In a cage fight between skinny & strong who will win? On the left we have Jaslene Gonzales, winner of America’s Next Top Model, Cycle Whatever. On the right we have an unnamed CrossFit woman. What’s your call?
CrossFit chick, hands-down. Maybe in a bar fight and if Jaslene had a broken bottle. And the element of surprise. Then… Okay, not even then. CrossFit chick takes it in every scenario I can think up.
Never Thin Enough
Andrea Muizelaar, winner of Canada’s Next Top Model, Cycle Infinite Winter, found this out the hard way. You may remember her from 2006 when she did what many would consider the unthinkable: she walked away from her title and modeling contracts because even as an emaciated anorexic, she was still told she wasn’t thin enough.
One art director told her not to waste her money on a personal trainer, “This is real world,” she was told. “It’s long and lean that sells, not long, lean and muscular.” Comments like that came all the time. “I was told in my skinniest stage: ‘You gotta tone up your stomach; it’s a little too big’,” she said. She adds that she was so malnourished that her toenails were falling off (now that’s high fashion!) and she was so weak that opening a heavy door was nearly impossible. (source)
At last she decided to choose her health over her modeling career and she scrapped it all, heading back home to her small home town in Canada where she got a job at a bank and enrolled in college.
Here she is (left) at the height of her modeling days. Here she is (right) today.
Finally Strong Enough
Her new healthy lifestyle was recently put to the test. On a cruise with a friend to the Caribbean, they were accosted by armed thieves. Her friend had a knife put to his throat and was knocked almost unconscious. Andrea managed to fight off her attackers, kicking, screaming and scratching. She escaped and ran to a nearby village to get help. Her friend was quickly found and, save for a concussion for her friend and lots of bruises and cuts on Andrea, both came out of it unhurt. (Incidentally, the villagers who came to her rescue were described as “several burly women with baseball bats.” How awesome is that?!?!)
Imagine – going from being too frail to open a door to being strong enough to kick your way free from armed attackers. “If this had happened when I was [a] Top Model…, I would probably be a lot more messed up than I am right now,” Andrea concluded.
Training For Thin Vs Training For Strong
When put in that light, every woman I know would say that of course she would rather be strong than skinny. The irony, however, is that most women train exactly the opposite (as Andrew once accused me of doing although hopefully we’ve worked that miscommunication out). Their entire focus is on skinnifying – read: endless calorie burning – instead of building muscle.
Now, nobody wants to look like the 1976 East German Women’s Swim Team. Not even the East German swim team wants to look like the East German swim team. But your end goal definitely determines the type of training and nutrition program you use. The difference is between seeing food as evil vs. seeing food as fuel. The difference is heavy functional lifting vs. endless reps with a 3-lb dumbbell. The difference is deciding that what our bodies can do is more important than how they look.
I’m a girl. In our society, even. Believe me, I feel the thin pressure as much as anyone. We are told over and over again that our looks are our power and we are only as good as our last Botox treatment. But I, and I believe most of you too, don’t totally buy that message. We buy People but we also get Women’s Health. We lift weights because muscle is more compact than fat and will help us fit in our jeans better but we also get a little thrill every time we go to put up our ponytail and a bicep pops out. It’s that balance that I’m always looking for, sometimes succeeding and sometimes not.
But I’m telling you, if comes down to wearing a size zero or being able to kick some bad-guy booty in a knife fight – at the very least I’m coming out of that with a chunk of somebody’s ear. Now, if someone can please tell me where I can sign up for Krav Maga I’ll be set.
PS> Lifting heavy will NOT make you look like a dude. Unless you are a dude. In which case, you probably should take the lipstick off. At least on the weight floor.
Thursdays are Greatest Hits days here at GFE. This post originally ran March 2008.
I love this post! Hubby and I were in Vegas recently and he noticed a group of anorexic-skinny women and quietly whispered to me, "oh my gosh, those women ridiculously thin, what is wrong with them?" (He meant it in that sweet fatherly way men do after they have girls and their view of women changes) Anyway….I said "oh their fashionably thin honey, that is what all women are supposed to aspire to." He got this disgusted look on his face and said "Why would anyone want to look like a pre-pubescent 14 year old girl, that's not sexy at all." YES!! That is why I love my man.
I would absolutely rather be the strong chick who kicked her attackers butt!
I liked jazlene when she was competing on ANTM -but she wasn't THAT thin then, was she? In the pix, she looks ill, frail and breakable.
I'd take strong over skinny any day. Cause I'd like to know I have a chance to fight off an attacker. and muscle = hot.
i LOVE this post 🙂
I'm all about strong… that's just the way i'm built, i'll never EVER have pin-thin arms or legs, period. And even though I hated this about myself for AGES i'm now embracing my toned everything 🙂 seriously… skinny jiggly thighs? or strong toned legs and arms that can redecorate the whole room (including the furniture and TV). Plus, my man loves this about me, so YAY! I have no reason to want to look like the living death anymore
Fortunately I've never aspired to the clothes hanger look, which is just as well, since I've got big bones… I want to look and feel strong, capable and sculpted.
I was on a treadmill at the gym a few weeks ago and a girl who was probably 5 inches taller than me, as well as 30 pounds lighter got on the treadmill next to me. We were facing a big mirror and at first I felt short and stubby next to her tall thinness. But as we continued to run, I looked at her, all frail and ready to fall over, and thought she looked like death. I then looked at myself and thought, I look strong, like I could run forever. I finished that run feeling absolutely fantastic about myself. I'd pick strong over skinny any day.
LOOOOOOVE THIS POST.
and you have so nailed it when you say that women so often claim they want strong yet train for skinny.
The difference is deciding that what our bodies can do is more important than how they look.
that's my goal with my daughter (as Ive yammered to you before) and yet even at 3.5 I can see that SHE SEES the fact that skinny is valued over, say, being able to THROW her luggage into the overhead bin without breaking a sweat.
But CrossFit woman is so much hotter than Matchstick woman!
Or maybe I come from another planet. Well, when it comes to women's beauty standards I definitely do.
To me, strong women look sexier than scrawnier women, so I don't see it as a trade-off between training for strength and training for beauty. I'm just not willing to do what it takes to get very far with either, but at least the requirements are the same in my mind: eat healthy, lift heavy, workout hard.
Great post! And good for the CNTM (andrea??) for making her health more important. What a great message!
I haven't been skinny since I was a kid. But I am strong! And believe me, I'd rather be strong.
In reading all the health-related/fitness blogs that I've come across, I've never heard anyone say they wanted to look like the anorexic models who "they" say we all want to look like. Makes me wonder who "they" are…..
As you can tell from the picture of me on my blog, I go for strong! That way too skinny look that we see all over the TV is just gross & to think that these women actually look 10 pounds heavier on TV makes me wonder what they look like in real life!!!
I get a lot of good comments but I also get the, I don't want to look muscular & less feminine. Me, I will take my muscles any day plus I wear a smaller size too even with the muscles even though I weight more than most people think I do so muscles ain't so bad.
Good post & let's go kick some you know what!
I'd rather be strong. Thing is, I can't gain any freaking mucle because whenever I take birth control pills, it's hard enough to just maintain (after 5 months on, I'm struggling to do 3 one handed push-ups per side).
I guess it's time to add more weight training in (after midterms).
Can't we all just get along?
Strong wins every time in my book. There's a similar article on one of the Crossfit blogs that I thought you might be interested in:
http://www.crossfitinvictus.com/blog/2009/05/monday-june-1-2009/
Awesome post!!!
Wow – good for her!
I, of course, would choose strong over skinny ANY day. I've just recently been able to do 20 REAL push-ups in a row, and I feel awesome. And kind of hot, actually! I think it's more attractive for a woman to be strong (yet still feminine, imo) than to be a stick and not even be able to open the door for yourself.
I love these 'classic' posts!
Great article.. as always!
I definitely go for strong, however I'm not really built for skinny anyway (even skin and bones my ribcage and hips measure 35").
I wonder sometimes how far this skinny business is going to go before it rebounds. I mean… it has to at some point, doesn't it? I sure hope so because if not by the time my daughter is in her twenties (only 4 years away), the goal will be to be a size -1!
When I was 15, my only goal in life was to be thin as a model. I reached it, and became anorexic. I was a size 0 but I was losing my hair and feeling exhausted all the time. Then I spent several years as a bulimic, trying to reach that unattainable "perfect physique" and abhorring my own body.
What helped my recovery was the discovery of strength training…for the first time I felt strong, empowered and beautiful! The first time I did an unassisted chin-up I almost cried with joy!
After years of struggle, now I am finally at peace with my body. It is athletic AND feminine AND pretty. And I don't need hours of cardio and starvation diets to maintain it.
I would choose the anonymous Crossfit gal over the bag of bones anytime.
Too bad there are still too many advocates of the "weights will make you bulky" philosophy – yes, I am talking to you, Tracy Anderson!
Loved this post!
Like "the Bag Lady," though, I'm wondering: who is this "they" of which everyone speaks?
(Coincidentally, this ties in nicely with the "you know you're a health blogger/follwer when…" thread: You know you are when you think to yourself…"is there any question?")
I may get bashed for this, but I must admit for a while I DID want that skinny look. I am 6' tall with a small frame, so with work I can be very small. Funny thing is, the times I was the "skinniest" I later found out people whispered about eating disorders (I did NOT have one, I was playing basketball year round and eating more than I would ever think about now). My husband even prefers me lean, but with an athletic shape.
I so wish the media would embrace a healthier more athletic build as opposed to such heroine chic. What's next? Concentration camp chic??
Hi I am Fat Bastard from Bigger Fatter Blog on blog spot. We are a fat acceptance blog. My Blog partner Proud FA is a fit and lean guy whereas I am like most people. I am a big fat greedy glutton.
Unlike other fat acceptance blogs we don't hate skinny people. We are not anti diet. We are pro gluttony and we are obesity promoters. Folks of all sizes are welcome on our blog. Unlike the fat angry skinny woman haters and man haters in the fat feminist run fat acceptance we offer a big tent to people of all sizes. We generally are not anti diet. We are simply pro gluttony and we promote it. Stop by for some spirited debate.
Fabulous post.
Personally, I'd much rather be strong than so thin and frail that I can't open a freakin' door. Um, seriously? How practical is that??? If you're strong you can KICK THAT DOOR DOWN! Theoretically, anyway. And that's substantially more badass. 😉
Crossfit, hands down!
I love when my biceps pop out when putting my hair up in a ponytail. 🙂
I unsterstand what Reese is saying as I am 5'11/naturally smaller boned and lift weights but LOVE to run and I often get self concious at the gym that people think I am anorexic or trying to be skinny but when I flex my muscles you can actually see I am quite strong – I just look at first glance to be skinny. Does this make sense? Anyways, strong totally trumps skinny!!!!!!
wooooooow… Why would anyone trust one psychotic art director's (who is probably gay, by the way) sexual preferences to the opinion of the world?
For weeks I’ve tried to work out to lose weight but became discouraged when I realized I’m slowly gaining weight. Then it hit me, I wasn’t getting fatter, I was just getting stonger. I’ve always been pretty strong (I mean, I could lift up my mom about a foot when I was 8) but felt kind of ugly for being so strong around all of the thin girls, especially in the locker rooms. But after reading all of these comments, I’m finally coming to terms with the way I look. Screw thing like the wii fit who only judge you by how much you way. I say go for what makes you feel the best!
^^^^ on the post above I meant to say eight but it changed my number into a stupid smiley face ^^^^
It’s going to be finish of mine day, except before end I am reading
this wonderful post to increase my experience.
Okay, I am just gong to be the bearer of bad news here …
Some people are just naturally thin.
Sorry ladies.