others, it is a place to be in control when everything else seems out of control.
This does not mean we should stop exercising! Lorna Jane might well make excellent activewear that you buy for totally product-related reasons rather than the image. You might be at the gym for reasons very different to the ones outlined above. It is important to be healthy, so a boycott on health is not the answer to society’s commodification of health. But it is worth thinking about why you care—or don’t care—about your body in the way you do.
The Bible gives us a far more encompassing reason for looking after our health. Lorna Jane is correct when she says that what you believe impacts your physical health. She is correct when she says positive movement leads to positive thinking. She is correct when she says that how we move, nourish and believe are all connected and shape our outlook on life. The way we treat our bodies really is spiritual. In a biblical worldview, everything is spiritual and our physical health is a spiritual issue.
However, for Lorna, it’s all about transforming through self-belief. In a biblical worldview, it’s not about us at all. Our focus on health is actually because we have given ourselves away. We’re a “living sacrifice” and we recognise that everything about us, including our bodies, belong to God and are for his glory (see Romans 12:1–3). In a biblical worldview, your time at the gym is not about you—it is all about honouring God with who you are.
Being healthy physically is a part of being healthy spiritually. The way we treat our bodies impacts our moods, energy and mental sharpness. Nothing stands in isolation; every part of what makes us who we are exists in relation with the other parts.
We allow God to work in and through us more effectively when we are looking after our bodies. God has given you an incredible body so that you can use it to honour Him. 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20 says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body.” A healthy body allows us to serve God more effectively. A healthy body can be an act of worship to God.
Sure, we will get older. Sin ensures we are going to look older, become unwell and die. However, at each point in life, we can be as healthy as we can for that stage and allow God to use us to our best potential.
But keep in mind that a healthy version of you might not be the same as what is in the Lorna Jane catalogue or Men’s Health magazine. Health is far more than body shape. It includes rest, our environment, trust, relationships and outlook.
Being healthy is a part of worshipping God. When we forget God, we end up worshipping what He has created instead—and often that is ourselves. God wants to work in and through you and staying healthy is a part of that plan.
What do you think it means to honour God with your body? Does seeing your body as God’s dwelling place change the way you treat it? What is one step you can take in the next 24 hours toward being a healthier version of you that honours God?
So get your activewear on (apparently Lorna Jane is good quality), get outside or to the gym and do think about how you fuel your body. But make some time to think about why you do this and what it would look like for your exercise time to be an act of worship to God.
“Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well” (3 John 2, NIV).
AUTHOR: Brendon Pratt is the Ministerial Secretary for the Australian Union Conference, and also an avid reptile collector—at one point housing over 120 reptiles!
1. “Will the real Lorna Jane Please Stand Up?” Latte, July 2015.
2. Mark Sayers, The Vertical Self, Thomas Nelson, 2010.