Thigh Gap – eh?
I may be a little late to the game. I have seen less and less #thighgaps in a while now. This reminded me that I had wanted to write about the Thigh Gap not so long ago, when my feeds were inundated with girls trying to get this apparently desirable feature. I am also often asked by clients for a similar effect and I know what they are actually asking – a reduction in body fat on their inner thighs – but the reality is that young girls are using it as a marker as to how good their body is compared to others. This is such a shame and completely misguided in so many ways. The main reasons are below:
Genetics
Often you either have the body of a runway model or you don’t. You can try to adjust what you’ve got but your body shape is as unique as your fingerprint and can only be changed so much. If you have teeny tiny legs that don’t develop much muscle (and there’s nothing wrong with that) then good for you, but if you don’t – and like me you have strong muscular legs – embrace it and use them to jump higher, run faster and kick the hell out of that punch bag.
Posture
The photos above are both me. Spot the difference. In one I have a ‘thigh gap’. What you don’t see is that I’ve had to give myself even more Lordosis (an overly curved lower back) than I normally have. I have stuck out my bum, pushed my hipbones forward and inwardly rotated my legs….and it hurts! It is not a good side view and not in anyway good for my spine. Would I rather have a thigh gap and poor posture? Hell no. Often people have thigh gaps because of the way their femur (thigh bone) rests in the hip socket. Again, no amount of exercise is really going to change that.
Camera Trickery
Remember we only show our best photos on social media. Standing with your feet apart, ankles pushed out wide, bum sticking out can make the world of difference. Why bother?
Lets scrap this constant comparison and instead of thinking how amazing someones thigh gap is, think about how amazing someones yoga postures are, or how incredible our female Olympians are, or how we can improve our 5k run time. Much better goals.
*
