My Bodybuilding Crossfit Life – Body Image, Nudism and Health (Part One)

I haven’t written on nudity directly in a while and I am feeling controversial today so in the area of fitness I wanted to address the issue of nudity in relationship to health and body image. I wrote My Bodybuilding Crossfit Life – Why People Hate Success last week and for the most part it was accepted here but a small controversy erupted among my Facebook friends. One, felt that the women in question did not need to parade their success in front of the world and she also disagreed the body image being portrayed these days. One women just expressed that she just wanted to be healthy. They both had valid points but I still see nothing immoral or bad about celebrating success.

I will be the first to admit that what constitutes proper body image has changed over the years. In part is it culturally influenced but at the same time some things remain universally accepted. I can speak as a man that there are things that are universally desired when a man looks at a woman. He wants to see curves and something that looks feminine. I think this is why in large part in the sport of bodybuilding, the new classes for women like figure, physique and bikini are moving forward while traditional female body builders are falling behind in popularity. Women are more and more simply trying to use fitness and weightlifting to bring out the feminine features rather than look more and more like men and I think this is a good thing not just from an aesthetics point of view but a health one. In addition, men like to see evidences of health and health is not always reflected in skinny.

On the flip side of the debate is the of course those who say that people need to be more accepting of the body they have and not obsess over how they look. I can agree that some people can get so obsessed with this in a way that is unhealthy but at the same time we need to engage how we look from a health perspective as how we look is a reflector of our health. If you get healthy, your body will change and transform into something different. This not only goes to the question of obesity but what I would all obsessive skinny. This is why I have advocated weightlifting for women in addition to diet and cardio.

Nutrition, cardio and flexibility are really a woman’s forte. Weightlifting until very recently seemed to be out of the minds of most women other than the cut little pink dumbbells but now the cross fitness world stressing body strength for women weightlifting has started to move forward and I see more ladies lifting and this is good because muscular health is part of health. More importantly weight training has brought back the curves of women who are fit. I have used the illustration below before but it merits repeating.

The point is women’s curves can be achieved in fitness and the overall quest should involve full health including healthy muscles. This will be reflected in how you look in the mirror.

I have long argued that you can gage your health better by looking in the mirror while naked than standing on a scale and I will continue to stand behind that probably till I die. It is for this reason I believe nudists probably have the best chance for both healthy body image and gauging their physical health. In fact some nudists these days are bemoaning that this part of nudism’s roots are being lost.

Nudism on the one hand does promote body acceptance and a healthy body image. you can see this very plainly in people particularly women who have grown up in that lifestyle. They understand their body is different from everyone else’s and what real human bodies untouched by Photoshop look like. They are not fooled by the media’s portrayal of the human body and are comfortable in their skin. This is a good thing.

Probably where they are failing is that is comfort has translated into laziness about health. One of the criticisms that is leveled against nudists by their fellow nudists is that they are getting out of shape and overweight. Part of body acceptance is you can use it a an excuse to be lazy about taking care of yourself. If you do take care of yourself in the all facets of fitness and health you will change how you look naked in the mirror. It will begin to resemble the fitness crowd like it or not because that is usually where being fit and healthy leads you. If you use muscles they grow or lean out. If you do cardio and watch your diet you will lose fat and if you do yoga your joints and frame will get stronger and look more sleek over time. In short doing the things that bring health change you in a way that leads you looking better and healthier.

I believe very strongly that the people with the most potential to keep a healthy balance of accepting what their body is and being comfortable in their skin but also striving to shape their body both in health and looks are people who practice in some form (limited or unlimited, private or public) of nudism. It simply allows you to come to better terms with what you body really is and what it looks like and what you can do to change it and make it healthier. It offers balance in that one the one hand it offers you the opportunity to accept the uniqueness of your body but at the same time as realize you are responsible to treat your body well to make it healthy.

More later on this topic.

IMHO