Don’t you think the world defines beauty with various standards like height, weight, curves, and thigh gaps? However, chances are you have no thigh gap and have heard about this phrase on a social media platform. Rest assured that you are not alone in falling for a beauty standard gimmick trying to trigger a new imperfection in your mind.
Social media, with its stunning aesthetic, is successful in defining and presenting ideal body types. However, not many evaluate the reality of such perfection and start questioning their self-worth.
But what about the countless YouTube videos on exercises to help you develop a thigh gap? If you have no thigh gap and similar questions in mind, sit tight! In this article, we will decode everything about thigh gaps and burst the unrealistic standards of modern beauty.
Thigh Gap or No Thigh Gap: What is Ideal?
To idolize this beauty standard of having a thigh gap, let’s begin by asking simple questions.
So ‘What is a thigh gap?’ and ‘What marks the beginning of this beauty standard?’. Let’s dig deeper!
What is a Thigh Gap?
The thigh gap is the space between an individual’s thighs when standing with joined feet. Social media posts, videos, and blogs by the beauty industry market the concept of having a thigh gap as a must-have! It is supposed to be a marker of a healthy body and one’s attractiveness.
Let me make it loud and clear. If you have no thigh gap, it does not define your fitness, health, or attractiveness. The reason lies in the secret of body science. Our body fat percentage, bone structure, body fat accumulation habits, and body composition determine if we can or cannot have a thigh gap.
What Marks the Beginning of This Beauty Standard?
The ‘no thigh gap’ is an aesthetic standard of beauty introduced to the public in 2013. Countless images of models and celebrities circulate on the internet to date.
These images have the simple intent of motivating people to become fitter, thinner, and healthier. It undoubtedly created ripples of motivation, body perfection, and self-doubt.
But most of us failed to evaluate the reality of those images depicting body perfection. What is the truth? Digitally edited images, the art of strategic posing, and an army of professionals putting their best foot forward to make the model look flawless.
What Are the Causes of a Thigh Gap?
Medically speaking, two predominant reasons might cause a thigh gap or no thigh gap. One is genetic predisposition, and the second is bone structure. It is crucial to understand that none of these body features can be altered by exercise, fat loss, or dieting.
Let’s break it down for a better understanding.
1. Genetic Predisposition
The genetic predisposition results in no thigh gap when the genetics of an individual accumulate fat in the upper hip area. This body fat accumulation causes an otherwise slim person to have no thigh gap or vice versa.
2. Bone Structure
The width of hip bones and location within the pelvis are the deciding factors of a thigh gap. For example, someone with a narrow hip bone structure within their pelvis is likely to have no thigh gap.
It is thus crucial to develop an understanding of your body’s chemistry. No amount of targeted limb exercise, fat loss, or dieting is capable of altering our bone structure and creating a thigh gap.
On the contrary, uncontrolled and unapproved lifestyle hacks to develop such unrealistic beauty standards often have adverse results. Cardiovascular weakness and early bone density loss are two common examples of the same.
Is It Possible for Everyone to Have a Thigh Gap?
No! Everyone cannot have a thigh gap. The reason is that the majority of people across the world have a narrow bone structure in their upper hips. The genetic predisposition, along with narrow hip structures, limits the creation of a thigh gap in women.
However, striving for this set beauty standard affects the physical and mental health of young women. In a study by the National Library of Medicine, young female social media users fell prey to depression and eating disorders.
Women between 18 and 25 years old are starving themselves to become more attractive. Attempting to lose extreme fat and the ‘no thigh gap’ state of the body is medically unnatural. Sudden and unhealthy measures often result in infertility, hair loss, and depression.
Social media platforms blind us with their glamour and unrecognizable filters. Besides, the liberty in the hands of beauty brands, advertising agencies, and marketing houses to Photoshop and edit actual images makes things worse.
It was not until recently that influencers, body positivity coaches, and health brands started bursting the ‘thigh gap’ myths. However, we are yet to educate young minds suffering from anxiety, body dysmorphia, and eating disorders.
How to Get a Thigh Gap: Healthy Ways
How far can you go to look attractive or feel stronger? What beauty standard are we trying to achieve? Who are we comparing ourselves to? All these questions resurface as we try to decode reality beyond the rose-tinted glasses of the beauty industry.
When countless exercises, extreme eating habits, and creative lifestyle hacks to create a thigh gap fail, it is time for surgery. Yes! That is precisely how far young women are willing to travel to look flawlessly attractive.
Thigh lift and other surgical procedures have taken over in recent times. Women with no thigh gap visit surgical clinics to achieve desirable results. Procedures like liposuction and CoolSculpting are taking over rapidly. College students, working professionals, models, celebrities, and homemakers—the unrealistic standards of flawless beauty have successfully made it to most women.
But what are these procedures, and how are they helping women attain their so-called perfection? Let’s take a look!
1. CoolSculpting Procedure
If you have no thigh gap, beauty clinics use the process of cryolipolysis to sculpt the excess fat in the inner thighs to create one. Scientists at Harvard came up with this method to apply extremely low temperatures to targeted body parts. This cooling method freezes the fat cells to death.
2. Liposuction Procedure
Liposuction is another clinical method that has skyrocketed in recent times to match the set standards of the beauty industry. Surgeons use a rod to suck out the accumulated fat from the target area (the thigh). This method is also known as contouring.
These procedures might sound fancy, but they are possibly an excellent, non-painful way to cure no thigh gap. However, the chances of skin damage, soreness, swelling, and nerve damage never leave the scenario.
These unrealistic standards significantly affect young women and teenagers. When exercising and extreme dieting fails, young women step towards skin clinics. Physical limitations affect mental health and result in death for a fraction of people.
Exercises to Choose Over Unsafe Thigh Gap Exercises
YouTube has countless videos promoting unsafe and uncertified exercises to help one develop a thigh gap. It claims to increase attractiveness, strength, and posture. But the truth is far from these claims. If you are someone with no thigh gap, look into the mirror and accept the beauty that you are.
If the goal is to look attractive, stay healthy, and improve fitness and strength, why not do it with safer, certified methods and a calmer mind? It is crucial to drop one’s attention and obsession from everything that the beauty industry claims is ideal! A healthy mind always contributes to forming a healthier body and overall lifestyle. One’s attractiveness thus automatically increases.
Here are some simple, all-time-safe exercises to help you build strength and stay fit. Take a look!
1. Squat
It is a simple exercise where we need to stand with feet apart at hip width and hinge from the knee to sit in a squat pose. Keep checking the knee as you squat, and do not crossover the toes. As all the weight is on the heels, push up and stand, squeezing the glutes at the top. That is all! As a beginner, you can keep repeating up to 10 and see the magic happen with daily practice.
2. Sumo Squat
The sumo squat is the second exercise to help tone your no thigh gap. It is a pro-level version of simple squats. Stand with your feet wider apart and hinge the knees until the quads are positioned parallel to the floor. Now, follow the same push-back-up technique with the pressure on the heels and stand. As a beginner, five sumo squats daily is a good number to start with for strengthening the upper hip muscles.
3. Forward Lunge
The idea of practicing forward lunge is to engage the core muscles and build strength. Start by taking a big step forward with the right leg and bending the knee until it is parallel to the floor. Keep your back straight in the process, and use your back heel to push you back to your normal position. This exercise is a simple yet powerful practice. Continue this practice with both legs to build core strength.
4. Dumbell Step-Up
A dumbbell step-up is a perfect fit if you have no thigh gap and would like to try an easy exercise to build core strength. Find a block to step up, or practice it on your stairs. Grab your dumbbell and align your hands by the side. Now, step up the stairs with one leg, followed by the other. Once you are standing tall and proud on the stairs, gently come back down. That is one rep! All you have to do is repeat it and get fit.
5. Deadlift
Begin by standing with your feet apart at hip width, grabbing your dumbbells, and holding them by your side. Keep your hand straight by the sides, but bend your knees and hinge your torso to make it almost parallel to the floor. Keep your back neutral, not round. Now, push back up with your heels and a forward hip movement. Repeat this process to squeeze your glutes, build strength, and stay fit.
Mental Pre-up
The above-mentioned physical exercises will help anyone build the strength and fitness they need to look attractive. What about the mental pressure, anxiety, and depression that affect several young women?
Let me make it loud and clear once again: You are beautiful the way you are! Beauty is not some aesthetic standard that anyone can define by a particular standard. Beauty has a million definitions and keeps changing with every individual. However, if having no thigh gap gives you a mental hard time, here is what can help.
1. Practice Meditation
Meditation is an age-old practice to calm one’s mind using focused breathing. Take back your power from social media, magazines, books, or online news. Sit back and allow yourself to practice breathing with closed eyes. Meditation and yoga will help calm any symptoms of anxiety.
2. Hit the Gym
Get into your sportswear, put on your earplugs, and walk to the gym. Taking action towards maintaining your physical health will help build confidence and overcome any form of self-doubt.
3. Develop a Healthy Lifestyle
Alongside meditation and gymming, eating a healthy balanced diet, reading books, going on a nature walk, playing with pets, listening to value-adding podcasts, and work-life balance will help build an overall healthy lifestyle.
4. Seek Help
If none of the above practices help you overcome the damage due to unreal beauty standards, it is time to seek help. Thigh gap or no thigh gap, your beauty deserves every chance to outshine any limitation. Ask for professional guidance or reach out to friends and family.
Summing It Up
All in all, the thigh gap trend is an aesthetic beauty standard when one has a gap between their inner thighs. The majority of women across the globe do not have a thigh gap due to genetic predisposition and bone structure.
Therefore, no exercise or extreme dieting habits can help one develop a thigh gap. No thigh gap can ever define anyone’s strength or attractiveness, as everybody is different. Beauty shines when we take care of our physical and mental health.
Thus, it is advisable to live a healthy life, eat a balanced diet, get plenty of sleep, and pull back from unhelpful social media standards of beauty.
Comment below: What do you find most beautiful about yourself?
