I saw this social media post the other day and it hit home.
On the one hand, I’ve got super strong legs. I’m very happy with the amount of weight I can press on the leg press machine. After knee replacement, my legs can carry me up hills and on long bike rides. They help me carry bins of laundry up flights of stairs and propane tanks to the BBQ. Thank you, legs!
On the other hand, at various times in my life I remember feeling sensitive about how solid they looked. Here’s kid me standing tall in knee socks. My dad used to joke about my footballer knees. I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant. But I knew it wasn’t a good look for women. He was being funny, not mean, but the athletic association wasn’t one I wanted back then.
Honestly, I’m still a bit sensitive about my legs. I wear shorter skirts with tights but rarely with bare legs. It’s not about my knee scars, from knee replacement surgery. I’m weirdly proud of my knee scars.
I wear shorts everywhere all summer, so it can’t bother me that much. However, I hate photos with my legs in them. I delete them quickly from social media or at least untag myself. I dislike them enough that I’m not including them here as examples!
And yet, the one kind of leg photo I do like is me in bike shorts.
In an earlier post about cycling clothes I wrote, “Me, I’m very happy in lycra. I often think I look better in bike clothes than just about anything else. I’m not sure if it’s just that they do suit me or if they just make very happy. Bike clothes mean bike rides!” (2016)
So bike clothes help. The other thing that helps is reminding myself of the many advantages of having strong legs. The two biggies are reducing the risk of cognitive decline and helping improve metabolism.
Here’s a study I like: Kicking Back Cognitive Ageing: Leg Power Predicts Cognitive Ageing after Ten Years in Older Female Twins.
Sports Illustrated: Why Strong Legs are the Secret to a Sharper Brain as You Age (2025)
Lively: How leg exercises improve your metabolism (2025)
Harvard Health: Big thighs may be wise (2012): “They found that people with big thighs had a lower risk of heart disease and premature death than those with thin thighs. In round numbers, a thigh circumference (measured where the thigh meets the butt) of about 62 cm (about 24.4 inches) was most protective; bigger thighs provided little if any extra benefit, but progressively thinner thighs were linked to progressively higher risks. The predictive value of thigh size held up even after the scientists accounted for other indicators of body composition, including waist circumference, BMI, height, and body fat percentage. And thigh size remained a strong independent predictor even after researchers adjusted for risk factors such as smoking, exercise, alcohol use, systolic blood pressure, cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and (for women) menopause.”
Leg exercise is critical to brain and nervous system health: “Groundbreaking research shows that neurological health depends as much on signals sent by the body’s large, leg muscles to the brain as it does on directives from the brain to the muscles. Published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, the study fundamentally alters brain and nervous system medicine — giving doctors new clues as to why patients with motor neuron disease, multiple sclerosis, spinal muscular atrophy and other neurological diseases often rapidly decline when their movement becomes limited.”
So thank you legs!
