Skinny is Weak and Fragile

Skinny is Weak and Fragile

We’re seeing an interesting outcome from the rise of GLP-1 medications. People are losing a ton of weight only to realize that the number on the scale wasn’t what they were seeking. They wanted to feel stronger and more confident in their body. These medications have been a great resource for some, for others it has become the only line of defense against poor health and the outcomes aren’t what they expected. For many people, it’s never been about a certain number on the scale, it’s always been about how they feel about the way they look and their ability to perform daily tasks. If you look back to the 80’s and 90’s, women were told that skinny was sexy. This lead to a lot of disordered eating patterns. Super low calorie and low fat diets lead to life long physical and mental struggles. Over time, we amazingly found out that calories are energy and fat and carbohydrates are really helpful for hormone health and recovery from workouts. Over the last year, we’ve been using our In Body scanner to track body composition. The biggest take away we learned from our members and people coming in was that most people have poor body composition not because they carry so much fat, but rather they have low amounts of skeletal muscle. This leads to a higher body fat percentage reading. Here are some reasons you should consider adding some muscle to your life. Instead of being fixated on “skinny”, maybe it’s time we shift our focus to becoming strong, empowering, and able bodies. 

Strength Decreases Risk of Injury 

When we think of people getting injured from daily life, we automatically think of older people. The truth is middle aged adults get injured every day from normal life things like missing a step, chasing the dog, or picking something up and twisting the wrong way. Not every injury is life threatening, but at some point recovering from injuries becomes more and more difficult. We begin to lose muscle mass in our thirties and the rate of that decline depends on what we do to slow it down. If we sit and neglect our strength, it declines more rapidly. This affects our bone density which makes us more susceptible to injuries from falls and affects our metabolic system which increases our body fat mass and increases our risk of heart disease. When we focus only on losing weight or being smaller, our focus is lowering our capacity. When we focus on increasing strength and building quality muscle, we are focused on increasing capacity. This could mean adding weight on an exercise or performing a few more repetitions. If you want to see if your capacity is improving or decreasing over time, find some hills or stairs to climb and track your progress over time. Few things can be as humbling as climbing a set of 100+ stairs. 

Skinny doesn’t Equal Health

I remember in the early 2000’s going to the public gym, and you’d see the same people on the same pieces of cardio equipment on the days of the week. They never looked any different, and they really didn’t look healthy. Meanwhile, this gym had two power racks where the same people would perform squats, deadlifts, and military presses. These people always looked healthier, stronger, and appeared to have more energy than the cardio people. I’m not suggesting people pass on any cardio training. Training your heart is critical to a healthy life. When we skip the squat rack for the elliptical every day, we’ve missed the point. Over the last decade people have created a new term for a common physique as “skinny fat”. This ties back to what was mentioned earlier where people don’t carry a lot of body fat, but they also don’t have any muscle. This is becoming a bigger problem for people at a younger age due to most jobs being less physically demanding than they were in previous decades. 

Strength is Confidence ‍

If you want to see confidence explode, come to Showtime Strength & Performance and watch one of our female clients over the age of 50 hit their first bodyweight deadlift for reps. Or watch anyone hit their first bodyweight pull up. Many people struggle with confidence and improving our strength is one of the best tools available for improving it. Improving strength in the weight room is a small win where people can feel they mentally overcame a difficult obstacle. While many people strive for an easy life, it doesn’t help us prepare for the inevitable of when things aren’t going well and become difficult. Better to prepare in the weight room and have confidence that you can overcome difficult tasks than not have the confidence and have to face them. As people gain strength, their posture improves and their gait pattern becomes more efficient. They literally move their body with more confidence and efficiency. 

We are not a number on the scale. We are people that have dynamic emotions each day. Strength helps to prepare us for the demands of life. We use strength to help people live stronger and more confident lives. If you would like to improve your strength to feel more confident in your abilities, book a No Sweat Intro with one of our professional coaches to discover your path to strength. 

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