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?

the gal in red croptop looks underweight with fake boobs. It's not a good look. Guess that's an instant fail to sell me on this supposed trend.

"Facebook and Pinterest are full of this type of pics"

Mine isn't. I don't see these women-with-low body fat pics on FB or Pinterest. But I heard of DavinaMc so looked for her ... very genuine smile.

If you eat right and train smart those photos aren't hours and hours in the gym every day. It's a lifestyle choice to look like that for sure but it's not unachievable for most people who train regularly.

Blimey!
Davina looks pretty ripped there🏋️‍♂️

I train every day and eat quite healthy and don't look like that at all

I do triathlon and have similar muscle mass to the second and third pics through training although my stomach is rubbish at the moment because I've been injured and haven't been eating right. I'm back training for an ultra running event in the spring so will drop weight over the next few months and my abs come back for a short while until I fall off the wagon again next September.

I don't think Davina looks Photoshopped but in the photos at the top of the thread, the first one I think her waist / midsection has been made a bit smaller, in the second I think her thighs have been made a bit longer.
I could be wrong of course
Not sure about the third photo
Imo these photos look extreme because the proportions has been altered

Generally speaking it is quite difficult for most people to achieve a physique which is both ripped and muscular

I suppose it is infinitely healthier than the old “be skinny at all costs, fags and coffee” mindset. But yes, it does of course favour slim body types as a general rule, just more muscular ones.

I tend to follow "real life" people on Instagram rather than fitness models (mainly pro trail runners, power lifters and Crossfitters) and I dont follow randoms on FB, so you can decide what you want to see, surely? I'm not a massive fan of "fitspiration" generally as I think some of the advice is either just bollocks or quite dangerous.

My legs look like that.
Very muscular looking.

The rest of me doesn’t unfortunately

*how a human body should look

Says who?

I wouldn’t want to look like that. Fine if that’s your thing but it’s definitely not mine.

I think we’ve lost the idea of what strong is.

As someone who has suffered various ed, and so drawn to extremes, I think I agree with you. I’d love to look like that. I don’t, however, I know I’m strong, I can run a marathon, I must be pretty strong. I don’t have zero percentage fat (I reckon my muscles are fairly developed under my layer of fat!)

I think that the fashion for what women's bodies should look like changes periodically and we are all expected to follow suit, or try to follow suit and fail, and the images we are presented with are usually unattainable to the average woman.

We had a strong / gym / fit physique fashion back in the 80s I seem to recall when gyms came into fashion first - that had a dance focus also but was similar. Then we got the baywatch look, then heroin chic, then a look that came from porn, and so on and so on, I think it's easiest and healthiest to try and ignore it all as much as you can same as any fads and go about your business in a balanced sensible way. Moderate diet, exercise, get your heart going, get your muscles going, eat some veg, "exercise" your brain a bit etc

how a human body should look

Says who? I wouldn’t want to look like that. Fine if that’s your thing but it’s definitely not mine

If you look at pictures of people living in pre-industrialised communities, ie what human evolution 'designed' people to be able to do physically on a daily basis in order to survive, you'll see both sexes have lots of lean and mostly defined muscle

It might not be your aesthetic preference but you only have to watch a series of Bear Grylls The Island to see how quickly most people default to it when they are working for their survival

This is interesting. Women 7000 years ago were stronger than elite women rowers today

I'd rather be skinny than look like any of them.

Strong is the new skinny really means that it's been made even harder for women to achieve the ideal body. Now not only must you not eat, you must also work out. Willpower alone won't get us there anymore. Now we need to give up our time and money to the gym as well.

Now not only must you not eat, you must also work out.

You don’t get to look like that without eating. You’d need to eat a shit tonne of protein to get muscular like that.

Oh. Protein. Shit tons of it, what fun!

Pass the costa and the marlboro 👍

Jacinta that's the kind of effect this sort of thing has always had on me as well

It's the same as the impulse that made me want to take the school bear to the local wetherspoons and photo it with loads of empty pint glasses and an overflowing ashtray after leafing through all the previous activities stanley had got up to in the book

Davina is flexing in her photo. Unless she actively sucks in her abs and clenches 100% of the time, she probably doesn't have a visible six pack at rest. Very few people do.

Davina has just split up with her husband. She's on the heartbreak diet. Lost loads of weight v quickly which shows all the ab work off with no fat covering it.

It's not healthy though and despite the smile, I bet in a few years she'll refer back to that photo saying she was in a bad place mentally.

Seriously that Davina pic looks like a cry for help to me.

The third picture is what my body look a like just now. I have never felt better. I eat 2500 calories a day and do weight training 4 times a week for an hour at a time. My diet is clean and i eat just as much carbs as I do protein. Carbs build muscle, protein repairs it. I first got into bodybuilding when I joined the gym after I spent 7 years listening to my now ex husband tell me what a fat cow I was so my confidence was rock bottom. Now I feel great and couldn't really give a shiny shite what anyone thinks of my body because I'm happy and that's all that matters to me.

There is absolutely nothing extreme with going to the gym 5 times a week for a workout. Totally ignorant thing to say.

Your body looks like the 3rd picture, you get to eat 2500 calories a day AND you only do 4 hours of weights

Picture or I It's bollocks

(And well done!)

I think strong rather than thin is a far better message, and as I said earlier, I think I'm in decent shape for my age, but I honestly don't feel any pressure to do it for the way I look. I do it entirely because my social life mostly revolves around being active and because exercise makes me feel good.

i'm really shocked how many people here seem to feel genuine pressure to confirm to the "ideal". I know they talk about that in the media and I get that celebs who are photographed constantly might feel like that but I honestly don't know any real people who feel like that.

The best thing that ever happened to me was meeting a bunch of friends who enjoy exercise. Now we cycle to lunch, go hiking with a nutritious packed lunch, challenge each other to enter (and train for) wackier or harder races.

IMO the only way to be fit, in whichever form you feel that should take,is to enjoy it and do it because you want to. If you're only dieting (or whatever) for the way you look it's highly unlikely that you'll achieve or maintain results.