Women, Exercise, and Eating Disorder Recovery: The Normal and the Pathological.

Area of Science:

• Eating disorder recovery
• Exercise science
• Gender studies

Background:

• Disagreement exists on appropriate exercise for eating disorder recovery.
• Normative exercise during recovery is often defined as mindful, embodied, and non-competitive.
• Medical understandings of "healthy" vs. "dysfunctional" exercise are shaped by gendered assumptions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine gendered assumptions in medical understandings of exercise during eating disorder recovery.
• To explore how women in recovery navigate conflicting value systems regarding exercise.
• To analyze how women re-inscribe positive value to exercise aspects pathologized in eating disorder literature.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal semi-structured interviews.
• 19 women in the United Kingdom who engaged in weightlifting during eating disorder recovery.
• Theoretical framework using Canguilhem's concepts of "the normal and the pathological".

Main Results:

• Women in recovery encounter pathologized exercise elements (structure, body transformation, affect regulation).
• They actively re-inscribe positive value to these exercise experiences.
• This process establishes exercise practices that are personally beneficial and serve their recovery.

Conclusions:

• Women's lived experiences challenge simplistic medical categorizations of exercise in eating disorder recovery.
• Weightlifting and other structured exercise can be positively revalued by individuals in recovery.
• Understanding these revalued practices is crucial for healthcare professionals supporting eating disorder recovery.