To think that "strong is the new skinny" is becoming a bit extreme?

[Namila]

I am not sure how to explain what I mean, but I'll try. Getting ready to be flamed as it often happens when discussing women's bodies.

In the last few years I noticed a new trend online among women, the "fit/strong is the new skinny" type of narrative. In theory I think that is an improvement and a positive change from the unhealthy trend of extreme skinniness we were stuck with for decades.

However, I can't help but thinking that the new "fit and muscular" trend is getting a bit over the top. It seems like now we should aspire to have huge, bodybuilder-style muscles now? We should strive to get a huge butt through never ending series of squats and weightlifting? Steel abs with not an inch of fat? Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest are full of this type of pics. I attached a couple to this thread just for reference!

It just seems a bit extreme to me. Of course a slim, healthy, active body is attractive, but I wonder why these trends always seem to get so extreme (e.g. super skinny, or super muscular, or super curvy Kardashian-style).

So AIBU to think that this trend is a bit much? Does anyone else share this view?

Well some (many) of these people will have body issues hence the need to go to extremes, be it not eating or exercising to ridiculous lengths.

I feel sorry for these people

None of those pics look extreme?

They look how a high man body should look

I think the women in those pictures look amazing and healthy.

All trends have extremes. Look at those ridiculous eyebrows shaped like Christmas trees and decorated! most people don’t even try to replicate what they see on Instagram. They work out to be reasonably fit and healthy.

*how a human body should look

I've heard about this, but only vaguely because I don't follow that kind of thing. I suggest you do the same as me.

Weightlifting is an excellent exercise. Muscles are good. Very difficult for women to get ‘huge’ though; none of those pictures is ‘huge’.

Abs woman is probably far too low body fat %, agreed.
Quads woman is a little disproportionate, IMO, but clearly amazing thighs.
Back woman looks amazing.

Irony is that you can be as strong as you like but your muscle will only show like that if you are also skinny - BMI 18-20 on a woman type weight.

I like the strong rhetoric though and even if you don’t have visibly chiseled abs a strong body does look better - as well as work better- than a weak one.

I wish more women would lift weights. The weight loss boards on here are so often full of fad diets like Weight Watchers

When people say “tone up” they just mean “increase muscle mass and decrease fat” but you cannot do that by bicep curling tins of beans or running 5k

Still seems so many women think that weights = they’ll turn in to Arnie over night

Fit and strong is the ideal, but naturally some people will be a little too obsessive about it and the magazine pictures will always be the "better" examples and retouched

I don't think any of those pictures are really extreme though. I have abs from eating what I like at regular intervals, running 3 times a week and 2 gym/core sessions a week. Is that extreme?

I partially agree with you. I don't like 'strong is the new skinny' - it still implies that some types of body types are 'better' than others.

It is becoming more common amongst both men and women to have disordered eating, and to be addicted to exercising. Orthorexia in particular, along with cutting out food groups, and going vegan/pales/gluten free etc.

Scary really.

I don't feel sorry for those people - I feel jealous!

As long as they are being healthy and not doing that binge/dehydrate thing pro bodybuilders do, good for them.

I wish more women would lift weights

Yes I’ve never lost so much weight and got fitter than when I started using a kettlebell.

Irony is that you can be as strong as you like but your muscle will only show like that if you are also skinny - BMI 18-20 on a woman type weight
I’m around 18.5 and my abs don’t show like that (my quads are pretty defined though). That woman is at a very low body fat, but given the muscle she’s carrying, may not mean her BMI is particularly low.

So yes, you have to be ‘skinny’ to show like that but just worth mentioing that BMI is not necessarily a measure of ‘skinniness’.

Tip I am not saying that being fit and active as you are is a bad thing, but surely we should not promote the idea that in order to look attractive you need to workout intensively 5 days a week?

Great if it works for you and it makes you feel good, but that is not a routine many women would be able to keep up with!

"running 3 times a week and 2 gym/core sessions a week. Is that extreme?"

maybe not quite extreme, but 5 times a week is quite a lot isn't it?

'Strong is the new skinny' is just swapping one obnoxious cultural diktat for another, I agree, OP.

The women in the first and third photo have physiques like professional athletes. If you can't dedicate 6 hours a day to exercise and lots of time and money on particular diets, then you aren't going to look like that. Holding that body type up as an ideal we should all aim for is just another stick to beat women with

5 times a week is about right especially if you have a sedentary job and drive everywhere. We should be active every day really in one form or another.

who said its 5 times a week tho?

she might run to the gym on 2 days, meaning its 3 days a week

believe i've heard great things about kettlebells.....very tempted to try this

I don't think it is extreme. I don't think it's gone far enough!
I lift big weights and have done for a long time. My body shape is naturally muscly and I am much better at sports and activities that need slow twitch than fast twitch. I can't be skinny, I can't have a thigh gap. My body isn't built that way.

I don't look anything like any of those women but I am happy that muscles and definition are seen as feminine, and there is wider acceptance of it being a perfectly normal point on the spectrum of what women look like.

It wasn't when I was younger and I feared doing exercise that would build muscle because I was told by the media and my peers that it wasn't how women were supposed to look

Exercising 4/5 times a week is what's necessary for basic health, isn't it?

OP, I don't exercise to be attractive (I'm almost 50) I long since stopped caring about that. I exercise to be fit and healthy, because I enjoy it and because most of my social life revolves around being active. I don't think what I do could be called intensive workouts. Perhaps that's why we have the health problems we have as a nation, if people think 5 hours of exercise a week is a lot, it's really not.

3 x running a week isn’t too much, but if you’re looking for a toned body then running won’t do much. Have you ever seen someone running down the street with a particularly enviable looking body? I haven’t, but have in the weights and yoga rooms of my gym

All those slogans are crap, aren't they?

Of course, it is great that muscles can be seen as feminine!

But going to extremes such as the photos above (which, obviously, based on all the self involved selfies on Instagram) is an extreme obsession is NOT healthy.

Skinny is feminine. Athletic is feminine. Etc etc