Sports
Your Body Is Not a Renovation Project, with Bertha Salles
The communicator and creator of Bucinho Suado discusses how exercise can be a source of pleasure rather than punishment.
In a conversation on Girls Who Run, Bertha Salles shares her journey of reconciling with movement and her own body. The creator of Bucinho Suado reflects on aesthetic pressure, the mental health benefits of exercise, and the importance of fostering welcoming sports communities.
The pursuit of exercise is almost always driven by the notion that something about the body needs to be fixed or shaped to meet aesthetic demands. However, working out takes on a transformative meaning when detached from punishment and embraced as a tool for mental health, autonomy, and belonging. Communicator Bertha Salles, founder of the collective Bucinho Suado and former host of the project Rádio Endorfina, details how this shift in perspective redefined her routine and gave rise to an inclusive community welcoming all body types.
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From childhood exclusion to a late awakening
Sedentary until age 26, Bertha faced hostile sports environments from an early age. Discouraging remarks during dance classes and medical visits throughout her adolescence built barriers that kept her away from physical activity for years, leading her to associate sweat and exertion with punishment. The turning point arrived during pandemic isolation, following bouts of emotional exhaustion, panic attacks, harmful alcohol use, and alarming health checkups. Without outside pressure, she took her first steps at home, following gentle yoga classes on TV until the post-workout physical feeling began easing panic symptoms and restoring her sleep routine.
Aesthetic pressure and the return of unrealistic standards
The discussion also tackles the recent resurgence of extreme thinness and social media's impact on distorting body image. Bertha highlights that many women once again feel inadequate in gyms and workout studios when faced with unattainable body standards, often manufactured through undisclosed cosmetic procedures and surgeries. While acknowledging the medical necessity of specific treatments for eating disorders, she warns against losing the social joy of eating and the constant state of bodily surveillance imposed by the obsessive worship of weight loss.
Discovering strength through weight training and running
A key turning point in Bertha's mindset was taking up strength training at the gym. Her focus shifted away from chasing a sculpted stomach toward functional physical capacity: lifting weights, gaining lean mass, boosting energy, and building muscle for longevity. This relationship carried over to the treadmill, where she learned to run at her own pace, alternating between walking and jogging until she could run continuously for 30 minutes, celebrating gradual progress without the pressure of rigid performance metrics or pace tracking.
Bucinho Suado: movement as a welcoming space
What began as a lighthearted social media hashtag depicting real post-workout sweat evolved into Bucinho Suado, a collective organizing in-person functional training, yoga, and social meetups. The project aims to provide a safe space where women of diverse body types can exercise without fear of judgment or comparison. For Bertha, encouraging people to take up space in parks and public areas demonstrates that exercise is sustainable long term when it prioritizes health, community, and respect for every body's pace.
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