NROL bad for you, says BBC

[ashleymoran]

Well not exactly, post title is just intended to be provocative

Maybe a bit off topic, sorry if that is the case...

BUT, I'm fairly sure somewhere in NROL (can't check because I'm away for the weekend) is a section about how the magazine ideal body image for a woman is unhealthy, but the magazine ideal for a man shows he is in good shape. Or it did...

BBC - Newsbeat - Health - Men 'unhappy' with their bodies

It was going bad enough until I got to this bit, which IMHO sets a new record low for health news journalism standards at the BBC*:

He explains that while the slim but muscular look, a six-pack, big arms, and a slim waist, has become the cultural 'norm', it's not a naturally obtainable figure.

Dr Morgan added: "It's completely unhealthy, and to achieve that sort of shape you've got to be either working out for hours in a gym, making yourself sick, or taking certain kinds of illegal drugs."

Damn, that first paragraph increasingly describes me! I'm not puking up my food or taking steroids (honest!!!) so it must be the obsessive 3-4 hours a week I spent doing NROL.

He seems to basically be saying that exercise is unnatural and bad for you, and that (by implication) a fat, unmuscular body with weak abs, skinny arms and a spreading waist, while not the cultural norm, is a naturally attainable figure (and healthy). Presumably he believes that the best way to achieve this goal is to reduce time spent at the gym and increase time spent eating sweets and cake.

Has the media finally lost it and turned on the fitness industry? What's the answer?

What would I tell someone if I recommend NROL and found out they'd read this?

Ashley

* I've been reading their RSS feed for years, they've already crashed through several floors AND the basement

[NeilC]

I think he has a point.

Young males I speak to are a whole lot more obsessed with their bodies than me and my mates ever used to be. Ironically they don't look any better than we did. They know the fitness lingo from an earlier age. They see to think girls won't like them without a 6pack. We were more worried about having the best bike. I'd say men in general have become more cosmetically obsessed. I don't think it's 100% healthy.

The images on the front of mens fitness magazines are unobtainable to most people. Partly because most people don't have the proportions of a model, partly because the amount of muscle and bodyfat they tend to have is hard to maintain for the average working guy and partly because they are photographed with high contrast etc so they even THEY don't look like they do on the mag.

Women have been made to feel unattractive by the women's fashion and fitness industries for ages. A lot of men have scoffed at it. But it's their turn now by the look of it. Go on to like Mens Health forum and you'll see guys discussing which under-eye toning gel is best. That sort of thing didn't used to happen.

[testblogedc]

I'm in my late 30s but lift in a college gym because I work there. I see a lot of skinny 19 and 20 year olds doing curls, crunches, and not much else. The minority who squat do quarter squats on the smith machine. What they're doing has nothing to do with NROL.

[RobLL]

I read about a male model's preparation for being on a cover. He had one of the "ideal" bodies to begin with, but complained (not whiney) that they gave him only 60 days to prepare for the picture - drop a few more fat points (IIRC, he already was at 6 or 7%), pump up the needed already good looking muscles. So BBC is right in that the bodies we see in the mags are not to be emulated. Which is not to say that being muscled, lower fat, flat stomached is that same thing as being a model.

ps - the fashion industry has switched over to emaciated men for the runways.

[Lisa~]

Bill Phillips of Body-for-Life fame used to say: build your best body ever. I think that's not only the best mindset, but also really all that can be achieved. That result can still be a whole lot leaner and/or more muscular than where you started.