Come as you are to Fat Yoga

Updated

Mainstream yoga classes filled with lithe, athletic-looking Anglo women are leaving people with bigger frames feeling intimidated and excluded, writes Hayley Gleeson. The antidote? Fat Yoga: where the F word is used with pride.

It's a brisk winter's night in Melbourne's eastern suburbs and, as hundreds of thousands of Australians sit down to watch The Bachelor, a small group of women lays still, and silent, on the floor of a warm yoga studio above a bustling Thai restaurant.

At first glance, this could be just another yoga class: long, ribbed mats? Check. Bare feet? Plenty. Several patterned pairs of brand-name exercise tights? Of course. Motivational quotes on the walls? Namaste.

But what sets this class apart from one at a mainstream yoga studio is that almost all of the women in the room identify as fat, and have come to be guided through an hour-long series of poses which have been modified to suit their bigger frames.

They also appreciate its teacher's lessons in self-compassion.

"I am enough, I have enough, I do enough," coos Sarah Harry, the instructor and founder of Fat Yoga.

A body image and eating disorders specialist, Ms Harry, 43, first began teaching 'body positive' yoga three years ago, but this year rebranded the classes 'Fat Yoga' in the hope of appealing to more people.

"I tried [the name] 'body positive yoga' and I tried 'curvy yoga' ... but they didn't resonate as much as Fat Yoga," Ms Harry explains. "I think Fat Yoga is really easy to understand and also resonates strongly with the fat positive community" who embrace the word 'fat' as part of protesting "the discrimination that people in larger bodies face".

What is Fat Yoga?

Fat Yoga as a concept first emerged in the United States a few years ago, but has recently found a following in Australia, with a couple of teachers in Melbourne offering classes for people who identity as fat.

Ms Harry says she's noticed an increase in the number of people — mostly women — enquiring about and taking her classes in the last few months — a trend experts attribute to social discrimination against fat people.

"People in bigger bodies need and are asking for safe spaces to practice and to exercise," Ms Harry says. "They also need [an instructor] who is able to adapt and modify traditional yoga poses for their bodies."

With mainstream yoga classes typically filled with lithe, athletic-looking Anglo women (it's been called the 'Skinny White Girl Problem'), it's not hard to see how someone who doesn't fit that mould might feel intimidated walking into a regular studio.

"I have been to normal yoga classes and they're f***ed," says Barbara, 53, who has been going to Ms Harry's classes since she launched them. "They preach non-judgement and compassion but are led by mostly white, skinny, able-bodied, young women. They are not inclusive of all body types."

With Fat Yoga, however, Barbara says she feels "taller, stronger, more confident in my body".

Jacqueline, 25, has only recently started doing fat yoga.

"This space is just amazing," she tells ABC News. "I feel like it's the only space I can come without being judged. That word 'fat' ... you know what? I'm cool with that."

Embracing the F-word

Though not everyone feels comfortable describing themselves with the F-word. Admittedly, I bristle just saying it, and worry I'll offend someone by using it so nonchalantly.

"I like that it's called [fat yoga] because it will hopefully make the [negative] feelings that come with it go away — it will just become more normal," says Natalie, another of Ms Harry's students. "But for me, right now, I just [shudder and] go, 'Ooof!'."

And little wonder, given how culturally loaded it is, says fat studies researcher Deborah Lupton, Centenary Professor at the University of Canberra's News and Media Research Centre and author of the book Fat.

"There's been all sorts of victim blaming and stigma and judgement [of fat people] that has intensified, particularly over the past 20 years," Professor Lupton tells ABC News.

"The so-called obesity crisis ... really has exacerbated all those underlying moral beliefs about fatness.

"Fat people are subject to so much discrimination when they're out in any kind of public space, including gyms and exercise classes, that I think it's fantastic there are these special classes where people can go along and ... be part of if they want to."

Indeed, numerous studies have looked at the stigma and discrimination fat people are frequently subjected to in daily life, with recent research finding overweight people who had experienced weight-based discrimination were more likely to report mental health problems like depression and anxiety. Ironically, they were also more likely to avoid the gym or GP out of fear of experiencing further stigmatisation.

Only a few weeks ago, a Playboy model garnered global attention after she fat-shamed a woman in her gym change room, sharing on Snapchat a photo of the woman's naked body along with a derogatory caption. (The model was swiftly banned from her gym and suspended from her part time job at a radio station.)

Fat stigma is a problem for everyone

However, Professor Lupton says fat discrimination has repercussions for all of society, manifesting in the growing number of young Australians being diagnosed with eating disorders.

The stigma of fatness has created an intense fear of being fat, she says, even among people of average weight, with primary school-age children now presenting with negative body image.

"We need to be really careful about the kind of education that goes on in schools around fatness and body weight," she says, "as well as the public health campaigns that they're exposed to, which have tended to be really stigmatising against fat people."

Interestingly, Ms Harry has fielded a few calls from slim women wanting to come to her classes, which she thinks says a lot about mainstream gyms and yoga studios.

"You go there [to mainstream gyms] to exercise and feel good about your body and yet some of those environments ... have a lot of pictures on their walls that are of small bodies, or they are very focused on dieting or on [making] extreme changes to your body."

Helpful links: If you or someone you know needs help with an eating disorder you can get in contact with these organisations:



Tasmanian Recovery from Eating Disorders (TRED) The National Eating Disorders Collaboration

The National Eating Disorders Support Line 1800 33 46 73 If you or someone you know needs help with an eating disorder you can get in contact with these organisations:

Still, I can't help but wonder whether having a dedicated Fat Yoga studio is actually a positive development, or whether it reinforces the idea that fat people are different. Doesn't it create an unhelpful us versus them mentality?

"I don't think it's exclusionary," says Kate, 39. "There are still people with different bodies who come here."

"It can be very confronting to start coming to any form of exercise in a fat body, and so these sorts of spaces are really important when you are at the beginning of that journey."

Natalie adds: "For a long time I just thought, 'I'll [do yoga] at home, I'm too embarrassed to go to a real class', and of course I never did.

"I've had a rolled up mat inside my lounge room for the past five years; I just couldn't make myself do it. But this makes me do it."

Topics: women, emotions, exercise-and-fitness, obesity, womens-health, offbeat

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