Our Thoughts on Trendy Fitness Phrases
Someone messaged us awhile back asking our thoughts on fitness instructors saying things like “strong is the new skinny” and other phrases referencing body type — many of which put being thin/skinny in a negative box or the other side. Our follower said she thinks it can come off hurtful as someone who struggles to gain muscle and weight, and it can often put pressure on individuals to feel like they need to look a certain way.
This made us self reflect on some of these phrases that we hadn’t really thought about before. Our first thought after reading this was “shit, we’ve for sure said that” and we’ve def used some of the other trending phrases out there too.
It used to drive us crazy when instructors would say the opposite type of this talk, like referencing “problem areas” or a “bikini body” (EVERY body is a bikini body!!!). We love that culturally, most are shifting to a body positive outlook, but sometimes we can over correct our behavior once we realize we need to make a change — “Strong not skinny” can fall into that overcorrecting category. Yes, the mindset is to be more body positive, but people interpret this in different ways. Two healthy and fit people can have completely different bodies. The body positive movement was SO powerful and had a ton of positives and we fully understand the bias against a larger body type. It’s wrong and needs to change, but we think that general respect for our bodies should be celebrated, not dividing bodies into categories.
Just a reminder to educate one another on how things we sometimes don’t think twice about can impact others in ways you may not realize and of course, this applies to most things, not just fitness.
Keep it Sweaty,
Jo and Jacqs
