In this Inaugural lecture, Professor Simone Fullagar offers a sociocultural perspective on health, sport and active embodiment, to consider why and how the promotion of certain ideals of physical and mental health are not always ‘good’ for us. At the heart of this lecture are biopolitical and feminist questions concerning the complex effects of power relations (inequities relating to gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality, age, disAbility) on our embodied experiences health and well-being. How might we begin to think differently about health to explore other kinds of embodied practices, desires and possibilities for social transformation?