What’s our problem with muscly women? Earlier this month, Jodie Marsh was left 'shaking with anger' when Asos jokily tweeted her bodybuilding photo in response to a customer who asked why they didn’t use more ‘manly’ models. Just this week, Jessica Simpson showed off her sculpted legs on Instagram, only to be branded by Twitter users as ‘gross’.
‘I’ll say it,’ one unimpressed fan wrote, ‘Jessica Simpson’s legs freak me out.’ We might dribble over Chris Evans’s torso in Captain America, but being ripped is all too often the sole domain of guys. Maybe it’s time we stop admiring beef and start building it, too.
Being ripped is all too often the sole domain of guys
Higher levels of muscular strength are linked to a lower risk of stroke, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The NHS recommends strength training for all adults (not just dudes!) and it’s closely linked with protecting bone density, which decreases the risk of osteoporosis.
So why aren’t women hopping off the crosstrainer and reaching for weights? Hannah, 25, is one bodybuilder who thinks so. She runs a Tumblr called Women Who Liftand has gone from futile diets and hours on the treadmill to squatting weights of up to 120 kilos. Yes, that’s over 18 stone.
‘Jodie Marsh is obviously an extreme example of a muscular women,’ she acknowledges. ‘But what our fitness media hasn’t caught up with yet is if you want to look curvy like Beyonce (and aren’t already), weights are the best way to do it. The majority of women who do lift don’t look like Marsh – they just looked toned and curvaceous.’
For Hannah, lifting weights didn’t add bulk – it helped her sculpt her body into an hourglass figure. ‘If you build up your shoulders and lats, it gives you more of a waist,’ she explains. ‘Plus, weightlifting makes me feel strong and positive in a way that doing loads of cardio and dieting never did.’
Lifting weights is way more satisfying than watching the number of calories you burn add up on the dashboard of your crosstrainer
As someone who’s started training with kettlebells, I can definitely attest to that. I might not be squatting 18 stone (yet), but lifting weights is way more satisfying than watching the number of calories you burn add up on the dashboard of your crosstrainer. And for every Twitter troll who gets squicked out by sinewy biceps on a lady, there’s a fitness blog like Girls Gone Strong, which cheers women on to lift stronger, better and heavier than before.
‘So much of the way women are viewed is you’re meant to be weak and helpless and as small as possible,’ Hannah argues. ‘Weightlifting is the total opposite: you’re trying to be strong. There’s something unapologetic about that. As a feminist, I find it really empowering.’
Your half-arsed treadmill sessions aren’t the be all and end all of fitness
Just last week, we reported how a third of schoolgirls aged between eight and 16 view exercise as ‘socially unacceptable’, and how only less than 20 per cent of women do enough exercise to benefit their health. Of course, that’s not to say that muscling in on a weights class will magically transform you into Rihanna – but it does mean your half-arsed treadmill sessions aren’t the be all and end all of fitness.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.