Fitness Models - athletes or not?
Fitness modelling is an interesting discipline. It sometimes falls into the sports category and sometimes into the world of fashion. A fitness model is simply someone who has an athletic and toned body and a very beautiful face that can be used to sell products or feature in athletic magazines. They are simply fitter and more muscular versions of the skinny models we see on television and in magazines. But this brings us to an interesting point; are fitness models athletes or are they simply beautiful people with nice bodies?
Becoming a fitness model is not easy; the business is extremely cutthroat and in this respect it is exactly like both the world of sports and high fashion. It is very difficult to get into a particular sport and only the best and most talented athletes get picked and become professional. The world of fashion is the same way, only a certain number of women and men get to become models and the rest of them end up going back home and working at their local McDonalds. It seems to be even harder to make it in the harsh world of fitness modelling because there is a certain amount of talent and physicality involved in the whole process. The dream of any aspiring fitness model is to work as a spokesperson for an athletic equipment company, be featured in photo shoots in athletic and fitness magazines and model fitness clothing. The fitness part of being a fitness model means that a potential model has to keep their bodies in shape all year long or they will miss photo opportunities and other offers. So a yearlong training regime has to be followed to keep their bodies trim and in shape. This is the major difference between a regular model and a fitness one; a model just has to watch what she or he eats but a fitness model has to train hard, keep their bodies lean and develop a specific eating plan just like a bodybuilder would do.
The way to differentiate a fitness model form both a regular model and a bodybuilder is in the shape of their bodies. Female models are very thin because clothes tend to fit and look better on a thin person, while bodybuilders have very large muscles and well defined bodies. Fitness models fall in between these two areas; they are thin and in great shape and clothes look very good on them but they also have well defined muscles and have a strict training regime. Unlike bodybuilders, they do not emphasise on the size of their muscles but how well defined they are instead. The whole aspect of fitness models being in great shape makes them ideal candidates to work for athletic companies and feature on the covers of fitness magazines.
However, there is a big problem with this type of modelling. Although there is much emphasis on being fit and trim and the women having great and well defined muscles, but at the end of the day a lot of resource websites and articles online say that they have to be feminine and delicate as well. Female bodybuilders fall into what seems like the, ‘we do not care about what people think about us’ category and models only seem to care what people think about them. Fitness models are somewhere in the middle; they want to make sure they have very athletic bodies but they do not want to go so far as to fall out of the sphere of looking feminine and petite.
As this category becomes harder to get into and more competitive, we will probably see the birth of the extremely athletic and very beautiful models. They will be even more physically fit than current fitness models and even more beautiful than regular models. At the moment there are a few models that are blurring the lines of what was considered traditional beauty and athleticism; it is not rare anymore to see a gorgeous woman sporting a six pack. They do not take it as far as becoming fully fledged bodybuilders but they do make sure they are more athletic and toned than regular models. This will only become more common in times to come.
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