What a day in the world of fitness-focused social media. Two new phrases passed my way. Two new impossible-to-achieve body types. First, being thin without a thin butt, that is, avoiding Ozempic butt. Second, the ballerina body.

See Ozempic is transforming your gym? for my introduction to the phrase “Ozempic butt.”

Talking about the pressure gyms are facing to move to strength training instead of cardio as their main focus, Brooke Masters writes, “Weight-loss drugs will exacerbate the pressure. As the drugs gain acceptance, fewer people are likely to rely on exercise as their primary weight loss tool and the drugs’ side effects, nausea and intestinal distress, can make high-impact cardio activities uncomfortable. However, GLP-1 users still need the gym. Studies suggest that the drugs cause significant muscle loss along with fat, leading to problems with balance and mobility as well as saggy skin sometimes dubbed “Ozempic butt”. Strength training seems to be the answer not just for GLP-1 users but everyone else. A growing body of medical literature suggests strength training cuts mortality, particularly for women, while also helping to prevent osteoporosis and relieving the symptoms of depression. “It’s gone from being health and fitness to health and wellness, which is a lot more holistic” says Eleanor Scott, a partner on PwC’s leisure strategy team.”

(Two quick comments from the peanut gallery over here. I think any method of rapid weight loss, indeed any method of weight loss without strength training, has this problem. And I think, in general the move to strength training makes sense for gyms because the pandemic taught me that while I can run and bike at home, I really like having a bench, a squat rack, and lots of heavy weights and benches at the gym. Also, we’re learning how much strength training matters for older people.)

And then the She’s a Beast blog introduced to me to the ballerina body as an ideal, which is just about as silly and unreachable as it sounds. See What is so wrong with wanting a ‘ballerina body’?

Casey Johnston writes,”It feels important to note that not every body aesthetic is unrealistic or expressive of patriarchal oppression. But, “ballerina body,” I mean…… come on. And this is not even to say that ballerinas are per se unhealthy! (Though the industry certainly has its issues). Ballet dancers do lift weights! But the body of a ballet dancer, just as with the elusive “swimmer’s body” for men, is inversely selective to what we perceive from the outside: They are ballet dancers because they have a particular body; they don’t develop a particular body from being ballet dancers. It has so little to do with training and so much to do with genetics that it’s nothing but an illusion, in terms of attainability.”

We’ve written a bit about the role of genetics too. See Tracy’s Is It True that Endurance Training Won’t Make You Thin and Lean Anymore Than Playing Basketball Will Make You Tall and Lanky?

Back to original content tomorrow, when #tbt comes to an end!