Why is shirtless running ok only if you "have the right body type"?

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CreativeGuy504
CreativeGuy504 Posts: 16 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
As an avid runner for many years, I've come across this debate countless numbers of times. It seems that many people have an issue with shirtless runners of a certain type. You either have to "have the right body type", or you need to be "under 35", etc. If you don't, then you "need to cover up". I understand the argument about covering up inside at a gym where your sweat could get on the equipment other people need to use, but outside should be fair game.

There's a gentleman who runs shirtless three mornings a week in my neighborhood. Even at seven am, it's hot and humid out, and he runs shirtless. He may not have a beautiful body to stare at (he looks to be in his seventies), but so what? In this day and age of rampant obesity, I admire someone who's getting out there and trying to improve his health.

Instead of knocking someone down simply because they don't look the part (which truthfully, isn't anyone else's business in the first place), shouldn't we be supporting someone who's out there trying to improve their health? If you're sixty years old and take your shirt off for comfort while running, or if you're thirty pounds overweight and do the same...I don't see what the issue is. Why should someone have to alter their exercise routine simply because someone else doesn't like it?

Just my .02

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Replies

  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    I don't care if people run shirtless, though it is very unusual to see an adult do it around here. There's one guy I've seen a couple of times and then the boys track team (obviously not adults.) I do see a lot of men of various sizes/shapes out on their riding lawnmowers.
  • yesimpson
    yesimpson Posts: 1,372 Member
    edited August 2016
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    Alluminati wrote: »
    yesimpson wrote: »
    Cutaway_Collar wrote: »
    It's part of emotional maturity. When you are over 35, you are pretty much in fatherhood territory and you need to set an example and not come across as the show off to passers by especially when there are children, teens and very young women around... Like in their late teens and early 20s.

    Because you no longer fit the bill for young and dashing and society looks up to you to set an example. If I were 45 and I had a daughter... I'd never create a chance for her or her peers look at my shirtless body in my effing neighbourhood, and provide room for discussion. It's wrong on so many levels. Yet many dudes do this because they just seek the attention, because age is just a number and emotional maturity is often not proportional to age.

    When I was a teenager and woman in her early 20s, I do not recall being emotionally scarred by the sight of an exposed chest or back belonging to a man over 35. I'm really not sure why this is something you find so inappropriate. Maybe men just get hot, and it's not necessarily a form of peacocking?

    I don't think that poster was implying that the young ladies would be emotionally scarred. He was implying that the 20 yr old girls (his daughters friends, presumably) would be ogling his hot dad body and talking amongst their friends in the neighborhood.



    Roflmao.

    Oh, inevitably.
    How terrible. The fabric of society would crumble.

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