As recently as the 1960s and ’70s, according to Danielle Friedman’s 2022 book Let’s Get Physical: How Women Discovered Exercise and Reshaped the World, women were systematically excluded from most forms of exercise. Doctors believed it was dangerous for women to exert themselves, especially when they were on their periods; rumor held that vigorous exercise could even cause a woman’s uterus to fall out. Sweating in public was considered unladylike, as were visible muscles.
