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?

BitLate you're a woman after my own heart.... Will you join me in a Christmas tipple and a cheeky fag whilst I lounge on the patio in my size ten leather trews? 😉

tips teenage girls / young women are pretty susceptible as a group - it's more complex than just imagery I think but the imagery is a part of it. Over-exercise can form part of an eating disorder (not sure the name) and this form of disorder used to be more common in men while the straight starvation / bulimia type disorders were more prevalent in women. Men are having more eating disorders too... This isn't the sort of equal ops anyone was aiming for

The people I know who exercise all the time are the ones who used to take drugs all the time and they all frame it as giving them a "high" and channelling that desire into something a bit healthier now they're older. Obviously that's not the case with everything! But like anything, it can be misused. Davina is a case in point - she's on record as saying she has had both drug issues and eating disorders, and while I hope that this exercise turn is a healthy non obsessive one for her, there's certainly a possibility that like my friends she is channelling some obsessive high seeking type feelings desires into exercise.

Honestly if people are exercising to get high I can thoroughly and earnestly recommend the pharmaceutical route as being far less labour intensive.

Honestly if people are exercising to get high I can thoroughly and earnestly recommend the pharmaceutical route as being far less labour intensive.

Exercise is actually good for you though.

Well it's all a bit 6 of one and half a dozen.

Anything you do because you are chasing a high / addicted has the potential to leave you in a really bad way.

When one of my friends had an injury she really struggled with her mental state as she couldn't run and therefore couldn't access her "high".

While running is not only good for you (generally), and legal, and less expensive than illegal drugs, if you are addicted, and using it to replace a different addiction, then it's still not actually "healthy".

Everything in moderation is a great saying although not one I am any good with myself (hence so many of my friends are of the same type!).

Granted.
This isn't a wholly convincing line of reasoning though Daisies

plus I dance like Beyoncé after partaking so win-win, no?

Running is definitely good for my mental health and I'm grumpy if I can't run but I don't think it's because I'm addicted or chasing a high. It's that it gives me a hour or so to myself to clear my head.

Not just running obv was thinking of my mate.

Also not uncommon to use this to cover eating disorders.

All power to those who are fit and strong - I like to lift a few weights myself - but just there are as ever a few warning notes around the whole thing. Plus of course the point that girls / women are still being fed a diet of images that have the net result across the population of making them feel crappy. Which is of course the point (cos then they buy stuff). Which is also why it changes every couple of years.

Well everyone is different tips, that's part of the beauty of it all

To be strong you'd need a decent diet and well chosen exercise which is no bad thing in itself.

These kind of "ripped" images do rely on a low body fat from a very managed diet, strict training, good genes and possibly Photoshop. Not so healthy. If you're one of the majority with a not very cooperative body, it's probably a lesser evil than skinny.

Personally, I'd champion the development of the healthy weight with mum tum look
DS1 saw to it that I'd never carry off this muscly look without the aid of a tummy tuck. I'm fit and healthy but I'm not going to waste life and good food aspiring to this look!

I looked like that most of my life... I was an athlete and dancer and also did many other activities.

I've had two children... and while I don't look exactly like that anymore I credit it to how my body looks now. I never gained much weight and whatever I did came off by month 4 (two c-sections).

Diet is also a factor.

I was teased in high school for having defined calves! Teased about how my arms looked masculine etc. It was horrible! I'm glad this is a "trend" I only hope it will stick around! strong is beautiful!

However, I don't agree with people who go to extremes. I don't think 5 days a week is too much, there are seven days in a week so people can rest for 2. I'm looking forward to getting back into shape... unfortunately I've now moved to the U.K. from very warm countries so I'm struggling to navigate the winter and also two children.... I'm exhausted!

Are these super skinnies STRONG, though? Could they run 6 miles in fast time or benchpress something high or haul 25 kg sacks of spuds around (I suspect not).

Women weightlifters don't seem to have crazy low body fat %. Amazing 10km runners aren't stupidly ripped in all directions. So I conclude the women in OP are not truly "strong".

(Pic of gal is supposed to be 58kg lifting almost twice her own weight).

Yes we are strong. I can deadlift 125kg, prowl 100kg and squat 100kg and benchpress 60kg. I weigh 58kg. Hauling 25kg is absolutely nothing.

post a pic of Urself, Jstorm.

How do I do that? I'm using mobile site

How do you do ALL that on only 4 hours of exercise

I'm so massively jealous you get to eat 2,500 calories a day

Feck if I know how to do pics, but instrux might be here.

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

But we’ve moved beyond those times. No need to partake of that level of physical exertion or pursue that kind of physique any more (unless you specifically want to).

I would be very surprised if the type/level of exercise I see/hear being promoted by doctors etc would result in that type of physique.

So what physique should we be chasing after then?

Because all I see on the high street is obesity and general 'overweight ' and I don't want to be going back there!

I would be very surprised if the type/level of exercise I see/hear being promoted by doctors etc would result in that type of physique.

A moderate walk in the park? No, most certainly not. But those recommended levels are actually the minimum.

EU I can’t find a picture of the Abs woman squatting more than bodyweight. Her thighs are exceptiinally thin, underdeveloped even. I’m guessing she doesn’t lift heavy.

A moderate walk in the park? No, most certainly not. But those recommended levels are actually the minimum.

I’m thinking it would take a lot of commitment - and time - to achieve that sort of physique.

Because all I see on the high street is obesity and general 'overweight ' and I don't want to be going back there!

That’s “all” you see? What high street is this?

I see all shapes and sizes on mine - from the very thin to the very fat.

butchy

We may have moved past those times as a society but our bodies haven't evolved since then (and in many parts of the world, people are still living those subsistence lives)

You asked 'who says that's what humans are supposed to look like'. I'm saying thousands of years of human history says that's what we are supposed to look like

It doesn't mean you are obliged to, but it is nonsense to try and argue that it isn't the optimal physical state for the vast majority of humans as a result of all that evolution

You might have been conditioned to prefer a certain look to your body, or might not care at all what you look like though, which is fine

jstorm justclick the attachment button at the bottom of the narrative box, choose photo and attach.