S03E32 CROSSFIT WOMEN AND MAN MUSCLES
"She literally has man muscles." So starts the article "CrossFit, "Man Muscles," and the Feminine Ideal" written by @brittney_s Senior Writer at Crossfit.
What is the "Feminine Ideal?" Are CrossFit "Man Muscles" compatible with that ideal? Let's take five minutes to think about this.
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S03E32 CROSSFIT WOMEN AND MAN MUSCLES
[00:00:00] Sam Rhee: This podcast episode is about a CrossFit article that was recently released on January 21st, 2023. It was written by Britney Saline, Senior Writer, CrossFit, under CrossFit Essentials on their website. The title was Man Muscles and the Feminine Ideal.
Britney Saline discusses a YouTube video featuring women CrossFit Games athletes, and the comment says, "She literally has man muscles." This is actually a pretty common comment that I've heard about many women athletes over a broad range of sports and not just CrossFit. And I hope in the future to talk a lot more about women and their body image, especially as a plastic surgeon.
I discuss this a lot with patients. But for today, I would really like to just break down this article in my thoughts about it a little bit. I am gonna make a couple broad generalizations just for the sake of time here. We're going to be talking about self-perception only, not others judging others, which is even more complicated.
The definition of body image is a person's thoughts, feelings, and perception of aesthetics or sexual attractiveness of the body.
The points in the article were one, the athletes in the video were certainly very fit.
But the implied question that the writer is answering is, are these muscles masculine appearing on a woman? The other point that the writer makes is that feminine beauty has been a changing standard over time, which is true.
And after a little bit of discussion, the writer does talk about the fact that the comment "man muscles" is implying that these women have muscle mass and the amount appears masculine appearing.
So the question or the point of this article really is, is that if you do CrossFit as a woman, will you have masculine appearing muscles? Now the writer turns this answer upside down and she says, if you do CrossFit, you will be more fit, i.e., the healthiest version of a female.
Therefore the appearance of women CrossFit athletes is what she calls a natural expression of biological femininity.
So let's talk about this a little bit. In CrossFit, the goal is functional fitness, not aesthetics. The goal is, as Greg Glassman put it, to increase endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. The goal is increased health. It is not aesthetics.
It is absolutely true what the writer says that body shape and body image have been influenced by many concepts over the years. Some of it has been health related. For example, in the Italian Renaissance, people with increased body fat were associated with increased wealth.
But many of these concepts of health over the years have not really correlated with what CrossFit's definition of health has been.
And the aesthetic ideal has been influenced by a number of factors in society, including economic factors, cultural, psychologic, and even our own scientific studies in neuroscience and medicine.
If you take a look at other fitnesses or sport training, body types are certainly influenced by the training modality in question. Marathon runners are incredibly thin. Their goal literally is to carry their body 26.2 miles as fast as possible. Power lifters are generally the opposite.
Their functional goal is to move a maximum external load. Squat, bench, deadlift, and body weight is irrelevant. Bodybuilders look to increase their size, definition, and appearance of their muscles strictly for presentation.
But the point is, is that all of these women who train in these disciplines are athletes. They are by definition women. And some of them do fit quote, society's definition of an ideal female body shape more than others.
So, Britney Saline is correct. All women athletes by definition, are natural expressions of biological femininity. They are women. Whether that fits your personal definition of an ideal female body image is another question.
Personally, I like the concept that an ideal female body image for a woman or for anyone, correlates with fitness and health. And I'm a plastic surgeon that deals with appearance for a living, and oftentimes the discussion of aesthetics has nothing to do with a patient's fitness or health.
In my opinion, CrossFit's training methodology is as good as, or better than anyone else's out there in terms of improving a woman athlete's fitness and health.
Therefore, in my opinion, having muscle mass as a result of CrossFit training, whether it's a lot such as Dani Speegle, or maybe not as much such as Mal O'Brien, that should be a great image to promote as a positive image.
Now does CrossFit training itself promote a certain body type?
That's something for another topic, but my short answer is yes.
However, I would say it is generally a body type compatible with what most people that I know would consider an ideal female body image.
But honestly, I would argue that the concept of a universal ideal female body image or what, quote "society really wants," is a dead concept, and it has been for a long time. We live in a society where there is such a diversity of body types, media outlets, and opinions.
The fact that some random commentator on YouTube says she has man muscles is about as relevant as someone commenting that Lamborghini engine is too loud for a car. Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I personally won't think very much of you if you say something like that.
Thanks very much.
