Beating the "blanket of humidity" (guest post)

Chris from Alabama, new to running sans shirt, tells his tale.

I grew up in south Alabama where the summer heat and humidity are extreme. It always seemed like shirts were optional for any kind of outdoor activity for my friends, but I never felt comfortable doing that. I’d ditch my shirt to go swimming, but that was about it. Looking back, I think it was because I wasn’t involved in team sports and didn't consider myself athletic.

As an adult, I got a lot more into exercise and fitness and have always been pretty fit. Even with all of my lifting, running, biking, etc., I've never felt comfortable going shirtless. I'll admit that always wanted to feel more comfortable doing so, because it looked like a lot more fun. Mostly, I wanted that confidence that seemed to go with the ability to peel off your shirt before, during, or after a run. I never equated it with exhibition as much as being confident and fit.

I’ve always set and motivated myself to achieve short-term goals. After recently discovering and identifying with @barethomas' blog, I decided that one of my fitness goals in May would be to strip off my shirt during a regular morning run. (A perfect time since that's usually when the blanket of humidity that covers us May - September, moves in) The posts and stories included in the blog helped encourage me to stick to my goals and served as a reminder that there are always people around that understand how you feel.

On one of my morning runs late in May, the summer heat and humidity had kicked in and I knew it was time. I told my neighbor/running-buddy it was time for “power-mode,” and peeled off my shirt to finish the run. I definitely felt more comfortable without the soggy shirt, but it was the surge in confidence and energy that made me finish strong that morning. (I do usually run with my neighbor.  He’s taken his shirt off during a couple of extremely hot mornings, so I never thought that it would he would think twice about it.) After that day, I pulled off my shirt during a run or cool-down a few more times, but as other posts in the blog have mentioned, I knew that my shirt was still there for safety.

In June, I challenged myself to act like a shirtless-convert and leave my house for a run without a shirt. Last week I completed that goal! It felt fantastic, but my running-buddy was on vacation and I knew that made it a little (okay, a LOT) easier. Because of that, I feel like I'm not quite done. It wasn't a normal run.

I’ve continued to leave my house shirtless for more than a week now, but the hurdle of showing up in shorts to meet my running-bud for a typical run is still there. I'll be closer to calling myself a convert then.

10 steps to becoming a shirtless runner

I am a shirtless runner. But I wasn't always one. Once upon a time, I sneered at the barechested and the jog-braed, and even after I started feeling a tug towards shedding excessive exercise attire, I was long held back by inhibition, shyness and emotional inertia.

Perhaps you do not think that you could be converted as I was (even if you would like to be)?

Well, drawing on my own experience and that of many others, here are 10 steps. Many of them appear elsewhere in these posts, but I gather them here, and add a new element or two. If you follow them, I suspect your exercise top could end up getting less use, even if you now consider the possibility remote. And it doesn't matter if the weather has turned cold -- some of the first steps can be taken now, and you can build on them so that you may head out shirtless when the temperature is benign once more.

Step 1
See that it's common

 The next time you are in a park, notice just how many of the ordinary folks out keeping fit don't bother with shirts. Runners or joggers. Frisbee or soccer players. Especially when away from the crowds, many people strip down for comfort. These will be folks of widely differing body shapes, ages and levels of fitness, but they have found independently that a shirt is more hindrance than help.Whatever you may have been taught or told, there is no great taboo that needs breaking.


Step 2
Strip off at home

Within the privacy of your own home, take off your shirt. Cast it aside. Then do whatever it is that you would normally do. After a while, you will notice that nothing dreadful happens because you have stripped to your waist. Instead, you may be pleasurably surprised by a feeling of greater freedom of movement. When time comes to resume your shirted existence, your upper garment will have remained as fresh as though just fished from your wardrobe -- your introduction to one of the great benefits of shirtless running: Cutting down on extraneous laundry. Do this a few times, possibly when alone if you are concerned about negative comments.



Step 3

Use the Internet

Google and search at your own pace. You might, admittedly, find screeds by folks who will cite any number of reasons, many allegedly grounded in 'decency', why you should never remove one's top. But you will find much testimony too, to how much is gained by daring to go bare. There are many, many images of folks stripping down and not looking in the least idiotic or obscene. Their stories will be grounded in confidence and body-acceptance rather than narcissism. Whole categories of sportsmen adopt shirtlessness almost as a uniform, certainly when training - gymnasts, wrestlers, cross-country runners and of course swimmers. Look at the photo galleries at many sports camps: Nobody seems to be policing for upper-body coverage.

 Do all this to break down any hidden barriers in your mind. Shirtlessness is immensely normal! This  was an important stage in my own conversion - and the barriers in my mind were high and resolute enough.


Step 4
Get warm on  a run

By now, the notion of trying out a shirtless run should have become less foreign lunacy than interesting notion. When you feel ready, start one of your exercise sessions fully clothed. If anything, overdress. After a little while, the perspiration will be bunching up your shirt material and the discomfort level will build. There is a logic to this torture. The urgency of the need to cast off unnecessary layers will keep at bay any psychic resistance.


Step 5

Don't think, just strip

This next stop is critical. There must be no overthinking; the time for mulling and introspection is past. In one fluid motion, cast off your upper-body attire. You should now be barechested or sports-bra clad. You will feel a marvellous shock as heat dissipates and perspiration on bare skin can play its natural cooling role. Allow yourself to luxuriate in this. You should not cease the sporting activity you were engaged in. It is important that you continue, partly because you want to keep hesitation from crowding in, and partly so your mind can take its first favourable imprint.


Step 6
Acknowledge your sisters and brothers

Now that you have taken a truly major step, begin to see yourself as part of the community of shirtless sportsfolk. Have a friendly smile and a hello for the other shirtless runner you pass going the other way; don't spin your eyes away when a jogbraed woman hoves to. This is not about being intrusive; it is about acknowledging the bond that you share as exercisers who have shed the inessential, who do not need the encumbrances of fancy fabrics or nice-cut tops to gild your exertions. By going shirtless, you have joined a movement, and you have earned your solidarity with the others who have dared to go bare. And you should have plenty of friendliness left over for every other fellow human being too!


Step 7
Feel that sensuous buzz

Having endured a few shirtless sessions, many of us describe a 'sexy charge' as we soldier along stripped and sure. There is no need to deny it and you should rather enjoy it; for me, it is one of the little perks of having converted. By exposing our bodies, after all, we are likely holding ourselves up to a higher standard; we will feel a greater need to ensure that our body-temples are maintained with care, since many is the person who will steal a glimpse, if only fleetingly. There is no issue, then, if a natural frisson of sensuousness occasionally accompanies our assertion of shirtlessness. I have elsewhere called this a domesticated strain of exhibitionism; but then remember that we are exhibitionists when we play a musical instrument, speak in public and do anything that might draw someone's attention. 



Step 8
Confess

During your first shirtless exercise sessions, there will definitely be attacks of nervousness and doubt. These are dealt with in some of the posts on this blog. There is an identity war going on: A part of you wants to reformat your identity to encompass your becoming a shirtless runner. A 'conservative faction' will resist, and throw up any opposition it can. One way to stiffen your still-partial conversion is to 'confess' ('it is good for the soul', after all). I see it online often, when people Tweet to their friends, "Went for shirtless run". By forcing yourself to reveal to someone else that you are at least more open to the shirtless pursuasion, there is a solidification in your own psyche. It will lead in time to greater confidence, and it does not matter if the people you make your revelation to fail to express support. It is more important that you have made that confession. Of course, you need not be theatrical about it; just slip it in naturally, perhaps in a conversation about comfort in exercise, or in a self-deprecating manner


Step 9
Converting fully

A a true shirtless runner does not start out shirted. Why, after all - if we now accept that going bare is natural, healthful and to be encouraged - should we still hide behind an initial vest? When you are ready, therefore, the step that really cements a conversion is to remove one's shirt, lay it aside and then head out - stripped to the waist, with no 'safety shirt' to resort to. If a neighbour, friend or colleague meets you, you must mutely declare your devotion to the shirtless cause. The first time you embrace this full conversion, it can be nerve-racking - but as you thereby prove to yourself that you are simply exercising comfortably and confidently, a new level of liberation and exhilaration will be attained. I still remember the day I first did this, and feeling the honesty of removing the last crutch.


Step 10
Convert others

It may take your months or years to travel the road I have outlined. You may turn aside, in which you are still due credit for having explored rather than simply sneered. But if you stay the course, you may in the fulness of time join those of us who have converted so joyfully, we now want to spread the word.

Online, there are many opportunities for converts to testify to how they have 'gone shirtless'; many have done so, and so added their testimony to the evidence that, as Step 3 above, helped precipitate the conversion process in the first place. I always feel a great sense of satisfaction when I read about how, for instance, a brother convinced a running partner to strip down, or how a sister encouraged her spouse to lose the shirt.

If you believe this blog has helped you, I urge you to write me (barethomas@gmail.com)with your story, so I can share it with others still starting out. The Comment sections are also left unblocked so that anyone may join the discussion.

Becoming a shirtless runner IV: 'Psychic shock' in cementing your conversion

In Jamie's post, featured separately, we encounter a shirtless-runner-in-the-making: There is that familiar hankering-after of unconstricted freedom, counterbalanced by the fear of being judged. The example offered by already bare-chested or jogbraed trail runners, plus accumulated drippy-sweat discomfort, works its gradual magic in breaking down Jamie's inhibitions, and eventually there is that ur-moment of stripping aside of the upper garment, and that rush of sweet coolness.

What I find especially instructive is what happens after this happy moment: Jamie moves with dazzling speed to reinforce the breakthrough. For most of us, however delicious our first oh-my-god-I'm-doing-it experience of going bare, the safety shirt remains a necessary prop for quite a while. It certainly was in my own case. But Jamie busts through that barrier in his very next run, and even adds a special twist: He turns shirtless driver en route! He calls this "ripping the bandage off", and the metaphor is apt. He does not allow the inevitable gathering-together of fresh nerves and doubt to 'scab up' and slow his conversion. Instead, he decisively cuts off any prospect of such a regression.

Jamie says some interesting things about the 'psychic shock' (my term) he gives himself by taking his radical step. "I had major butterflies... Stomach was turning, but it was exciting too", he recounts. But soon, his confidence is surging dramatically: "I am passing people and not caring if they see me shirtless... Running shirtless is feeling great and I am getting more confident every step of the way." Something has happened, the gamble has paid off! He closes his account very positively, saying that "Hopefully soon, I will be converted completely".

Now, some might say that it would be surely best to spare oneself such psychic shock and take things more gradually. But having mulled over Jamie's testimony, I am now inclined to say that some such shock is inevitable if we mean to convert in earnest to shirtlessness. Something must rock us, to test our faith, so to speak: There must be a point of crossing the Rubicon, of some discernible and undeniable changing-over, that begins to cement our new identities as shirtless (or jogbraed) runners.

Jamie, I want to say, was wise to force the issue early - rather than endure a spell of to-and-froing, of the incessant self-doubt that many of us know, before we assay a safety-shirt-free run.

Exactly what form this critical psychic shock might take may differ from person to  person. What is central is a voluntary step taken to fully embrace one's shirtlessness-in-running. In Jamie's case, it was his courage in leaving his home bare-chested and with no safety shirt, to drive to his trail. As I review my own experience, I realise that my shock happened when I first encountered neighbours while stripped down to socks and shoes. I now recognise this moment - rather my first stripping off of my vest while loping along - as in some ways a more significant conversion nexus.

Why do I say this? Now as it happens,  because I have moved house a time or two since, I have had to endure the experience time and again - which has allows me now to clearly capture it. It begins as supreme awkwardness: For an extended second, I almost see my neighbour rearranging his or her impressions of me; once the neighbour actually blurts out, "Oh goodness". I feel an internal sucking gasp of involuntary embarrassment that squeezes at the pit of one's stomach (echoes of Jamie's "my stomach is turning"). But then I move beyond the crisis. I make normal normal conversation about exercise, or the weather, or some such. The neighbour inevitably responds - and suddenly, my exercise attire is no longer some sort of impediment or gap. And at that moment, a little bell sounds. It is like one has affirmed one's faith, and the paradigm shifts. It is now for others to acknowledge me for who I am - still the same chap they always knew, just shirt-free in an appropriate context - and not for me to somehow explain or excuse myself.

I don't know what sort of other 'psychic shocks' might have made a difference to other converts out there. Do share your stories, as many have in these virtual pages, to help others now at the crossroads. For those who have found themselves stuck for long with safety shirts in their waistbands, perhaps it is time you forced the issue and gave yourself a psychic shock. Let Jamie be an inspiration!

Becoming a shirtless runner (III): A basic level of fitness required?

Below, upgraded from the Comments logs, are two sparkling first-person accounts of how two runners first went bare-chested. They are great and inspiring reads. What is interesting is that Nick's is actually a reminisce from many years ago, while Paul is fresh from the front. Yet in comparing the two reports, the similarities clearly outweigh the differences: Running sans shirt is an experience all can share.

One point of note is that, in both 'conversion' accounts, allusion is made to having attained a certain basic level of fitness ("got fitter, a little bit more toned" vs "running for a year, confident about doing a 10k"). There is no doubt that someone who is extensively overweight would feel considerably more nervous about doffing his upper-body attire; he would also be much more likely to attract opprobium. But is this fair?

Well, when we go out in public, we do not expect to have to dress in our finest. At the same time, too, if you insist in going about in filthy rags, I do not think you should be fully surprised - or nurse deep resentment - if you get more negative attention than you might like. One might feel that 'it is none of anyone else's business'; at the same time, we are all members of the community and while the days of shunning are thankfully behind us, I cannot in all honesty agree that 'it never matters how presentable you are'.

Transposing these thoughts, then, to the question of barechested or jogbraed running, it is no wonder that a bit of 'making sure one is presentable' pays dividends in terms of greater peace of mind. Which translates, then, to a more fully transformational first-time-shirtless run! Perhaps more importantly, you would be also reaping rewards in terms of health and fitness - regardless of whether you stay shirted or not.


Paul's story:

So I went for my first shirtless run today! In the past 16 months I've lost 39 pounds (not far off three stone) got fitter, a little bit more toned and completed a 500 mile bike ride through France. I've also signed up for one of those 'Tough Mudder' obstacle challenges in October, so I thought a bare chested run was achievable! I'm short and fair skinned, age 33 and certainly not 'ripped' but nonetheless I did feel that 'sensuous buzz' and yes, I admit, did feel a bit more 'sexy' than your average run. I'd just been to my local gym and two guys were working out shirtless there. Now, they WERE very ripped with amazing bodies but it did give me some confidence. It was just round my local park, the weather was dull, cloudy but warm (I do live in the UK after all!) And no one batted an eyelid. It felt great, very practical, comfortable, sexy and cool (not that I generally see myself as any of those things!) And I'll definitely be doing it again.

Nick's story:

I first ran shirtless in a race--my first race. I had been running about a year by that time, and felt excited and confident about doing a 10k. It was a warm spring day; some guys were shirtless It all seemed so natural and relaxed. The next thing I knew, I had pulled off my shirt. Nobody paid any attention--I was just one of several.

It was the most exhilarating run I had ever had up to that time. I felt ten pounds lighter; and for the first time, I had that experience others have described so well: the shock of pleasure from the rush of a cool breeze over my skin and the sudden tightening of my nipples.

After that, it was easy to go shirtless on a run. I usually started off with a "safety shirt," but then pulled it off when I was away from my neighborhood. Gradually, i got used to leaving the house without it. And I wasn't the only shirtless runner on my routes.

If you are considering going shirtless on a run for the first time, I recommend a race. If you can finish a 10k you shouldn't be worried about being in decent shape.

That was a while ago. I am 75 now, and no longer run shirtless, but I have never forgotten how it felt. It added immeasurably to the joy of running.

Becoming a shirtless runner (II): That First Day

Say you have been running or jogging for a little while and, whether egged on by the example of others or not, have come to nurse the thought of dispensing with a shirt.

Very likely, in runs past, you will have been held back by certain apprehensions. But there comes a day when you are ready to shed that top for the first time. How might such a day go? Drawing on my own experience, and that of others who have recounted their 'first day', here is how you might launch into your first day as a shirtless runner - and what to expect:


(I) You would have begun by trotting along, at your accustomed pace, and a build-up of perspiration would have begun to niggle at you. The familiar thought arises that it would feel pretty good to remove that irksome upper-body garment that is beginning to get soggy and restrictive. Someone may have passed you, striding along without a top, reinforcing the temptation. However, another part of you is urging that you hold back: You would look daft, someone you know might see you, a cutting remark might be uttered within earshot.

(II) But you are not getting any more confortable along, and now you tell yourself: What exactly am I worrying about? I know that there are other runners in the neighbourhood or elsewhere, known to their neighbours or loved ones or running partners to be partial to going barechested or jogbraed. They seem to be doing fine. How are they different from or superior to you? You decide that these wisps of apprehension - which have stopped you perhaps multiple times in the past - are so many will-o-the-wisps, with no substance to them. What the hell! You arms reach down, and before you know it, your shirt - incredible! did I really do this? - has been stripped off.

(III) Immediately, what breeze there is seems to have been magnified in effectiveness. Your skin has been freed to do its job of wicking away heat and perspiration. Your senses feel preternaturally sharp; you are especially aware of your body - your stride, the way you are holding your core and posture. There is a prickling of delight, a frisson of freedom: Without thinking, you pick up the pace, move faster.

(IV) The counterreaction now sets in: Your love handles seem to be calling out 'Notice me!' to all and sundry. You become increasingly sure you are a ridiculous figure strutting along. Every indistinct figure approaching appears to be that of someone you know; you begin to imagine the things they will say ('Hey, Ron! What's with the half-naked look!') or - worse - will giggle over later even as they soberly greet you ('I saw Terry this morning; he's joined the shirtless brigade, and heavens wasn't there a whole lot of jiggling going on'). Was that someone taking a cellphone camera shot, to be Tweeted along with a snide comment or two? What was I thinking? I need to put my shirt on right now.


(V) Even as you are thinking this, however, you have been loping along and there is now a full, cooling sheen of perspiration enveloping your bare upper body. As you heft your damp tank-top, the thought of pulling it over yourself again is not an attractive one. And amidst the negative thoughts, others poke through too: That the sun on your skin is pretty delicious. As is this heightened awareness of one's surroundings. In fact, I'm feeling a burst or two of confidence: I don't need to stay encased in maximal clothing. I'm proud to be safeguarding my health and fitness through exercise. Why should I not be minimisng extraneous attire? There's nothing lurid or obscene about such confidence! Indeed, it's making me feel a little, well, sexy... and why not?

So might you conclude your first run as a convert to our shirtless cause. The apprehensions won't be going away immediately, but now that they have been bested once, their hold will have been weakened. Possibly permanently.

Becoming a shirtless runner (I): How does an example inspire?

Note: This begins a projected series of musings on that interesting process through which one changes from 'someone who runs with a shirt on' to 'someone who runs without'. Thoughts on this quite complex topic would be very welcome, whether you are a shirtless runner, an adamant opponent or no partisan of either side.

 Let me start with an inspiring tale from PHIL, straight from our Comments archives:

I met up with a buddy of mine for his first 5k race last weekend. He had been running on his own for the past few months so knew little about what to do at a race. After picking up our bib numbers, my buddy asked what to do next. I told him the race number goes on your shorts and to run without a shirt. I could tell he was uncomfortable since he paced around a bit, but once my shirt came off he did the same. Most of the shirtless runners were in the lead pack so I thought he might be peeved at me for telling him to run shirtless since we were far from the lead pack, but it went well. We met up the other night for a quick trail run and to my surprise he showed up shirtless, and he thanked me for showing him a better way to run...

Many's the time I've heard it reported that the journey to 'dispensing with the shirt' starts with the example of a friend or acquaintance. But if we converts actually consider their own experience, exactly how does an example 'act' on us?

One possibility posits a 'neutral' exerciser who has never considered the possibility of going shirtless or in jogbra. Then, along comes someone doing just that: A mental bomb goes in your brain and you think: 'Heck, that looks comfortable. It makes a lot of sense. Maybe I should try it...'

To my mind, however, it is unlikely that most of our conversion stories begin this way. Had our minds been really in this neutral state, we would probably 'think practically nothing of' the appearance of a shirtless would-be-exemplar; we would simply immediately ignore or forget it, beyond perhaps a momentary bemusement or amusement.

I propose instead this scenario: By the time someone's example can jog us decisively in favour of stripping down, we would likely have been already engaged in an internal conflict. We would have experienced a certain constriction or discomfort in the course of physical exertion; the thought of removing the upper-body garment would already have been stirring as a pleasurable prospect. However, and this is critical, a contrary notion would have been trying to snuff it out. This 'opposing' notion might take the form of doubts regarding whether one's body is in decent shape for 'exposure', or whether one's friends or neighbours might be amused or scandalised.

It is only when such a tug-of-war has already begun, perhaps in some mild way, that stumbling across an 'example' or 'inspiration' can make a difference. At some level, the forces within us that have been urging shirtlessness would receive vindication or reinforcing. Opposed arguments suddenly seem weaker: The more the exemplar is an otherwise trusted or respected one, the more of an effect he or she is likely to have. To use this blog as an example (it is, after all, a 'friend' to all who would run sans shirt), I have received numerous notes from folks to say the writings therein have strengthened their impulse, or wish, to join the shirtless cause. I have yet to receive a communication from anyone claiming that said writings felt like some 'bolt from the blue', so that they had gone from 'never giving shirtless exercise a moment's thought' to now holding it a pleasing possibility.

If I am right, the importance of setting an example is not diminished in any way. Indeed, it becomes even more important. After all, we really need not concern ourselves with the 'doubt-free' of the world: Those to whom the very notion of going shirtless is a dead option, worth only a moment's disparagement, or indeed those to whom stripping down so is so utterly natural that they have been doing so forever. Perhaps most people fall into this 'doubt-free' camp: We need wish them only happy lives. Yet if we agree that there are many out there who are caught in a upper-body no-man's-land, both wishing-to yet fearful-to, then surely the value of 'showing the way' becomes undeniable.

To take Phil's story, we now see that it is likely that his running buddy was already gripped with a prior degree of internal conflict. The seed of shirtlessness must have already been planted, yet contrary conditions were keeping it from germinating. Note Phil's observation: "I could tell he was uncomfortable since he paced around a bit". He does not say that his friend instantly whipped off his top. No, battle had been joined, if not for long, and 'take off the shirt' had to see off a rival conviction. Yet if not for Phil's example, his buddy might have spent years wracked with internal dissension; his preference swinging now this way, then the next. Instead, as Phil reports, a new convert was born, confident and sure, so much so that he soon shows up for a run shirtless, and specifically thanks Phil "for showing him a better way to run".

Are women taking to shirtlessness in a big way?

I'd never thought I'd say this, but could the ladies be challenging for the lead in our struggle to normalise shirtless running?

Today I googled 'running shirtless' on Blog Search and was quickly reading well-written piece after well-written piece concerning running sans extraneous upper-body attire. Each one by a woman:

- There were 'trying it for the first time' confessionals
- There were 'why you should try this too, girl' proselytisations
- There were even how-to guides on the right attire for shirtless running, complete with clinical discussion on what sort of jogbra to wear and which colour to avoid.

I scanned the Comment sections and almost invariably there was only supportiveness, envy ('I wish I could do it!') and approval being channeled.

Now that I think about it, my own observation at the gym I sometimes use is that more women are adopting the jogbra, while we men stay shirted (of course, gym rules make this mandatory - but that's a gripe for another time).

I'm not complaining, for all sorts of reasons - including the most obvious one. But why is this trend gathering apparent momentum?

One answer puts it down to confidence. As women make strides in arena after arena - now justly sure of their equality - it could only have been a matter of time before this confidence strips away the constraints that inhibit body comfort. Confronted by examples of men who cast aside their shirts to exercise, why should women not partake of the same sense of freedom?

As for why conversions, as we deem it on this blog, should be breaking out all over in the summer of 2012, we might make reference to such things as 'critical mass' (online as well as on the ground) and 'tipping point being reached'. I'm no sociologist, but with every extra jogbraed body out there pounding the pavement, we have an additional role model playing her role. Another sister, or daughter, or mother would have discovered the joys of shirtlessness - and pointing the way to more.


Yet perhaps I should conclude by addressing my fellow men, especially those who feel yet resist that so-natural tug towards tugging off the shirt: The ladies have seen the light, fellows. If once we feared to offend their sensibilities by 'exposing too much', do you need further evidence that there is no erosion of modesty here?

Guest post: Inspiring other runners to go shirtless

Here's the 50th post on the blog, and it's all about spreading the shirtless running bug! It's a guest post by Rockbound. Read on...





Inspiring shirtless running



I've been running for many years, always shirtless if the weather permits. Over those years, there have been numerous times when I suspected my shirtlessness inspired others to "convert". I've never suggested to anyone that they run shirtless or commented on it, so I cannot be sure I was their inspiration, but I strongly believe my example was a factor in some of the cases.

A typical scenario is when someone else's running schedule happens to coincide with yours and you meet them by chance on the road. After a few days, or longer, you notice that they have shed the shirt. This happens more frequently if you wave or exchange a brief greeting with them when meeting. I think the greeting helps make you more "real" to them, and makes shirtlessness seem less intimidating. This sort of thing has happened many times over the years. The most recent example was in the past month, when I met a high-school cross-country team starting their preseason training. All these runners wore shirts the first couple of days I saw them. By the third or fourth day, several of the guys on the team were running shirtless.

It's not always runners that are inspired. For several years, I've seen a guy who walks along some of my running trails. After two or three years, I noticed that he'd started taking off his shirt for at least part of his walk.

Sometimes, the inspiration seems to work quickly. A few months ago, I met a young woman running in the opposite direction. She wore shorts and a T-shirt. I waved as we passed, but she did not respond. Toward the end of my run, we met again. By then, she had rolled her T-shirt up over her sports bra, exposing her midriff. Now happily "shirtless", she waved, said hello and even made a remark about the weather. I was amazed at the transformation!

Why does shirtlessness inspire shirtlessness?  I think there are two big reasons.

The first is confidence, which can be contagious. Your confident shirtlessness demonstrates to others that it's okay to run shirtless. People often hate to be the only one doing something, so you help their confidence by setting an example.

Next, I think that shirtless runners are happier, enjoying their runs more than many others, and that enjoyment is clearly evident to others. Think about it -- don't you see shirtless runners smiling more, showing more confidence, having more of a spring in their step, than most shirted runners? That positive attitude and enhanced pleasure in the running, I believe, inspires others to do likewise and make their runs more fun.

Let's keep setting an example and inspiring others!

Guest post: One new full convert's story

Richard has just this year become a full convert to shirtless running. He describes his journey in the following post (the 49th on this blog: The next will be our 50th)!


'I had thought of doing it for several years'
by Richard


Running shirtless… it is something I had thought of doing for several years.  I’d seen people on the streets – sans shirt.  I wondered what others might think.  A few had great bodies.  Most – like me – were less than sculpted, just average.  A few were maybe even less than that.


Now 45, I finally got the nerve to give shirtless running a shot just one year ago.  Sure, the fears existed.  What would people think?  What if I was spotted – naked from the waist up – by a neighbor or co-worker?  But, it didn’t matter.  Inspired and given reassurance by Bare Thomas’ Running Shirtless blog, I took to the streets.

Much to my surprise and comfort, I have survived.  I’ve moved from a safety shirt in my hand to a full convert. In fact, just recently, I didn’t store my condo keys in my normal hiding place, so I had to buzz another building resident to let in her shirtless neighbor!

Running barechested is liberating and comfortable.  No shirt sticking to my torso on humid days.  A cool breeze on my skin.  I have a 4.5 mile loop – on well-traveled streets – and I have yet to cause any accidents or be scolded/ laughed at by anyone.  In fact, I’m just now becoming secure enough to stand pat at street crossings (waiting for the lights to change and right time to safely cross).  Previously, I’d run a little to the left or right and loop around, rather than take the chance of those cars viewing my bare chest while they waited at the light.  I’m now convinced no one is bothered by my average torso being exposed.

Now, I look forward to running shirtless.  It’s fun, relaxing and easy.  The “what is he doing” stares – if they exist – aren’t evident.  My runs are better than ever (I didn’t say faster than ever!).

I thank Bare Thomas and his blog, and all those who contribute,  for giving me the courage and the push to shed my shirt and get out on the streets.  From this point forward, my neighborhood runs, weather permitting, will be shirtless.

I still haven’t run into – literally – any friends or co-workers on my shirtless jaunts.  I don’t run shirtless when I run from my work place (we have facilities here).  But I’m convinced I can continue the movement to shirtless running … and hopefully inspire others to join me.

Just do it!!

From the Net: The naked run

In this perky blog post (click here for the original), Rachel Wilkerson finds herself stripping off for a jogbraed run and revelling in it. She doesn't seem to be really a full convert like emiliab9291 (From the Net: A convert to Jogbraed Running). But as she says below, "you don’t want to have all those clothes on your skin…take them off!"

Lemme work it: The Naked Run
by Rachel @ The Life and Lessons of Rachel Wilkerson


I’ve written before about getting buff in the buff and stripping down to minimal clothing for a home workout…but I’ve never been that girl, the one who could hit the gym or the 5K in just a sports bra and shorts. That girl, I always believed, had to have abs like Britney circa the “Slave 4U” VMAs. My abs are more like Britney’s circa the head-shaving incident. But last Saturday, I had spent a long day by the pool and then needed to get my run in for my July goal. I was so hot, so brown, so sweaty, that I just couldn’t bear the thought of putting on clothes. So I decided to just…not. I mean, it’s just a body right? It’s not perfect, but it’s just a body. Being naked is natural for bodies. It was the kind of hot day in which most men would just go shirtless…no matter what their bodies looked like.

I decided I’d just bare all.

I figured that if I felt totally self-conscious, then, at the very least, it would make me run faster!

So out I went, wearing nothing but my ipod, my bra and shorts, my bomb kicks, and my sunscreen. And after a few minutes I realized…this isn’t so bad. At all actually! I was actually really quite unaware of my partial nakedness. I mean, I was aware of the fact that I wasn’t wearing a tank top because I was infinitely cooler…and I was aware of keeping my abs in, which is a good thing when you run…but I was also just not hyper-aware of myself, feeling that naked.

By the end of the run, I was actually covered… in more sweat than I even knew was possible. But even though I couldn’t have been more dirty and in need of a shower, I actually felt really cleansed and really sexy
 [Note from BareThomas: Sounds like the famed 'shirtless charge' kicking in]. It takes a team of stylists to make Megan Fox look that gritty and wet on a photo shoot, and look — I had Ijust done it all on my own!

I’m sure you, like me, read fitness magazines and stare at the beautiful, happy models who are always exercising in gorgeous locales in something with more no coverage than a bathing suit and thinking, “Pshhh…yeah right!” Well, hey, now I have to say… maybe they just got too hot!

Although I can’t say that I would ever rock that outfit at the gym — I don’t want to be That Girl — I feel like now I wouldn’t hesitate to strip down to my sports bra in an overheated spin class. It’s just a body. It goes running! It gets tan! Sometimes…it gets hot so then it gets kinda naked!

If you’re the sort of girl who stares at her “flaws” in a magnifying mirror for hours on end or the girl who has sex with the lights off, I highly encourage you to give into the heat. God knows men use warm weather as an excuse to take their shirts off — why shouldn’t you? It’s hot. You don’t want to have all those clothes on your skin…take them off!

Don’t worry about what people will see. They’ll just see a body. And a body is just a body. We all have them. None of them are perfect but all of them are kind of amazing.

Ditch safety shirt, run bare from the get-go

Fair warning: This post may stretch your boundaries. Well, just a little bit.

So you're someone who's 'sort of' converted to shirtless running and has become comfortable doing part of your runs sans shirt. Perhaps, as is most often reported, you usually remove the garment when perspiration starts to flow.

For my money, though, getting the most out of shirtless runnng means going a step further and losing the safety shirt. In other words, you shouldn't have to plod along with a singlet still tucked in your waistband or clutched in your hand. You should be starting off - from home, or your vehicle, or what have you - in just bare chest or jogbra, thereby 'converting fully'. Here are five reasons why you should:

(1) First, and most prosaically, having to hold on to a tank top or having it dangle off your shorts is a bit of a pain. It can throw you off your stride, distract from enjoyment and make you look ever so slightly awkward.

(2) That safety shirt draws attention to yourself. Someone who is full-bore shirtless is telegraphing a certain devil-may-care confidence about one's appearance, a naturalness that can be attractive in its own way but doesn't go out of its way to make a forced statement. But someone gripping a crumpled-up shirt while topless or jogbraed is another matter altogether.There are mixed signals here, a jangling discordance that pulls one up short. Is this person acknowledging that he or she needs to hang on to a shirt because there is something rather improper about 'going without' - so that, at need, he can cover himself post haste? If so, why is he shirtless at all?

(3) There is a satisfying sense of casting-off of a prop or crutch about heading out from the get-go without a shirt. You might have to wrestle with a taking-on of social risk - 'will I spot an old friend heading my way, who would never have imagined encountering me in the new guise as a shirtless runner?' - but if you can withstand the stabs of self-doubt, the sense of total freedom and not being tethered to some 'essentially shirted identity' can bring relief and giddy liberty. As the safety shirt is left further and further behind with every footfall, the internal naysaying should subside.

(4) Conversely, so long as a shirt remains within grasp, you are likely never going to shake off regular urges to put it on - especially at the end of your run as you are heading back to your home base. In the first place, that's going to detract from your run proper. Further, if you succumb to that end-of-run temptation to cover up again, that would deprive one of the great joys of shirtless running: Completing a run shirtless and feeling a sheen of honest perspiration on one's torso, without a clinging upper-body garment to literally dampen the sensation.

(5) Ultimately, as has been hinted at in (2), by converting fully you are validating the basic claim that being a shirtless runner - one who runs without a shirt - is merely embracing a healthsome activity and responsibly maximising comfort. If you really accept that, why need there be these odd shifts of gear, of having to endure part of your route shirt-encased? You might even say that abandoning the safety shirt is simply to be true and honest to yourself. Call it a test. If you cannot pass it, then perhaps there are hang-ups still to be overcome.

'Why don't you run shirtless?'

Hoover recently shared how he came to doff his vest and go bare-chested for runs on the beach: Yes, the lucky blighter lives by the sea. His account is given below (it's originally a comment on the 'The Creed of Shirtless Running' post in this blog), and is especially interesting in that it was the persistent egging-on of his wife-to-be that did the trick. Let's reserve further discussion to after we've read his story:

I live within a stone's throw of a beach in the North of England. My partner, soon to be wife, first started running with just her sports bra on at Uni. After we started seeing each other we also became running partners.

My partner had encouraged me to try running shirtless for 4 months when on a very chilly October's morning she remarked on how schoolboy-like I looked by wearing a vest for a run and challenged me to take it off... a few seconds later off it came and I haven't worn a vest since.

We go out in all weathers, rain, snow and shine. Yes, people have looked at the pair of us out running on the beach but the only reaction we've had are people smiling and saying "You're mad!". Since we started running together there, are a few more runners, both male and female, out shirtless on the beach, including a group of teenage boys who are out running on most days too.

Some preliminary observations: We see, as has been alluded to elsewhere in this blog, that setting an example can cause others to strip to the waist. Also, the reaction from strangers is seldom to pour on vituperation, but is indifference at worst (shirtless in snow? no wonder some folks can't resist an exclamation). But what we also have here is a case of 'direct broaching of the subject' being what's needed to get someone to try something out.

The necessary cautionary note here is that one is probably best off never suggesting shirtlessness to anyone who isn't at the very least a semi-regular running partner. Though one may wish for the solidarity of a fellow-jogbraed or shirtless runner, broaching the subject could well be take in the wrong way. Run shirtless yourself: The possibility of thus 'inspiring someone else follow suit' is probably quite enough with someone you don't know fairly well.

Where the preconditions are met, though, some proselytising probably won't hurt. If your pal is obviously in great discomfort, gushing perspiration and such like, a kindly word that losing his top might mitigate things would be your good deed for the day. You might mention how your times have improved/ enjoyment level has risen/ mental wellbeing has surged since you took to shirtlessness. Take a leaf from Hoover's partner's book and frame it as a dare or challenge. If there's no reaction, let things be. You can always mention it again some other time: It appears Hoover's partner took four months effecting his 'conversion'. And she knew just how to pitch it too... but then again, she is to be his wife.

(I know of only one other runner who urged his running group to join him in trying out shirtlessness. Apparently, they would 'agree only some of the time'. This was a while ago, though, so perhaps by now barechestedness/jogbraedness has taken hold. If anyone else has a story - perhaps even a warning note to sound - to tell in this regard, do write in).

Enjoying the sexy 'shirtless charge'

In the just-launched 'shirtlessrunning' group at Yahoo! Groups, moderated by Tommy, he writes:

"I (run shirtless) mainly for the freedom it gives me. It feels great to run with the sun, wind, and elements on my bare torso. It also gives me a bit of a sexual charge too which helps me to run a bit better. I didn't start running until a couple of years ago, so I'm relatively new to shirtless runnning. There are a lot of guys who run this way in southern California."

This invoking of a 'shirtless charge' set me thinking. It's probably not the same for each shirtless runner, newbie or veteran. A fellow shirtless runner once spoke of intoxicatingly 'feeling the girls' eyes on me'. Yet I'm not sure that it is necessarily absent even when one is pounding along by oneself (perhaps we imagine eyes on ourselves).

One guess is that the 'shirtless charge' is at heart a primal celebration of feeling 'unshackled' - literally, as we rid ourselves at least partially of constricting attire. In doing so, we dare the world to feast on our revealed bodies. I don't really know much about what constitutes 'exhibitionism' but this could be some domesticated variant. Speaking personally, I certainly feel what has been described as a 'sensuous buzz'. It is undoubtfully part of the pleasurable package that comes with running bare-chested. It appears that jogbraed runners feel something similar: See From The Net: The naked run and the reference there to 'feeling sexy'. I'm more aware of myself, of the 'sun, wind and elements' as Tommy puts it, and of a casting-away of encumbrances. When I'm stripped to the waist and trotting along, I feel more in touch with my true self.

If you haven't a clue what I'm talking about, but find it intriguing, perhaps it's time you gave shirtless running a try!

From the Internet: Be shirtless, be green

This 2008 post, from a discussion board (click here to access the original), is from a badminton player who comes to believe that shirtlessness during his sessions is ecologically friendly. It applies equally to running and in fact to all forms of exercise where one's shirt would otherwise end up drenched and unwearable. In these eco-aware times, that's another good reason to embrace the shirtless cause!


Is going shirtless going green?

---

I not only play badminton twice or more a week, but squash, tennis and go running as well. It occurred to me after seeing those notices in hotels about all the towels they unnecessarily wash, that I get through a lot of shirts each week. If you multiply this by the huge number of players around the world, think how many washing machine loads are players' shirts.

Why do I need to wear a shirt? Usually after 15 minutes of play, my shirt is starting to look as if somebody has spilled water on it, and by the end of a session it is sodden and stuck to me. It interferes with the natural perspiration process and even makes me feel cold when I break for a rest.

So will I be making a sensible and green statement by starting my racket sports sessions by removing the shirt I arrive in before starting to play?

Some will say it is unsightly to see shirtless amateur sports people, but this is only a conditioned expectation. You think nothing of the various shapes of bodies seen at a swimming pool or on the beach. There are examples of some of our top racket sport players practicing shirtless, particularly tennis players in the sunshine.

So I am willing to go green and shed that unnecessary shirt that only ends up sticking to me, so that I can re-use the shirt I arrived in (after towelling down) and save another shirt from the wash.

If we all do the same, then it will become the normal practice we will all be greener as a result, saving electricity and detergent pollution.

- From BadmintonCentral.com

Stripping down to jogbra (Part II)

So you feel like you'd like to shed some inhibitions, cut down on laundry and boost the comfort level big-time while on the run. Maybe you've always secretly envied those who dared to strip down to jogbra. Here are a few tips to get past those last few barriers holding you back...

(Note: Much of the following applies to trying out shirtless running for men, with the possible exception of Point 2; call me trapped in stereotypes, but some of the talkie-talkie stuff might be uncomfortable to many a Joe Public.)

1) Start at home: To feel more comfortable with your own skin, so to speak, start by stripping down to jogbra while in the comfort and privacy of your own abode. When doing chores, having a snooze or just lounging about, get used to what it feels like to have much of your upper body comfortably air-cooled.

2) Exploit friendships: You may know someone who is already a confident jogbraed-running exponent. If so, she might not mind company on her runs - and you could very naturally get into sync attire-wise. You might even broach the subject of personal shyness and ask how she got over any inhibitions she might have initially had. Hearing it from another person can help: In my case, learning that one of my relatives was a confirmed shirtless runner gave me an extra boost.

3) Choose your time: It's entirely natural that you'll feel especially intimidated if, plodding along for the first time in your more 'exposed' self, there are hordes of folk toddling past and - or so it will feel - giving your every blemish the once-over. So schedule your first jogbraed runs for times and places where there will be no crowds. Don't sacrifice safety: Late-night adventures down secluded alleys, if in an area where crime is at all a concern, would be highly unwise!

4) Use the 'midway' strategy: Once you are pleasingly warmed-up on your run, with perspiration dewing up diligently, it will feel a lot more natural to be shirtless. If you've been used to being all cladded-up, the immediate difference in comfort will also be very evident. So you might choose to start off on your way fully-attired, and wait till your shirt or tank top is begining to cling or sag damply before determining to remove it. You'll be surprised how those mental obstacles will have been softened and are that more easily smashed through.

5) Stack the deck: To amp up the 'midway' strategy, pick clothing for your run that is thicker than usual, or less absorbent - that way, you'll ratchet up the discomfort level and make stripping off the offending garment a way more inviting prospect. Similarly, deciding for the first time to embark on jogbraed running will be more difficult when the weather is cool (and quite possibly suicidal during winter), but correspondingly easier if you choose a hot summer day. Many 'conversions', by all account, occur when the thermostat has been crawling up relentlessly.

6) Once the first breakthrough is made, keep up the pace: Having tasted the jogbraed life, don't draw back and decide 'to try again in a couple of weeks'. It's natural that the first couple of go-rounds will be accompanied by a certain trepidation that may take away from the enjoyment. It's just like entrenching any habit: A little perseverance pays dividends. Perhaps set aside, for starters, two days when you will go shirtless for every two where you stay fully-clothed: That way, useful comparisons - almost certainly beneficial to ramping up jogbra-time - can be made.

7) Take comfort in numbers (a): There are places where shirtless/jogbraed runners, or for that matter clothes-light sportsmen of some other description, will be thicker on the ground than elsewhere. Parks, trails, neighbourhood hoops courts or soccer pitches would be obvious locales where your arrival would not stand out. So head there if it's convenient, and the sight of other comfortably-exposed torsos could be an inspiration.

8) Take comfort in numbers (b): There are online groups, forums or the odd blog (ahem) to explore where you will recognise in the chatter that there are many, many people who have embraced shirtless running, are interested in taking it up or have begun trialling the option. I try to bring a selection here, of course, but there's no reason why you can't google- or Bing- away yourself. Naturally, some groups or forums will have slants or broader agendas that are not your own, but you can cherry-pick what you need by way of encouragement. Join in the discourse - heck, tell us your experiences in a comment here, or a guest post - and there will be mutual support to draw on.

9) Go bare from the start: This is the critical point, or what might be called 'full conversion' to shirtlessness. Once you've become accustomed to stripping off in mid-run, you'll need to find the psychic reserves to just head out in jogbra from the get-go. By this stage, you'll be somewhat 'hardened' and slightly addicted to shirtless comfort. You'll have become at least partially accustomed to having people's eyes on you, absorbed the odd sly comment and started to see yourself as 'a jogbraed runner'. Initially, you can still bring your shirt along, tucked in for emergencies, but resist any urge to reach for it. Soon it will seem an unnecessary encumbrance that can be dispensed with altogether. Personally, one fine day I just 'went without' from the start, without any momentous clashing of cymbols: The crutch wasn't needed and I left my shirt behind.

10) Mental reinforcement continues: Look back from time to time to when you thought jogbraed running was beyond you. Recalling how much more comfort you now enjoy, just savouring the greater sense of freedom, will help guard against backsliding (which happens more often than you might think!). Your identity as a Jogbraed Runner should now be fully-formed, something you can proudly acknowledge to all comers in the hope that others will come aboard thanks to the example you provide and, where requested, the experiences you share.

Stripping down to jogbra (Part I)

Here's an excerpt from a blog post (click for the original) in which a runner, Chelsinki, describes stripping down to her jogbra - or so I understand her - midway through a serious trail run:

"I promised myself if I didn't stop I would allow myself to take the descent shirtless... As promised I removed my shirt, which was one of the most liberating, freeing, glorious parts of my run. However, after running into a couple out hiking, I put it back on out of self-consciousness. I still am not sure where I (a petite, fit, LADY runner) fit into shirtless running etiquette. I know whenever I see a hairy, out of shape, shirtless man running, I think, "just because you can, doesn't mean you should". However, I do believe there is a place for shirtless running (i.e. the trail), I just have to figure out where I draw the line, or I guess remove my shirt."
- from 'Running... Cycling... Etc' (now known as 'Surfing the Stars').

Well, as I see it, runners in jogbras should be accorded all the freedom, and exercise the same sense of responsibility and decorum, as their shirtless male counterparts. I would NOT reiterate this statement without qualification if we were discussing those jurisdictions where women have the legal protection to run bare-chested: Tenaciously-rooted social mores make things a little more complicated. But if we stick to the jogbra scenario, I don't see why women should not feel themselves at liberty to strip down - and indeed, I should say should strip down, for the sorts of health-, comfort- and camaraderie- related reasons salted throughout the posts of this blog.

Still, having lived in various parts of the world, I find it a general fact that a smaller proportion of female runners dares to bare, in comparison to men. Though we ought to understand the issue entirely as exercise-defined, it is often conflated with allegations of promiscuity, flirtiness and immodesty. Where a shirtless woman is potentially at risk of bodily harm or serious irritation, discretion and a campaign of 'sensitisation' would seem the better part of valour. Ideally, she would go jogbraed only with a male runner in escort - also shirtless, in solidarity. My suspicion is that, over time, residents would become accustomed to seeing such a pioneer in the vicinity, notice no drastic collapse in the moral tenor of the community and eventually become sufficiently accepting that she can run on her own in safety. Naturally, the more of such 'shirtless pairings' dare to venture out, the sooner the walls of distrust and excessive reserve can be worn down.

For most women likely to read this post, thankfully, the sort of constraints they feel would be of a lesser degree. So why not be thankful that the jogbra option is available without need for extreme measures, and then try it out? Expect occasional wolf whistles, catcalls and other expressions of male attention, but to the extent to which these do not actively encourage one (and why not!), such incidents would form only a drop in an ocean of what I can promise is a generally positive, or at least indifferent, reception.

[Here ends Part One of this focus on jogbraed running. Part Two will offer some tips on how to summon up that initial courage]

Shirtlessness at running camps

I've come across some sites that advertise or document activities at 'running camps'. I've not personally attended one, having never taken the sport up that seriously, but on the 'Photos' sections I've noted something very telling:

These folks, when they go for their training runs, fall heavily into the 'who needs a shirt?' category.

Among males, a good 80 per cent overall are shirtless as they pad along. Among females, over 50 per cent are in their jogbras, which as you may recall qualifies as 'honorary shirtlessness' in my book. Numerous large groups of males are to be found running along with not even one member clad in a constrictive upper-body garment. Mostly, none of them is even carrying a shirt in his hand or tucked into his shorts, so it is clear everyone had started off confidently bare-chested.

The first thing one might conclude is that, when there is 'safety in shirtless numbers', the natural upshot amongst runners is to shed shirt and run free. For those of us, then, it may often be the inhibiting effect of running alone or with someone who doesn't make the first move to strip to the waist that keeps us all 'topped-up'. Ironically, of course, it would seem then if we take the initiative to take off our shirts, it is at least possible that our running partners, or others in the vicinity, might feel more comfortable following suit.

The difference shirtlessness can confer

What follows isn't strictly about running (shirtless or otherwise), but the moral I would draw therefrom is what justifies its inclusion here.

I was on my way to lunch the other day, the sun burning high in the sky, when I passed three or four boys - they couldn't have been more than fourth-graders - just concluding a game of basketball. They had all stripped to the waist and seemed in the highest of spirits as they ceded the court to a female foursome.

Perhaps 30 minutes later, I was retracing my steps after my meal when I saw that three different boys were now playing. Their shirts were still on, but plastered with perspiration - and the expressions were grim as the ball was passed and shot. In sum, the trio seemed less to be enjoying some healthful exercise as trying to complete an onerous assignment from school.

Now, it may seem like a stretch for me to say this, but I'd go as far as to say that had the troika eased up a bit and peeled off their upper-body attire, they would have enjoyed their workout a lot more. The sun would have warmed them less aggressively and perhaps that indefinable camaraderie that animates shared shirtlessness would have taken hold, making for a spring in step and lightness in heart. And this thought, at least, is easily transposed to running or jogging: Many a time, I've seen a plodder soldiering along bathed in sweat, his shirt literally a-swimming - and pitied him for his refusal to embrace shirtless freedom (I'll admit that, as a man, such sentiments pretty much never strike me when passing a similarly-suffering woman - though intellectually, I hold jogbra-ness to be equally liberating).

The vignette is not quite exhausted. The happier boys I had earlier encountered, as it happened, had still been in evidence as I strolled by after lunch. They were still shirtless and now lounging about in a nearby hut, chatting up a storm with the girls who had taken their place after their game. Now, one can sometimes read screeds online by women who insist that shirtlessness is rude, inconsiderate and lower than robbing the blind. But these schoolgirls must have missed that lecture. The interaction of these youngsters seemed completely natural; the girls themselves were in shorts and T-shirts, but the boys' bare-chestedness was not being held against them. And it leads me to suspect that the great mass of people are similarly free of such prejudices - and so understand that someone shirtless in the name of exercise (whether that be running or some other form) is likely as decent and approachable as the next person.

Why apologise for running shirtless?

If you've been toying with the idea of going shirtless for your runs, you may like to know that the practice has an honourable pedigree. The great running guru himself, James Fixx, said that - for male joggers - the answer to the question of what shirt to wear was: "Don't wear one". I don't see why the point should not be extended to cover women in jogbras.

Yet we shirtless runners often find ourselves in an oddly apologetic stance. There are two aspects to this, relating to location and physical condition.

On the first, we find ourselves compromising and typically offering to strip to the waist only in less-crowded areas, or on trails, or at night. I used to hold a view along those lines. Yet if there is something disreputable to being shirtless, it would be hypocritical not to reject it always, not accept some sort of ghetto-cising. I would today say that there is nothing aggressive or offensive - as such - in the prospect of unshirted runners anywhere. Since discretion can be the better part of valour, however, I would not offend lightly against the sensitivities of the more conservative parts of the world.

On body-condition, however, a majority of people would probably find the deliberate flouting of an offensively-illconditioned upper-torso to be - at the very least - terribly inconsiderate. It is on grounds of being inconsiderate that I would, on balance, reprove those who offend on that score. However, I am very far from saying that only 'ideal body types' should be allowed the freedom of shirtlessness (and I would myself be easily ruled out here). Indeed, by responsibly running shirtless, the variety of 'ordinary physiques' we would exhibit may help remind people not to be fixated on Hollywood looks and unrealistic role models: Being fit, we would be asserting, doesn't have to be an impossible ideal.

For the great majority of joggers and keep-fitters, therefore, I would say that the time to go shirtless is now, both for the benefits and enjoyment derived and also to help egg society in positive directions. For those who feel themselves still falling short, 'getting fit enough to run shirtless' is often acknowledged to be an effective spur.

Don't knock it if you haven't tried it

For those of you runners who look askance upon your shirtless brethren, perhaps you'll accept the following experiment:

Simply go shirtless in your runs at least three consecutive times. Chances are you've never done that.

Don't run less or more than you would normally, though you may wish to vary your route or when you run slightly if you'd rather not encounter anyone you know (I know how that feels).

I wouldn't be surprised if many of you find that, after that taster, you'll feel a lot better-disposed to us even if you decide you'd rather not 'turn shirtless full-time'.

If you feel like writing in describing just how much you remain unconvinced, that response will get its due too. And you'll have my thanks for bothering to research what you criticise.

(Full disclosure: I've already run the experiment in reverse, at my wife's urging. I once put on a tank top and ran for a week. It didn't take.)