
An 'athletic body' doesn't always look the same. - armandososa
http://ninamatsumoto.wordpress.com/2010/12/18/athletic-body-diversity-reference-for-artists/
======
alecco
Most sports magazines promote very unhealthy body shapes. And often they don't
report on important athletes because they don't look good. That's why I
cancelled my Runner's World subscription decades ago. Once in a while I get a
glimpse of their new covers and they seem to be getting worse. Like that cover
"the raise of the skirts." It's more about fashion than sports.

~~~
jonpaul
You couldn't be more correct especially regarding so called 'health'
magazines. I cancelled Men's Health because it turned into a Maxim.

~~~
grannyg00se
I've always found Men's Health to have pretty ideal male physical forms on the
cover. They've had Obama on the cover, Beckham, and sometimes the cover man
isn't even shirtless. In fact, when I'm at the gym talking about goals, I'll
sometimes say "more like Men's Health, not MuscleMag".

~~~
true_religion
Consider the comparision. Maxim isn't known for its skewed portrayal of _men_.
It's known for only featuring "babes" and other species of "hot chicks".

------
antihero
Health and performance are so much more important than subscribing to some
utterly imaginary idea of what you should look like as a person.

------
noarchy
I've met some fellow cyclists on the local circuit who looked borderline
anorexic, because they took the "lose all possible weight" theme as far as
they could. Even some pro cyclists look unhealthy, to me. What I'm getting at
is that sometimes a sport's own internal pressures may cause issues.

------
d0m
So, what sport creates the "best" looking athlete based on our society's
standard? IMO, it would be soccer..?

~~~
plastics
For the "current" standards of good looking and for skill levels attainable by
people having a life (and/or job) it would be probably something like that
(roughly in descending order):

* Basketball (for women tied with Volleyball)

* Decathlon (men)

* Sprint (men - women equivalent would be long and high jump)

* Boxing (all variants but only for lower to "normal" weight classes)

* Judo/Wrestling/BJJ/Gymnastics (lower to "normal" weight classes... maybe to sinew for women)

* Rowing/Kanu

* Olympic Weightlifting (lower to "normal" weight classes)

* Powerlifting (again lower to "normal" weight classes, additionally not at elite level)

* Swimming (men... women a probably higher in this chart)

If you allow "newcomers", I would add to above list CrossFit in the upper
third for men (lower third for women) and Kettlebell (lower to "normal"
weightlcasses) in the lower third.

Swimming would have been higher in the past, but for today's "standards" it
allows a to "high" level of body fat compared to the other sports.

Football (aka. "Soccer") players only start to look "good" at a pretty high
level (if they're not doing anything else), the same probably holds true for
Baseball.

Additionally some positions in American Football (e.g. Receiver) and some
Skiing variants would be ranked quite well.

~~~
Someone
Kanu? If you mean kayak, I disagree. Kayaking is good for upper body strength,
but (exaggerating) atrophies the legs.

Also, I think there is a difference between 'good on average', and 'good for
those who manage to do a lot of it without getting injured'. For example
decathlon training is good for overall 'athlete look', but the risk of
dropping out with some injury is fairly high.

For that reason, I would rank the impact-free sports such as swimming, cross-
country skiing and rowing a bit higher.

------
acconrad
I've tried really hard and failed to find even a remote correlation between
hacking and/or news.

~~~
jimfl
The correlation, however tenuous, that I arrived at is the abiding interest in
the hacker community to find a fitness regimen that interferes the least with
the 16-hour workday.

------
antidaily
Rulon Gardner (1st image) is on this season's Biggest Loser. He had ballooned
up to 460lbs.

------
jacques_chester
My hobby is olympic weightlifting. I am 6'3 and weigh approximately 300lbs, in
imperial terms (190cm / 137kg), placing me well inside the superheavyweight
division.

According to the BMI I am morbidly obese. According to my doctor I am in
excellent health.

~~~
qw
Actually feet, inches and pounds are imperial terms.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_units>

Metre (cm) and gram (kg) are SI-units (International System of Units)

~~~
jacques_chester
You've mis-parsed my sentence. The part "in imperial terms" was meant to refer
to the imperial measurements. The SI measurements were in parentheses for
people who, like me, live outside of Liberia, Myanmar and the USA.

~~~
qw
Ah, yes. Sorry :-)

------
mmagin
While they may not look like fashion models, fitness models, porn stars or
greek gods, there's one notable difference between all these people and the
typical person: they all have significantly more muscle.

(Edit: a few exceptions: the long distance runners, the table tennis guy, the
rhythmic gymnastic woman, and the fencing guy.)

------
hdragomir
The body needs to be fit for its tasks, not just please the snobbish beholder.

This reminded me of Nike's "Go ahead, tell me I'm not an athlete!" campaign.
To open minded people, this makes perfect sense.

