It's attractive to women only to a certain extent. If you look like you're pretty strong and in shape, that's good. It's more attractive than being out of shape. Beyond that, they don't really care.
Steroid-using bodybuilder types are a turn off to most women because that's unnatural, and there are other reasons which I'll explain in a minute. They also don't care about how much you can bench, squat or dead-lift. You should still care about being strong as a man, because not everything you do should be about impressing only women, but that's man stuff.
The evolutionary reason women find strength attractive is because they instinctively look for a guy who can protect them. Some might say that this makes no sense when we have cops and live in relatively safe countries, but that doesn't really change that. Whenever women express a preference for taller guys and they're asked why that is, if it's not something about being able to wear heels with him they'll usually they'll say that it's because he makes them feel "safe". This is also the reason why for example some are talking about mental strength, or even preferring a courageous non-muscular guy to a cowardly muscular guy. A coward couldn't protect a woman.
One reason bodybuilding is often seen as unattractive by women is because bodybuilding is a "sport" which obsesses over appearance, not strength or fitness. Bodybuilders train for the sole purpose of "looking perfect". It's a sport based on vanity. Women aren't attracted to vain men, perhaps with the exception of plastic airheaded bimbos who have the same obsession. Although some consider bodybuilders to be an example of masculinity, obsession with appearance is kind of effeminate. Most bodybuilders couldn't actually fight their way out of a wet paper bag, and women sense this on some level, unconsciously.
What's more, women think more emotionally. They "feel" more. What a guy makes her feel is more important than anything else. Again with the example of mental strength, that's also about confidence. How a guy carries himself matters a lot more than just being muscular or being strong. A strong guy with a weak/boring personality still isn't going to do well. You ask if men being able to throw a 30lb object over 12 feet is a "dead trend" in dating - it never was a trend. It never worked that way.00 Reply
Most Helpful Opinions
- 1.4K opinions shared on Health & Fitness topic.
+1 y"Raw strength" can be "misguided" strength or "uncontrolled " strength. The beauty or attractiveness of strength is in its control, guidance, helpfulness and- at times- NON-use! "Applied strength" is useful.
It reminds me of buildings that are demolished by Controlled Demolition, Inc. . The company is known for the way it uses small, specially-shaped explosives to slice through strategic supports in a building, and then let the weight of the building itself do most of the work in pulling itself down! For a great example, go to YouTube and type in: Boardwalk Hotel - Controlled Demolition, Inc.What good would knowing all of the words in a whole dictionary without the ability to assemble them into a coherent sentence? What good, then, is raw strength without the ability to use it in a fruitful way, ie, turn it into applied strength.10 Reply
- 415 opinions shared on Health & Fitness topic.
+1 yAs per men, I'm not interested in how FAR a man can throw a particular weight. I'm interested in if he's strong enough to accomplish the tasks he needs to do. I went hunting with a guy and he had a duck blind boat. We had to launch it and then get it out of the water. This was a wiry six foot tall guy. He didn't have big muscles. He was lean. I got on the crank (I'm five foot 2 but I'm muscular for my height) and cranked it as far as I could while he smiled at me, clearly amused. It got to the angle where I couldn't put in any more footpounds, about 30 degrees, then he, amazingly, got it the rest of the way out of the water. I was amazed. Course, he had longer arms and was stronger, but the difference was impressive. So yeah, that was attractive. I thought about those arms around me... They got there later...
51 Reply- +1 y
Yes, that extra leverage can be fun, too.
Anonymous(36-45)+1 yI never realized raw strength was a trend in romance. He needs to be stronger than me, pick me up, move my shit, defend himself and me. That’s it. Anything outside of that is a waste.
03 Reply- +1 y
Lol. A bit raw, but fairly accurate. The pick you up part is funny, but I guess for women under 1m80 tall it works.
Opinion Owner+1 y@soleil2666 I find it completely weird that someone thinks like throwing heavy shit and raw strength is a trend in romance.
- +1 y
Me Too (lol at that) - but if you look at the answers below, being tossed around, as a female, seems to be highly desired.
What Girls & Guys Said
Opinion
20Opinion
332 opinions shared on Health & Fitness topic. Not every man is going to have physical strength especially if he has medical limitations but It's attractive if he can open stuck jar lids, or can loosen something that's stuck like a clothes washer hose attachment. It doesn't have to be something big.
32 Reply- +1 y
Is it attractive or impressive (for someone weaker)?
- 303 opinions shared on Health & Fitness topic.
+1 yI also think strength, not just physical strength but also mental, is hot.
I'd pick a courageous skinny scrawny man over a muscular coward anytime.92 Reply- +1 y
Oh goody. There's still hope for me!
- +1 y
As you always should!
400 opinions shared on Health & Fitness topic. Physical strength is not as important to me as the strength of character of a person.
I don't like the display of physical power because that only tells me that the person places the wrong priorities. I associate physical strength with physical violence and the strength of character with more personality.
Character and personality outweighs physical strength anytime for me.41 Reply- +1 y
I believe people who are physically imposing are the LAST to use that strength violently. They know they are physically competent and have no need to prove anything.. It's usually those who have low self esteem and feel threatened who act out most. The Chihuahua scenario. Wise people know violence is a last resort, no matter WHAT their size or strength. That's strength of character and a sound personality.
+1 yMy opinion: it's pretty much a given, that one of the factors in choosing a mate is security. So of course, the perception of strength in a potential partner is attractive. Not to mention the fact that acquiring strength makes a person more look more physically attractive. Each of these things alone is enough to make a person attractive to those checking them out. I believe that any second-guessing or conflict within a person, comes from outside influences; people saying that it's wrong to judge by looks. Realistically though, part of romantic attraction is based on how the other person looks. Only thing wrong about that, is how the same people try to convince us that this totally natural behavior, is wrong. So to sum up, each aspect alone is hot and both of them together are the s***.
00 ReplyGirls love it. You probably lift, so you’re seeing things from the perspective of the lifting community.
Girls don’t care what number you can bench press or whatever. All they care is that you’re stronger than them and you can do shit with it.
I like to pick girls up. They love that shit. I’ll pick them up and throw em around. It’s fun. Cute ass females love being subjected to a man’s strength. Makes me wanna take her home with me.10 Reply
Anonymous(45 Plus)+1 yStrength will always be attractive.
my boyfriend picked me up and carried me all around am the house it was soooooo sexy!!! I never thought he could carry me!! I was so nervous 🥰!!! I was like noooooo!!! And he just picked me up and put my legs around him and took me! I fell in love more!!! 😂🥰!!!22 Reply- +1 y
Good position to be in!
Us women like strong men with nice toned bodies but you really got to understand that the bodybuilder look is NOT sexy. Super huge muscles are ugly.
521 Reply- +1 y
I think he's talking about a stick skinny guy that looks really weak, but that is very strong and able.
- +1 y
@Truthatanycost Well, stick skinny ain't what I'd call attractive. That hunter had a quarter bouncing booty and some fine legs... He was lean and mean though... umm mmmm...
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I meam fat but strong
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Well, as do us men - slender toned women with a brain between their ears. Now whether they carry their own luggage is a matter of equality.
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Whats interesting is that the "Arnie" bodybuilder physique-- while impressive as a feat unto itself-- was essentially engineered to appeal to the male imagination. It was bred in the spirit of male competition and oneupmanship. Then it got commercialised as OG lifters started attaching their image to commercial gyms and workout programs from 80s through much of 90s. But it was never pursued on the basis of pursuing optimal sexual attractiveness. Women swoon over the likes of Chris Hemsworth today, but his physique is nothing compared to the sheer muscle mass found in the most hardcore bodybuilding circles.
- +1 y
@SomeGuyCalledTom I have found that females who fear for their safety (so, 3rd world or Ghetto environments) attach much more value to a guy's ability to 'protect' them in that physical sense. Those who are not concerned about it tend to stick with aesthetics of the physique (in which case being a body-builder looks grotesque).
- +1 y
@SomeGuyCalledTom Interesting you brought up Hemsworth. He was NOT a musclebound guy until he got the Thor role. He looked like a nice surfer. And he's slimmed down since he's no longer doing that role. He looks better and more natural. Thor's a god. Though it might get women salivating, he's a genetic freak that he can blow up that big. And his natural body build was nothing like that. He looked like a regular guy before then... And he looks better without it... And reasonably, that shit requires SO MUCH work and FOODand TIME to maintain... it IS unmaintainable. The millions of dollars he was paid made him do it... I'm sure he's glad it's over.
- +1 y
It is also a matter of being impressed by his strength - until you start to wonder well what if you have a fight with him. Goes for any ability. And the very idea of safety providing (and equality - all of the requests for female privilege are founded on the assumption they are owed protection for free - so let's see what MORE they can get. It's only the females who serve the army (Israelis, basically) that can value a man as a human being alone, not primarily a provider of brute force))
- +1 y
It is also an indicator of how much she messed up with her exes - if she hadn't, she won't be looking for muscles. If she has ticked him off and played dumb to it - she'll want to make sure the next guy can protect her.
- +1 y
*See men in black internat'l
- +1 y
@Screenwriter yeah i agree completely
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@soleil2666 Where do you come up with THIS idea!!! Only women who serve in the army know the value of a man as a human being alone? I've never served in the army. From being raised around a father who cared and other males who were and are loving and caring, I have always known the value of men as human beings. In one rare case my father had to protect my mother from her violent, senile father. In one case when a man jumped and pistol whipped me I needed the help of close male friends to get me to the hospital. But, I managed to flip the guy over my back and get away... So I protected myself. It's good to know you have a few guys who can come to your aid and scare off a bad hombre bothering you. The bad hombres and incidents are few and far between. Men need protection from women who love them too. It usually isn't physical, but emotional support is equally valuable. Women and men share different ideas of strength that work well to have knowledge and expertise in... A few judo throws are just as handy as being cool headed in the face of a bully and knowing when to walk or RUN away...
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TALK, walk or run away...
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@Screenwriter Yeah, well, you'll have to serve to understand it. Victimisation, right.
- +1 y
@soleil2666 Victimization? What are you referring to? I think I know the value of men as human beings... You saying only women who experience male/female camaraderie and life and death situations know this?
- +1 y
@Screenwriter Yeah, but you don't know the value of waiting to go to a trench to die. Female genital mutilation of course kills many more people.
- +1 y
- +1 y
@soleil2666 Don't get smart with me, dude. Of course FGM kills very few women. It mostly makes them sexually miserable. What you're talking about is how comrades have each other's backs in life and death situations. I thought I might've been blinded in the eye that I was pistol whipped over and that my skull was fractured from the gun beating.. And I was depending on my friends to get me to help as I broke into a cold sweat and went into shock. It wasn't as dire, but they had my back.
Anonymous(30-35)+1 yStrength is overrated
With the rise of MMA & the amount of hi powered weapons being put out in the inner cities the only survival tactics that are needed to survive are from personal experiences
Cunningness
Manipulation tactics
Being able to throw down
Being able to know how to use a firearm
Being muscular but a complete dumbass who can easily be manipulated & outgunned & especially out matched in a fight against someone his own size is just USELESS17 Reply- +1 y
Strength is not overrated. The world is not a war zone lol. You think of strength only in the frame of conflict. People who lift weights do not do it to be able to beat people up or fight a gun battle. They do it for self improvement. They do it for health. They do it to look more sexually attractive. They do it because it increases bone density and allows you to be functional well into old age. Also people lift mostly for sport. To improve on the sport they play, they lift weights because being stronger is almost always better for sports depending on what it is.
Of course anything can be taken to an extreme. Some people do steroids and kill themselves to “look big.” That doesn’t apply to the majority of the lifting community.
Opinion Owner+1 y@Kaazsz
Urban areas that are infested with violence like new Orleans, mississippi,& florida that make NY & LA look soft in comparable Will eat up any pretty boy who lifts for vanity like it's nothing
What I got from your reply is that most of those youngsters lift for vanity, insecurity,& to an extent health benefits
But at the end of the day if take any street car over some muscle head as an ally
Opinion Owner+1 y@Kaazsz I live in reality man
I never had mommy & daddy to protect me or to give me comfort since I never met them & never will
Those suburban isolated
"bubble boys & girls" are what Darwin was speaking off when it came to the ideology of "Survival Of The Fittest"
I've lived in a few semi suburban neighborhoods & a lot of those "Gym Bros" & catty arrogant females were the most naive, arrogant,& easily scared types I've met
Like I stated above
I never knew my parents so I matured much faster than the majority of the people
Opinion Owner+1 y@Kaazsz you're 33 years old looking to start a flame war with a 19 year old
You're trying to instigate some petty form of drama for reasons I'm not even aware of
But that's on you
I'm out & if you want to keep baiting me to respond then you're as free to do so
+1 yIt is ingrained in human evolution to find physical strength attractive (e. g., reproduction). Even with contemporary advances in technology and medicine, it is not a substitute for the primordial urge to have sex. Skeletal soy boys will remain unattractive to women, because women still find attractive men who workout regularly. Hundreds if not thousands of years of evolution may have an impact, but not with 30 years of internet access to the general public.
00 Replynot really. personally, i dont even find muscles that attractive. sure a little bit can be nice, but once they're too visible and bulky i get turned off
20 Reply
+1 yI think if you’re hot your hot. Strong, weak, tall, short, fit, thin, thicc. As we say where I am from, “guapo es guapo” haha.
10 ReplyI definitely prefer someone who is strong but not looking like a bodybuilder over someone who looks like a bodybuilder but can’t even open a jar.
22 Reply- +1 y
I think everyone can open a jar xD Even I can and I look like a pudding.
- +1 y
@Jemini_Crocket GIRL! Get out and walk off some of that wobble!!! Yeah... the secret to jar opening is the tap, tap tap (with a regular eating knife handle) until you hear the seal break...
My upper body strength has always sucked. Even when going to the gym, it's still very average. I like to think that I can take hits well though.
But for me, I don't really mind.00 ReplyFunctional strength is more attractive than a useless bodybuilder body, or so I am told. Bodybuilders are much too recent a phenomenon for women to have developed a deep attraction to them.
02 Reply- +1 y
They're freaks... I never tire of looking at arnold classics to see how bizarre they look. But the wirey hunter who cranked that boat the rest of the way out of the water had muscles inside of muscles. They only popped up when he needed them. It was stunning. My dad had that kind of strength. I think both of them could physically uproot saplings if they had to. That guy yanked a pole pushed into the mud to tie our boat to stabilize it while we sat in it to hunt. He asked me to pull the pole out. I couldn't budge it. He pulled it out like he was pulling a toothpick out of a pear. He might've weighed 185 lbs.
- +1 y
@Screenwriter Nice :) Thanks for that great comment.
921 opinions shared on Health & Fitness topic. To me, the muscles are what's attractive, not the strength itself.
05 Reply- +1 y
Pick one man:
A) a bodybuilder with huge biceps who's never been in a fight and relies only on looks to intimidate others
B) a smaller framed guy with extensive MMA training and can effectively defend you and your family from even the most violent attacker - +1 y
@SomeGuyCalledTom I'd pick "A".
- +1 y
Fair play, you seem to know what u want so go for it lol
- +1 y
@SomeGuyCalledTom The chances of our family being attacked are very small and might never even happen. But the chances of me having to look at him every day are 100%.
341 opinions shared on Health & Fitness topic. ya but not raw strength, more like fit. They'll choose the guy who landscapes/construction over the bodybuilder any day
00 Reply
+1 yYeah that & obviously a lot of other things with it as well.
00 ReplyIt depends on the individual. Some people find physical strength attractive while some find intellectual strength more attractive.
00 Reply
+1 ySome women find it attractive, others don't. You can definitely take it too far, most women aren't into muscle monsters, especially if he acts like huge douchebag.
20 ReplyYes but for me you don’t have to look like you’re strong just a long as you are. I’ve dated guys who were skinny as hell but could pick me up and hold me down with ease. So ig it has to do with in relation to me.
00 Reply
Anonymous(30-35)+1 yWomen will always love strong men. It's in their DNA and that won't change. But most of them do not find the freakishly large bodybuilder hulk physique attractive. No one does.
10 ReplyNope. I don't think raw strength is attractive. Mental strength is much more important
12 Reply- +1 y
Why not both?
Anonymous(36-45)+1 yMeans nothing to me. I am more interested in what is going on between your ears.
10 ReplyIt's still attractive. But pretty sure there are girls out there that really dont mind it all
00 ReplyNowadays most people find physical strength unattractive.
01 Reply- +1 y
Those are people who don't understand how useful competent strength is. It's why I lift weights and walk and work out in my garden... To get these tasks done, get exercise and enjoy the outdoors and fix my home...
Beauty is woman's strength, while man's beauty is his stength.
00 Reply
+1 yWhen muscle dummies stop having first pick of women then I will consider it up for debate
00 Reply
Anonymous(45 Plus)+1 yI don’t think girls like that muscular bulky look but they like it when the guy is tone
10 Reply569 opinions shared on Health & Fitness topic. Will depend on how the other person sees it.
00 Reply
+1 ywhen situation demands, I'd say yes defo.
10 Reply
+1 yYes strength is still attractive
20 Reply
Anonymous(25-29)+1 yKinda I guess, a little bit of a yes and no
00 Reply
Anonymous(36-45)+1 yFuck yes👆
30 Reply
+1 yMany women might like men with muscles.
00 ReplyStrength of character is sexy
00 Replyyes of course
00 Reply
Anonymous(25-29)+1 yit shouldn't be exeggerated
00 Reply
+1 yWas it ever?
00 Reply
+1 yDerp
00 Reply
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