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Why are there more and more muscular women?

Oct 04, 2021 - permalink

I noticed that every year there are more muscular girls around me. I mean not just girls who work out in the gym, but girls who have visible muscles. Is it just me, or have you noticed it too?

Oct 04, 2021 - permalink

There are nearly no muscular woman. It's a more exclusive club than billionaires I think. There is not even one at every gym. I would guess 5 per state. Avg. But there are a LOT more pics and videos of them. So online you would be seeing a lot more. I you are in person - god bless you. I've been working out for 24 years and never seen one.

fp909
Oct 04, 2021 - permalink

I disagree. I think there are more, maybe not necessarily more per capita, but more. When I was in high school I couldn't have named you one girl that lifts from four years--now you get one girl lifting for sports and then other people jump in.

Title IX: I'm not a fan of the abuse of Title IX but with the addition of more women's sports in university and high school more girls are competing. Scholarship money means incentive to be better, incentive to be better means competition, and inevitably weight training comes into play, as it is basically necessary in one form or another to weight train to be stronger for whatever sport (minus maybe something like gymnastics where there's not a lot of free-weight training).

Leisure: Weightlifting for the rest of us is definitely a leisure activity, as in, things are pretty good right now on the whole, and if you have an hour to spend 4-5x a week lifting stuff for really no purpose, than it's a leisure activity. It's available to many people in many forms, and there is a low, low, low barrier for entry.

Social Media: A mixed bag, but there are tons of fitness influencers, and many of them are fat-turned-fit stories. despite what the internet might tell you, a lot of fat people don't want to be fat anymore, and a lot of normal people want to look good, or buff, or fit, or whatever. Tik Tok and Instagram are literal gold mines. And of course people want to show off.

Society: I think it's more accepted in society, generally, though with degrees. The average person might not like the bodybuilder look but they might like a fit look. I think less women are scared to go to the gym. Crossfit has been a huge factor because there are lot of smoking-hot women in crossfit that show of ridiculous bodies without the gaunt faces or obvious sides of a bodybuilder in prep. Anecdotally, a lot of crossfit girls I've talked to DON'T like to flex, but they do like what their bodies have become capable of.

Powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting are exploding right now, relatively. There are young women (late teens to mid twenties) putting up crazy numbers. A lot of women who maybe 20 years ago wouldn't have touched a Texas bar. 20 years ago, even a single defined line down the stomach was a bit too much for some people. Since going to college (2007) i've seen at least one woman in every gym I've been at, including an amateur figure competitor, a pro, and a pro wpd competitor, and it's was a gym dominated by older people. Even at my crossfit gyms where there was no one "competitive" training at any of them there were fit/buff women that had actual shapes.

Oct 04, 2021 - permalink
Deleted by musclebox77
fp909
Oct 04, 2021 - permalink

now if you said there were more bodybuilders i would say no. but "bodybuilding" in the general sense...maybe even yes? some of these figure, wellness, bikini line up are HUGE and they run so many shows a year. i wonder if the overall count is the same or not as maybe 25 years ago.

i complained on another thread that anecdotally i had never seen a buff woman in 14 years walking in santa monica--just turns out i don't really go there that often because all it took was 3 weeks in a row to have a spotting.

[deleted]
Oct 04, 2021 - edited Oct 04, 2021 - permalink

There is a book called 'The frailty myth' which talks about women's potential for athletic performance and strength and muscle growth. It basically argues a lot has not to do with biology but with the way women are encouraged to not connect with their bodies and not engage in physical activity in crucial stages of their early lives, which leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy of them having a disadvantage over boys later in life.

Boys are not only encouraged more to engage in physical activity very early on there is also the societal pressure for them to look strong as a masculine ideal. So is it really a surprise to see lots of men in the gyms wanting to look like Arnold and co?

Nowadays this discrepancy has decreased substantially. Women already engage in physical activity very early on, so their potential shows more and more. Also, the stigma of being a strong woman decreased. So all of this leads the way for more women to get muscular.

Oct 04, 2021 - permalink

Because women aren't getting married and having kids until they're much older, if at all, so they have a lot of time to spend doing other things like hyper-focusing on fitness.

Oct 04, 2021 - permalink

Because women aren't getting married and having kids until they're much older, if at all, so they have a lot of time to spend doing other things like hyper-focusing on fitness.

This is an interesting theory and I think your on to something. I'm 33 (a month and a half away from 34) and most of the people in my social circle are only starting to think about marriage and kids.

That said I think the biggest factor is the rise of social media. Women that are muscular and lift weights are much more visible nowadays and that's led to more social acceptance and more women getting into fitness.

Oct 04, 2021 - permalink

Instagram, crossfit, and boring/stressful jobs. Although there are far more women into jogging/running/yoga/general fitness than bodybuilding.

Oct 04, 2021 - permalink

Strength training is becoming more “accepted” among women. I’ve been going to big box gyms before I started CrossFit for years (since middle school,) and I’ve noticed more women in the weight room near the end of my tenure at those gyms than I did when I first started. When I started, they were almost all only in the cardio rooms. Granted, it’s still a predominantly male activity, but at my CrossFit gym, there are a good amount of fit women.

However, fit women (and men!) are still very much in the minority. I think there is a bit of confirmation bias among us: we go on sites like this and think to ourselves “Damn, there are so many muscular women!” when in fact they still represent a very small fraction of the overall populace.

Finally, I think part of the “resurgence” in muscular women is the availability of steroids. Before the internet, you pretty much had to know someone who could hook you up, and I bet they weren’t the most open to offering towards women. Now, steroids can be easily found online (I don’t use, but I was able to find a reliable source rather easily.)

Oct 04, 2021 - permalink

I'd pretty much go with lfelbs123. There are thousends of "fit" girls presenting themselfs online. This might blur what's going on in gyms in daily life.

There are nearly no muscular woman. It's a more exclusive club than billionaires I think. There is not even one at every gym. I would guess 5 per state. Avg. But there are a LOT more pics and videos of them. So online you would be seeing a lot more. I you are in person - god bless you. I've been working out for 24 years and never seen one.

[deleted]
Oct 04, 2021 - permalink

One question could be what were the women like in the old countries? I remember reading a novel in high school (can't remember the title) where the heroine was strong and muscular in the old country (Latvia or Lithuania maybe) but lost her strength and muscle after she came to the US because of the lack of work.

Oct 04, 2021 - permalink

That's true for practically every country before the industrial revolution. In the 18th century and before a lot more physical work was required because there was no machinery, and few tools.

Oct 04, 2021 - permalink

Muscular is the new voluptuous.

Oct 04, 2021 - permalink

Muscles on women are becoming more accepted,and looks sexy as heck.

[deleted]
Oct 04, 2021 - permalink

I guess we used to know it, forgot it, and are starting to remember it again!

Oct 04, 2021 - permalink

I've been working out for 24 years and never seen one.

You must be working out in your basement

Oct 04, 2021 - permalink

Social media coupled with social acceptance has made a huge spur in muscle girls. Lots of girls see fit athletic women and inspire to be them or even just help with general mental health.

Oct 05, 2021 - permalink

Because roids are way easier to find now.

Oct 05, 2021 - permalink

A lot of people spent a lot of time at home during Covid and built home gyms. That’s certainly contributing

Oct 05, 2021 - permalink

Steroids?!! Of course! Every woman with muscle must be on steroids. No way that a woman can build muscle naturally (or would want to).

Oct 05, 2021 - permalink

if anything there are more fat women than ever

cgsweat
Oct 05, 2021 - permalink

There are more women into fitness just because there are more women in general. The above statement is also true for the same reason.

It seems like there are more fitness chicks because of social media. They are more accessible and easier to find. But that's entirely based on Internet experience. Real world experience is different. I'd argue that they make up about the same percentage of the total population as they did a generation ago.

Oct 05, 2021 - permalink

This thread completely missing the point on the drug front. The designer PEDs are more available and better refined than say 25 years ago. They are easily acceptable in low doses and are used by just about every girl on this site and mainstream women are seeing the drugs as a help to the body image problems women and young girls are always fighting. They are working out more but even your neighbor is probably using VAR or something in small amounts.

fp909
Oct 05, 2021 - permalink

at a local LA fitness, a bunch of tech bros were overheard saying how much easier/fun it is to lift on gear. they prob weren't taking much but they were prob your average dude. so many people casually use now.

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