Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Josh Hillis: How Sexist Is Too Sexist?

I actually really like a lot of what Josh Hillis has to say about female fat loss and fitness on his website (www.josh-hillis-fitness.com), and while I don't have his e-book, Lose The Stubborn Seven, I'm guessing his program is pretty good. He's big on short intense workouts incorporating total body movements, kettlebell training, bodyweight stuff ... kinda like Alwyn and Craig and all my other pretend boyfriends.

But Josh will never be one of my pretend boyfriends, and here's why:

[W]hat is a good body fat percentage?

At 24-30% you are a pretty cute girl.

At 21-23% body fat or below, you are really, really hot. Whether you know it or not, guys are checking you out all of the time.

18-21% is rockstar lean.

I never take girls below 18%. Below 19% most girls don't have breasts, and they look like really fit boys. In fact, some of my female clients look better at 23% than they would at 18%. It's an individual thing to your body. But somewhere in the 18-23% range is where you are going to look really really hot.

So what happens when you get into that magical range of 18-23%? You're done. You are as hot as you ever need to be. Many clients have a really hard time accepting this. Which goes to show how bad the body dismorphia [sic] (distorted body image) is in our society. Or maybe it's just that most people can't ever deal with the fact that they are "good enough".

The truth is though, when you hit in that 18-23% range, you are a really really hot girl. You are done. Your next goal shouldn't be a body composition goal, it should be a fun goal. A fun goal like: Doing your first pullup, your first one legged squat, running your first marathon (or even better - running a really fast 5k time), climbing a mountian [sic], who knows, what ever [sic] is fun for you. Set a performance goal. And enjoy the fact that you are hot enough already.

The above is a direct quote from Josh's website.

Well, earth to Josh: you may not believe this, dude, but looking "hot" to men is not the ultimate goal of every female who walks into a gym.

Also, just FYI, trainer to trainer: it's not your place to tell a client what her goals should be. As long as what she wants is healthy, it's your job to help her achieve it even if it means her boobies get smaller and she becomes what you consider to be less physically appealing.

I mean, I appreciate the fact that you like a girl with some meat on her bones, and I actually agree with you that most men find the fitness-model bodytype to be physically impressive but not necessarily alluring. I also appreciate that you're encouraging women to aspire to a degree of leanness that is healthy and achievable for most.

But do you have to be such a complete sexist pig about it?