The incompatibility of Asian culture and a gym lifestyle

Hi, I’m Olive, a Korean-American science writer and fitness enthusiast, and I started this newsletter to empower and create a community for all Asian women who lift or are interested in getting into lifting. I decided to do this because fitness changed my life in ways I never expected–but I had to break through layers of mental barriers made up of cultural expectations and stereotypes to pick up a barbell for the first time in late 2019.

Culture, Weight, and Body Image

I live in Bergen County, NJ, where the Asian population is something like 17%. Yet I can count on one hand the amount of Asian women I’ve seen at my gym. I’d love to see more of us lifting heavy and eating sufficient calories to sustain muscle growth, but for those of us who are in touch with our cultural heritage to any extent, there are often deeply ingrained ideals to work through first.

One of these is the obsession with being extremely skinny and under a certain arbitrary weight. The “ideal” Korean woman weighs 40-55 kg (88-121 lbs) regardless of height. She eats like a bird. She has a thigh gap, no rolls, a flat stomach, and practically no muscle.

And Korea still places a heavy emphasis on BMI, despite the fact that it’s not a good parameter for a healthy weight since it doesn’t consider those with more muscle mass. On top of that, Korea’s BMI bands are much stricter, with a BMI of 25 being considered obese, whereas one has to have a BMI of 30 or higher to be considered obese in the U.S. To put that into perspective, I, at 5’2” and 136 lbs, with a waist of 25 inches and a BMI of 24.9, would practically be considered obese in Korea.

It’s no coincidence that the period of my life when I was most into Korean dramas, boys, and culture in general was also when I was restricting my daily calorie intake to sub-600 and actively trying to get myself to the underweight band of BMI. My thigh gap was huge; I weighed 97 lbs, had no energy, and was losing my hair due to malnourishment.

While I can only speak for Korean culture, these toxic beauty standards are mirrored in our counterparts in other Asian countries. These standards bleed over from our or our parents’ mother countries and affect even those of us who were born in the U.S. This also leads to the stereotype that Asian women are doomed to having particular features, like small glutes, skinny legs, and a generally tiny, weak frame.

Breaking Stereotypes

With shows like Netflix’s Physical 100 helping to normalize a healthier lifestyle and more Asian-American women documenting their fitness journeys on social media than ever, the needle has definitely been moving in the right direction for some time now, albeit incrementally.

If you’re interested in following some strong, influential Asian-American women who lift heavy and live a healthy lifestyle that isn’t centered around weight, here are a few of many:

• Cynthia (@cynthialeu on IG)

• Linda (@lindaaabear on IG)

• Amy (@amyluongggg on IG)

• Tiffany (@liftliketiff on IG)

• Mindy (@baconandbiceps on IG)

• …and of course, me, Olive (@ol.vefit on IG)

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