Where do you fall on the spectrum of sthenolagnia and cratophilia?

I'm curious about the rest of you!

This is an oversimplication, but our fetish has a name or two, if you didn't know.

Where do you fall on the spectrum of sthenolagnia (you like muscles) and cratophilia (you like strength)?

I think almost all of us like both muscles and strength, but to varying degrees.

I'm pretty close to 50-50 myself... but if you make me choose between the lean girl who has defined biceps and legs but isn't especially strong or the girl who's not especially muscular or ripped but shockingly strong I'll take the strong girl every time.

I get excited by seeing muscles for sure, but a lot of it is ALSO what the muscles represent for me too. One of the hottest things for me is being surprised by a woman's strength. I'll take it however I can get it of course, but that unassuming shy girl or the one that doesn't look super fit but is somehow inexplicably unbeatable at arm wrestling or can scoop you up in a cradle carry like you weigh 60 lbs -- those girls drive me wild. I like being surprised and impressed I guess.

Don't get me wrong, I love muscles. But muscles without the strength isn't nearly as sexy to me as strength without the (visible) muscles.

So, how about you guys?

I'm more enamored by the aesthetics of big, shredded muscles, but I would also be disappointed if she didn't possess some degree of impressive strength to go along with them. So I guess I fall somewhere in the middle, maybe a 70/30 split with stheno being my preference.

I lean towards sthenolagnia. I'm like you in so far as I like the element of surprise, but it's less to do with strength and more to do with muscle. If a girl shows off a good bicep flex or has sculpted abs, I'm in love.

I'm like 99% sthenolagnia, it's all about the shape. I'll take a 100lb. girl with a crazy bicep peak that isn't particularly strong over a 200lb. powerlifter with no definition all day every day. I think what it really comes down to is the size of certain individual muscles relative to the rest of the girl's body and how much they "pop" out. Serious bonus points for muscle control ability.

I'm definitely more towards crato. If I would have to give a number to it, I would say about 60 to 70% crato and 30 to 40% stheno...

100% muscles . 0%strength

Fbb are rarely strong the majority only focus on their phsyic so watching them struggle with certain physical activities that come easy to us has never been sexy to me.

Once in a while you'll find a well rounded women (sheena) though but still female strength isn't all that exciting.

Fbb are rarely strong

On what scale? They're actually very strong, especially for women. They might not be as strong as powerlifters, but that doesn't mean they're "rarely strong."

On what scale? They're actually very strong, especially for women. They might not be as strong as powerlifters, but that doesn't mean they're "rarely strong."

Compared to men most of them have the strength of teen boys which is why it's really cringey to me to watch stuff like FBB mixed wrestling videos, it's just not exciting at all it's roleplay.

Compared to men most of them have the strength of teen boys which is why it's really cringey to me to watch stuff like FBB mixed wrestling videos, it's just not exciting at all it's roleplay.

Eh... I hear what you're saying, though I wouldn't go as far as to say most have the strength of teen boys. Look ups some stats on strength of average men and women who aren't athletes at different ages etc. You will quickly find that most female bodybuilders who aren't tiny lightweights are at least as strong as the average adult male and lots of them are stronger. But I'm more impressed with crossfitters strength than anything else these days. Mal O'Brien is a 17 year old girl who can clean and jerk 245 lbs. Most adult men cannot do that, much less teenage boys. I've been working out since I was a teen and I've never put up more than 135 lbs with clean form at all. Here are the standards for adult male clean and jerk if you want a point of reference for that 245 lb lift. She's 135 lbs btw. That lift puts her above the "advanced" category for MALE adult lifters and almost into the elite category. And she's 17. There are dozens of girls her age or younger putting up over 200 lbs. 20-30 years ago a woman who could clean and jerk more than 125-130 lbs wasn't common, now you can find a few in almost every gym lol. Just sayin'. But I do agree that female bodybuilders strength doesn't always live up to what their muscles might suggest. They don't all train for strength, but some do.

Fbb are rarely strong

I think you'll see a nice shift soon now that enough people have proven that you can run a hybrid program and still be crazy strong and be a bodybuilding pro. I actually feel like athletes who come FROM powerlifting first would be better long term, as they're patient from powerlifting. once you get past early training games it's a matter of diminishing returns, and I feel like they're more likely to wait awhile between shows instead of doing 3-4 shows a season hoping to make pro, or place in pro shows.

Anyways, to the thread question, it's definitely a mixed bag for me, and certainly situational. Off the bat I am always attracted to fit physiques. Strength is definitely on a sliding scale, but I guess you might call it more "ability". I always bring up the example of an old training partner. Amazing body, best physique I've seen on a non-bodybuilder in person, amazing back double bicep. Always was worked up when we went head to head in a crossfit workout and she would beat me by a few seconds or reps. It got even worse when she straight up would wipe the floor with me, which happened for a prolonged period of time. Although she wasn't stronger than me, not even pound for pound, she had this insane ability to do work that I found hot.

There are different examples too. Times when she would use the men's guidelines for workouts and finish within seconds of guys who had 30-40 lbs on her and lifted more, or more than a few times beating them by seconds or more. Output examples (this may be my favorite difference between men and women) where the requirement was to do X amount of reps at a percentage of your max. Typically I was one of the stronger guys, maybe I could get 9 to 11 reps of like...75% of my squat. I recall her doing like 18+ reps of the same percentage. Recently I saw that she had cranked out 10 of 1.5x her bodyweight. I could do that now, for sure, but I definitely have alot more padding, comparatively. I've seen this kind of thing online from powerlifters recently where they'll do a higher rep thing and be pound for pound a better lift than the guy she's with. Anways I found that extremely hot.

Eh... I hear what you're saying...

** She's 18 now but your point still stands.

I think it's still important to delineate the KINDS of strength. Olympic lifting strength is a lot about explosiveness, uses certain mechanics that are different from powerlifts, or even doing your traditional bodybuilding stuff. But your point is valid: yes, totally, there are teen boys putting up numbers of elite female lifters, but you have to look at things like bodyweight percentage, or what kind of things there doing, or really just relatively look at the number of them doing it.

Now, this could just be confirmation bias due to algorhythms or, like the news, the ability to see anything that's out there instead of being stuck in a small bubble but: since January I've seen probably 4-5 random women ages 18-22 squat 405 pounds than at any point before. TONS of women squatting 400+ if they've been around it for any amount of time. A lot more girls are benching a plate in high school than when I was in high school. Heck, when I was 17 I tore my labrum benching 115, and now there's scores of girls just trying to push the numbers earlier, And it's not like stereotypical overeight powerlifter types, kids who are balloons but can push weight.

Jess Desatnick is nineteen. NINETEEN. Four years of college and several more sticking around the college area and I didn't see anyone like this.

Hunter Henderson is 27ish and she's one of the strongest people in history pound for pound.

Sophie Hemphill (blacklisted) is certainly on a bunch of gear but is 20 now and can bench two plates for one or two reps.

The list of crossfit girls under 25 that can clean and jerk 100kg is growing. Sophie Shaft, who recently turned 17, is creeping up on a 100kg snatch at like 145 pounds or something. She can Clean and jerk like 230 -240 lbs, and squats in the 350s.

not to single out the ladies too, same with the guys. kids in general are getting exposed to lifting and nutrition in their early teens. When I was 12-13 I was not concerned about hitting my bodyweight in grams of protein per day--like imagine some of the girls that get into lifting in college and how strong/buff they get pretty quick. Now add another 10 years of training and nutrition and you get a bunch of athletic/strong freaks. I love it.

Dead center.

Now back on topic

100% muscles. 0% strength.

This may be more nuanced, though. I also love the power that comes with the sex appeal.

I'm leaning toward stenolagnia. If a girl shows off a good bicep curl or has sculpted abs, AND GREAT CAVES......I'm in paradise.

Sthenolagnia. I prefer the aesthetics over strenght, although I must admit effort is sexy - especially when working out and seeing the woman being able to lift bigger and bigger weights with time.

Sthenolagnia. I prefer the aesthetics over strenght, although I must admit effort is sexy - especially when working out and seeing the woman being able to lift bigger and bigger weights with time.

I agree, but I realize it's not because of the strength involved. It's because veins are hot lol

I am big into strength myself it's really exciting to see women who can lift heavy things and do other incredible things but i also love the look of the ripped muscles but that is because i associate them with strength even if some women are stronger or weaker than they look so for me it's 80% cratophilia and only 20% stenolagnia.

sthenolagnia for me. I love the muscles, I love touching the muscles. I have no interest in her being able to pick me up or anything like that. Like sure its handy if I need a hand moving furniture.... but I think the strength is more satisfying for the girl.

Personal preference here. Everyone is different

I'm about 70% cratophilia and only 30% sthenolagnia. I love stuff like this:

I lean towards strength but for me muscles define strength. The more muscular you are the more stronger you should be (I know it's not true but that's what my mind thinks). So if a power lifter lifts a 100 kgs and a fbb lifts 50 kg, I will prefer the fbb. So maybe I lean more to Muscles. I'm getting confused 😕

It's usually a rough 50/50 for me. I'm tempted to say it alternates slightly each day, sometimes huge muscles are what I'm seeking and other times I want to be floored by immense strength.

Much more into the look of big muscles than strength. I’m a muscle worship type guy so watching the beauty of muscles flexing, striations, muscle control is much more appealing to me.

I lean towards strength, but I might be biased because I’m also a strength athlete and my training is more centered on performance versus aesthetics.