MONICA MAKES SENSE: Getting fit in days gone by really just involved housework

We’ve tried to walk every day but sometimes the weather has been too cold or icy. Exercising to Joe Wicks has been a godsend for many people, but sometimes it’s just been easier and quite enjoyable to sit on the sofa and look at him!

When my mother was a young wife and mother there was really no such thing as consciously keeping fit.

She was far too busy to think about going to a gym or aerobic classes, or taking part in marathons or doing Zumba, if there had been such things then. Her fitness routines involved housework without the help of labour-saving devices, shopping daily which involved visiting a few different local shops without the help of a car, and taking my sister and myself to school.

Come to think of it, she didn’t diet either, but she stayed slim. It was all about feeding a family as cheaply and as nourishing as possible after the austerity of the war years, and she probably gave herself less food rather than see her family go without because that’s what mothers do!

Women born certainly up to the 1940s had a relatively restricted degree of options for sport and physical recreation.

However, there were opportunities in some areas for women to escape the humdrum of everyday life, build friendships, have fun, and embrace health and wellbeing.

At least that what Prunella Slack, head of the ‘Women’s League of Health and Beauty’ had them believe, although I’m not entirely sure to how many working-class women it applied.

Prunella was a British fitness pioneer, taking over from her mother Mary who had founded the organisation in 1931.

The slogan was ‘Movement is Life’ and in 1930 it would cost just two and sixpence per class.

The uniform was sleeveless blouse and satin knickers.

The League was the most innocuous of the inter-war fitness movements with much of the choreography representative of the era which embraced synchronised mass formation movement.

They held their first show in the Albert Hall in 1931 with a relatively modest number of participants but by 1936, there were 5,000 women performing at Olympia in London.

Mary believed in deportment and would have her pupils walking with bowls on their heads to teach the correct way to walk and to encourage spinal flexibility.

Prunella carried on the good work after her mother’s death, also becoming something of a human rights activist and taking a multi-racial team to perform at the Coronation celebrations in 1953.

Her organisation survives to this day but is now called ‘The Fitness League’ which is a fitting tribute to a lady who remained active until her death at the age of 96 years.

Many of my generation will be familiar with the fitness guru, Eileen Fowler whose catchwords ‘Down with a bounce and with a bounce, come up’ were heard every morning on BBC Radios first keep fit programme.

At its peak in 1954 she had half a million listeners.

She spent most of her life trying to make the flabby fit, although it could have seemed a tad sexist as she said that ‘Women should start getting fit by standing properly at the sink, whilst men should learn how to get up from their armchairs properly!’

In 1956 she launched the ‘Keep Fit Association’ before moving to television where she appeared for many years with a line-up of glowing ‘gels’ who all had EF emblazoned on their chests!

Her exercises were quite low impact and called things like ‘stretchaway’, ‘skipalong’ and ‘swingtime’

Again, she practised what she preached and remained very fit until her death at the age of 93.

Diana Moran aka ‘The Green Goddess’ signified the start of the more glamorous fitness expert.

Appearing on British television during the 1980s, she was a source of inspiration to many women especially when she survived breast cancer and carried on keeping fit.

Today into her eighties she works as a writer and broadcaster.

‘Mr Motivator’ Derek Evans leapt onto our breakfast television screens in the 1990s resplendent in Spandex shorts. He left our screens in 2000 to pursue a career in music and really that was the end of fitness experts on television, until Joe Wicks appeared last year, minus the Spandex!

At one time we were bombarded by advertising for fitness dvds.|

Seemingly by everyone who was anyone, or thought they were, most of them with little, or no, talent, but having become ‘stars’ of reality shows like ‘Geordie Shore’ ‘Made in Chelsea’ and ‘The Only Way is Essex’, there was even a ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ fitness dvd.

Eliminating the expense of gym membership, not to mention the embarrassment of exposing your body to the outside world, fitness dvds promise a quick fix for the body beautiful, although two of its devotees Natalie Cassidy and Claire Richards have weight that goes up and down with the seasons.

The Queen of them all, Davina McCall, went from strength-to-strength promising fitness even if viewing for just even minutes a day. Personally, I think life’s too short! Opening my eyes each morning is often my contribution to exercise!

*You can read more of Monica Makes Sense by visiting the Retro section of the Star website at www.thestar.co.uk

In these confusing and worrying times, local journalism is more vital than ever. Thanks to everyone who helps us ask the questions that matter by taking out a digital subscription or buying a paper. We stand together. Nancy Fielder, editor.