Fitness models

LauraMax

LauraMax

Cathlete
OK I haven't had a rant for a while so here's my latest.

When I was waiting at the salon I was flipping through a fitness mag, which I stopped reading years ago b/c they kind of got repetitive. So I'm looking really hard at the models & trying to find a muscle somewhere. Anywhere. And I came to the conclusion these models are not fit at all. I wonder if they even work out?

They're really just 19 year old women who are still thin & haven't had to start working out yet to stay trim. Someone here once used the term "fat skinny women," & that's pretty much what I saw. They weren't toned, they weren't muscular, they were just young & slim.

Now, if you're gonna use models in a fitness mag, shouldn't they be women who workout, I mean REALLY workout? These girls don't inspire me, they just annoy me & make me feel old. I want to see women like Cathe in a fitness mag, not my local high school's pep squad.

OK, rant's over. :p
 
It could be that the target group that reads it doesn't want visible muscles, so that's how they pick their models. The old "I don't want to get bulky" syndrone that just makes me nuts!

"You can't win them all - but you can try." - Babe Zaharias ;-)
 
Depends on the magazine you're reading - Shape and Fitness do exactly what you're talking about because their audience, while including fitness buffs, also includes "average" folk who may be intimidated by the truly fit looking models. If you look at magazines like Oxygen and Muscle & Fitness Hers you will see an entirely different group of models - the competitive kind. Very fit. So, it depends upon the target demographics of the magazine. With that said, I still agree with you - I hate looking at 18 year old stick figures when reading about how to get fit.
 
this is precisely why i don't read those magazines anymore. skinny is not impressive nor insprirational...i want to look at someone and know they sweat hard for that body....even if you aren't muscular, you can still be toned without being "bulky" as they like to put it.
 
i agree it could be who their audience is, but many of them think its fit to be thin and do about anyting to get there. but overall they really need to empahize something new like "it's okay to lift heavy, you really won't get big"

kassia

http://www.picturetrail.com/ldy_solana

"And do what thee wilt as long as ye harm none"
 
It annoys me too Laura, but doesn't make me feel old at all. In fact, I think have muscle tone is much more sexier than not having any no matter what your age is. So when I see this, I think they don't have a clue, no one has taught them anything about fitness. I think woman with muscles look most youthful anyhow and turn heads alot faster then woman who don't have muscle regardless of age...just my own observation.

Charlotte~~
 
I agree with everyone, but I think the magazines like Shape need to re-evaluate their readers. My 17 year old DD who is not a fitness buff, but IS a cheerleader and one of the popular girls says that she wants definition, not bulk. Well, definition means working out. The women in Oxygen and the others are DEFINED - not bulky! The women in Shape are skinny. I stopped reading Shape when one of their cover models was one of the women posing in Victoria's Secret's catalog and she didn't even have chicken legs - these were toothpick legs. I do happen to know 1 woman who is that thin naturally, but this model did not look as if she came upon it naturally, and even if she did she was too bloody thin. I usually feel a twinge (flood?) of envy when I see a really sexy looking woman. This girl made me feel sorry for her.
 
I agree with all of you....and just wanted to chime in that my new favorite magazine is Women's Health. Same sort of content as Shape....lots of fashion and beauty articles(which I like), but all their models are definately on the muscular and defined side, not little skinny things. Last month 's edition had a article on athletic swimwear and the models actually looked like swimmers, not just models in cute suits.

Donna
 
Ha Funny I was a former shape reader too and dropped it years ago. Suddenly I've started getting it again and my DD and I have no clue why.

I do remember though MANY years ago (my DD is 20 now and it was before she was born) when being in shape was totally about being thin. I went on outward bound trip (1 week hiking in the wilderness) and was in HORRID shape thin yes but caring 40 lb packs for hikes in the mountains - well let me say I learned WAY BACK then that there was more to being in shape than being thin! We had a solo day where we were to "commune" with nature and I slept for 24 hrs straight.
 
Totally agree. I think these same young models are the ones on tv commercials using anti-cellulite cream!!
Sherry
 
I agree with you Laura. I used to get Fitness RX and they always have cover models who are like 20 years old and they ask them what they do to look so good. THEY'RE 20 YEARS OLD, that's what they do. It was almost comical to read those interviews every month.

Suz

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened." - Anatole France

http://www.picturetrail.com/dogs2birds
 
I find both extremes: the thin, no-visible-muscle look of Fit/Fitness/Shape and the 'six-pack-that-looks-like-intestines' look of some Oxygen cover models, equally unappealing. I prefer something in between, like the athletic, active, look of the "Women's Health" cover models.
 
Yeah...the "fat skinny" skinny look just isn't healthy. I am not saying you have to have huge, ripped muscles to be "fit", but what I am saying is you should be SOLID, whatever size you are. To me, that is a "fit" person...not some 100 lb. toothpick who has no muscle tone.
 
I agree - those skinny waifs just don't look healthy. What's worse is the image it puts in young girls' heads that women are supposed to look like that. My DD is 14 and, as a gymnast, is very athletic and muscular. She's also tall and leggy, so she looks pretty amazing. She will complain that her stomach is too fat because her abs stick out?!?! Mind you, you could do laundry on her abs. The problem is her stomach is not concave, like those models. I keep telling her that her stomach is much better than any of those models on the magazine covers. But she's 14, and it's so hard to make her understand.
 
I work with a woman who's won one of those contests and been on the cover of Oxygen several times. She is one of the nicest persons you could meet. I wonder that she's had implants, because most women with body fat that low don't have large breasts. But that is her business. She is a personal trainer and instructor - she lives and breathes this stuff - and she looks phenomenal. Out of all the women I see at my gym, she is the most attractive. And quite muscular. I think she has great genetics and works hard to keep it up. I started teaching aerobics 20 years ago (can't believe that) with her older sister so I saw her as a cute, cute teen. She was gorgeous before she ever started working out. She also has a special-needs child and is a single mother, and is a great mother. I often think that people have no idea what kind of life she really lives when they just look at her gorgeous outside.
 
With the exception of the previous post, I agree with the rest of you. Don't find it annoying, just amusing, that even in the fitness realm, the advertising/PR agencies are trying to push these skinny, skinny -- unusually skinny people on their public -- pretending that this is what one should look like. Not even...;-)
 
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