Strength is a Relative Term.

     I was talking to someone about Bench Pressing a moment ago, and when I mentioned my personal record yesterday, they said "Wow on the bench!". Great thing to have people encourage you, and it pushes me to go harder, but it brought to mind something.
     Strength is deceiving to the eyes, and a very relative term. When you're surrounded by fit people, and big muscles, it feels like the norm to you. Just like if you live in Mississippi, and work at a fair, seeing morbidly obese people is a norm for you. I had someone ask me a few days ago, if my goal was a six pack. More or less they asked to be reassured that it wasn't. While women in particular in that kind of condition isn't the norm, I feel like a 6 pack is. I feel like when you're fit, you have one. Today... I googled Jamie Eason, after seeing her mentioned somewhere, and while I had heard of her, I hadn't really looked at her to nit pick her figure. More to just admire her work. Today when I went to look, I thought ...you know what.... Not even Jamie Eason has muscular definition there.
     Is it the norm? No. Is it even the norm of fit women? Nope. Is it possible for fit women? Yes. Anyways. I often forget we live in a world of unhealthy, sick people who need to be educated and need to find that desire. How could I forget that, right? Well.... I honestly don't see it. I see the people I work out around, or the people on fit websites, where I spend my time. Call me crazy.
     So how is strength deceiving? Well, when someone sees a woman who has visible muscle, they automatically think that woman is strong. Why? Because she obviously has muscle. Not true. Yes, it definitely can be true. But it's not always. Yes, she has muscle... but if you took the next obese person that walked past you, and dropped their fat off.... you'd see their muscle too. Are they super strong? No. That's an expectation I feel I fail a lot, and one people unintentionally place on those with visible muscle. I can't do a pull up, bench my body weight, or curl half of my weight. Not even close to curling half my weight.
     Now how's it relative? What defines strength? I don't have an answer to that. Sure, in my mind, If I see a 20yr old man squatting a bar, I'm not thinking he's strong. If I see him benching 100lb, probably still not thinking he's too ripped. If I see a woman hitting that same bench, who appears to weigh 115-130, I'm thinking she's doing really great. It's something in my mind, that I measure versus the person's personal size. A percentage of their weight maybe. I don't see myself that way though. I'm my toughest critic. I feel like I should be able to bench my body weight easily. Now, if you put that on a bar, it would drop to my chest, without a doubt. Yet, if I saw another woman doing it, I would be amazed. Perhaps this is a reminder to myself, but also when you look at someone... just remember that it's relative, and deceiving :)