We want to be muscular women for health: the case of Adriana Lima
When last Thursday I shared on my Instagram account one of the two covers of our November issue that Adriana Lima starsa professional colleague responded to me immediately. “I love it this hard.” The author of these words that reflect a general feeling – just read the comments on social networks that praise her biceps far from criticizing them as would have happened just a few years ago – is Cristina Galafatefitness journalist from The World. She not only knows the theory well about the benefits of practicing strength exercisesbut he experiences firsthand the joys of having a toned body. And we are not talking about the praise you may receive for it – no, this argument in favor of muscular bodies is not about that – but about the real advantages it has in your health work strength. “I celebrate a cover where an influential woman known around the world proudly shows off her toned figure because muscle equals health. Traditionally, women have approached physical exercise from aesthetics, trying to achieve standards of extreme thinness as a model. This ‘weight-centric’ approach, where the number on the scale and the hours of cardio mattered more to lose weight, instead of your performance and energy, has wrongly distanced us from strength work,” she explains, convinced that, finally, the muscle has become a reference among women but not for aesthetic reasons, but for well-being.
“In addition to improve our postureWhen you feel strong yourself, you can pick up your child without your back hurting, carry your suitcase into the airplane compartment without anyone having to come help you, bend over for what you have dropped with a squat… They are exercises that you can transfer to your daily life and, little by little, you will increase your tolerance to higher efforts. On a psychological level, improves self-esteem and the personal security of feeling better physically, not to mention the endorphins generated and the full attention you get when lifting a load, without being able to think about anything other than the bar in front of you,” says Galafate in the most real and accessible, convincing those who are not yet accessible of the need to prioritize strength exercises in our routine. For our self-esteem, for our bone health, for the benefits it has in preventing the inconveniences of menopause and because it is also an efficient way to take care of our weight (the greater the amount of muscle, the greater the energy expenditure).
We are talking about a question of well-being and health (and not of aesthetic slavery)
It wasn’t that long ago when in 2017 Queen Letizia’s hypertoned arms –until that moment we had not noticed them, among other things, because they were not shown regularly– they grabbed headlines from all over the world and negative comments that questioned the femininity of a body with muscle. ‘Attention Madonna: everyone is talking about Queen Letizia’s biceps’, read a headline in Observer. As the psychologist explains to us Ana Moralesthat we have stopped associating the idea of muscle with a loss of femininity “reflects an important evolution in how we see ourselves. It is no longer just about being ‘delicate’, but about feeling strong, safe and, above all, owners of our own body. The interesting thing here is that the muscle, which previously seemed to us a threat to that image of delicacy, is now a symbol of empowerment,” he explains before stopping at the other side of the coin that this desire may have. “The problem comes when those ideas of strength and physical power sneak into a new aesthetic standard that is not always healthy.. What starts as a motivation to get stronger and fitter turns into a constant pressure to look a certain way.” Let’s say that this plea in favor of a strong body must be understood from a health perspective and not from an aesthetic obsession that leads us (again) to want to fit within a canon. If we are fortunately already overthrowing the idea of beauty standards in 2024, glorifying the advantages of a muscular body does not have to lead us to fall into the same trap. The danger, Morales points out, “is to fall back into an exclusive and unattainable standard that means” that we are always left with the feeling that it is not enough. The most worrying thing is that the more unattainable that ideal is, the further we move away from a healthy relationship with our body,” he warns. In fact, remember another fact to keep in mind: There are studies that confirm that adolescents under 15 years of age already choose muscular and thin women as models. (In fact, returning to Adriana Lima, there are also many girls of that age who have claimed via TikTok that she was the one who opened the Victoria’s Secret parade)
These data have their dangers if desire becomes obsession “And we continue to ask our bodies to conform to unattainable ideals,” recalls Morales. “In short, yes, it is fantastic that we feel stronger and that we have lost our fear of muscles. But let’s not fall into the mistake of making muscle another aesthetic ‘must’. The important thing is how you feel, both physically and emotionally. Because health is not just having a muscular body, it is also taking care of our mind. And if we are not well on the inside, what we show on the outside is of no use. In the end, we have to learn to let go of that idea that there is always something to improve in our body, and start asking ourselves: what do I really want for myself? Because true beauty, the one that is truly worth it, is what begins by accepting ourselves and taking care of ourselves from within,” reflects the psychologist.