Fitness, Well-Being, and Preparation for Death

Many of the messages we receive about fitness can undermine well-being and promote bodily dissatisfaction and intersectional injustice. To address this, I argue in this essay that we should broaden the goals of fitness to include preparation for life events such as aging, disability, reproduction, and death. Using the example of death, I show how sport and exercise can prepare us physically and psychologically for dying with greater meaning and equanimity—and, in the process, support greater well-being in life. Such preparation can also strengthen our resistance to sources of bodily dissatisfaction, personal unhappiness, and intersectional injustice in fitness and health related contexts.