Working out, Women's Dress, and Modesty

[pensmama87]

And if you don’t believe her, check out some prior modesty threads. shudder :bigyikes:

Let me summarize for you.

Side A: I can wear whatever I want wherever I want, and it’s your problem if it bothers you! You just have a dirty mind if I walk past you naked in all my Playboy-model-body-glory and you think about sex! Theology of the Body says that I’m giving God glory by walking around naked!

Side B: If I can tell that you’re a woman without looking at your face, you’re causing me to sin, you evil harlot, you! An abbot in Little Nowhere, Persia appointed by Pope Leo III said all good Catholic women should wear burkas!

Wash, rinse, repeat for about fifteen pages until the mods get fed up and shut the whole thing down for reasons I simply cannot imagine.

Of course, there’s usually a few very, very reasonable posts, but somehow they all get ignored.

 

[CommonWeal]

Sadly, such is the hyper-sexualized world we live in. Every man who wishes to please God in his thoughts and deeds must do battle with his passions. The answer depends on the strength of your Temperance. If the virtue is weak in you, then please consider exercising at home. As our Blessed Lord says, “And if thy right eye scandalize thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee. For it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into hell.”

Keep the Faith.

 

[kozlosap]

If you live in a large city such as NYC, Chicago, L.A. or London, then you know that the uniform for a large number of women is yoga pants and a long shirt. I’ve seen women from twenty to seventy wearing this “uniform”. I guess we end up getting used to fashion trends. In the gym, however, I think that workout clothes are for comfort and function and at 5:30 in the morning, most people at the gym are there to exercise, not for a hook-up.

 

[AnnArbor]

Especially at the gym in question-- Planet Fitness is definitely not a health-club dating scene. That said, most women there will be wearing compression shorts or yoga pants. And any of them who do so can tell you why – they are so much better for working out than anything else – freedom of movement, lack of chafing.

Other posters have given good ideas – get equipment near the front of the rows, watch the TVs that are there or bring your own iPad, etc.

 

[gardenswithkids]

I would suggest that you pray while at the gym. If you see someone you find attractive, pray for that person. If you see someone who distracts you, for any reason pray for them. Lift up your mind–and the people around you-- in prayer.

 

[styrgwillidar]

I think the idea was to keep the conversation on track – that is, on what you need to do. The danger with these threads is that it can descend into blaming women for dressing in appropriate clothing for the activity (tight-fitting workout gear) instead of focusing on the work you need to do to control your own thoughts/responses.

And realistically- to give advice to the OP we have to recognize the constraints that exist,
that is- the clothes meet the dress code of the gym and the OP isn’t going to be able to change that, so what can he change/control? His own attitude- as I posted above, realizing these are practical for working out, that the women wearing them are in fact focused on working out and not putting themselves on display, focus on one’s own routine and during boring cardio type exercise- i.e elliptical, treadmill, exercise bike-- use the time to pray.

 

[Neofight]

People replying to this thread: the man has asked for ideas on what to do. Let’s take this up a level or two and NOT start in on what women should or shouldn’t wear, okay?

.

With charity, and not malice, I would add that I’m not sure any of us have been appointed moderator…how others dress is an important part of the answer to the OPs question, so I think a reply addressing that is quite relevant.

 

[UbiCaritas]

With charity, and not malice, I would add that I’m not sure any of us have been appointed moderator…how others dress is an important part of the answer to the OPs question, so I think a reply addressing that is quite relevant.

How? I mean, practically speaking, walking up to random women at a gym and saying “your attire makes me want to think lustfully about you” is an excellent way to a) get slapped and b) banned from that gym and any of its franchises. Their clothing isn’t going to change, and the OP has no control over their clothing. His actions are the only thing he can control, so to me, his question was eminently practical: what things might he do to keep his eyes where they ought to be?

 

[LightBound]

With charity, and not malice, I would add that I’m not sure any of us have been appointed moderator…how others dress is an important part of the answer to the OPs question, so I think a reply addressing that is quite relevant.

Of course none of us have been appointed a moderator, but boy it would be nice to have a thread with the title of this one NOT devolve into one that needed moderator actions. Sometimes, just a simple sentence like the one I prefaced my first reply on this thread with is enough to remind people familiar with CAF how things go downhill mighty fast when women and modesty are brought up together and we can certainly avoid going into what was so humorously and accurately described in post #19 from UbiCaritas. WE cannot control what others wear and in a gym, it’s probably going to be close-fitting workout wear, so providing him some suggestions on how to stay focused on his workout is far better than letting this head right into another thread on modesty that’s likely to be closed soon after someone mentions the book Dressing with Dignity, St Pio in the confessional, or a Cardinal from the 1930’s giving his personal opinion on gymnastics.