I thought of her, but I think she was too jacked and too roidy to make an "average" girl go: "yeah, I wanna get buff now!". I think the most influencial girl would have to be someone smaller and natural, because that really speaks to regular women.
Regardless of her size I can't think of any other female fitness influencer as influential as her. She even starred in a couple of movies
Regardless of her size I can't think of any other female fitness influencer as influential as her. She even starred in a couple of movies
I was thinking of Ronda Rousey, she was mad popular in the past decade, basically everyone has heard the name, which doesn't really go for Chyna. The problem is some people would say Ronda has no muscle xd
There was a fitness/aerobics craze that started in the 80s, I think this made a trim “hard“ physique more popular. So for this, I would suggest Jane Fonda.
Later, Denise Austin and Susan Powter had successful home exercise enterprises, and sold a ton of home videos.
Kiana Tom headlined an exercise show on ESPN!
As female bodybuilders, Cory Everson got a lot of mainstream press in addition to Rachel McLish. Both of them got some movie roles as well.
Yeah, I had a feeling a lot of people would mention Cory Everson, I was gonna drop her name in my post right away, but I wanted to keep the question free of bias.
That 80s fitness craze is really interesting, the origins of it and all. It seems like muscular women were more popular then than in late 90s and the 00s.
Interesting question. Hard to say there’s one particular woman who clearly had more impact than all the others. There are a number of women—most of whom have already been mentioned-that have made valuable contributions.
Jane Fonda and Denise Austin went a long way just in bringing mainstream acceptance to working out in general.
For more visible muscularity, Rachel McLish demonstrated that a woman could have some muscle and still have a very pretty, feminine face. In terms of influence, I would rank Rachel over Cory Everson because, even though she wasn’t huge by today’s standards, I still think Cory had more muscle mass and definition than what most women would want for themselves.
The original American Gladiators in the 80s, particularly Raye Hollitt, also deserve some credit for bringing female muscle into the mainstream.
In the early 90s, Linda Hamilton and Angela Bassett made it cool for female celebrities to have biceps. For making a fit, toned body the thing to have, there was nobody in the mid to late 90s hotter—both in terms of appearance and popularity—than Kiana Tom. Even today, there are many women who would look at Kiana and say, “Yeah, I want a body like that.”
As far as Chyna is concerned, and I don’t say this with any disrespect, she was more of a curio item than an actual influence on how many women wanted to look.
In the 2000s, probably no celebrity epitomized how sexy a fit female body could be better than Jessica Biel.
Today, it’s probably the professional wrestlers like Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill, and Tiffany Stratton who make the biggest impact in favor of female muscle.
I don’t think the “big bodybuilder” look will ever gain mainstream acceptance, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing considering the damaging health effects that go along with achieving that kind of physique.
Interesting question. Hard to say there’s one particular woman who clearly had more impact than all the others. There are a number of women—most of whom have already been mentioned-that have made valuable contributions.
Jane Fonda and Denise Austin went a long way just in bringing mainstream acceptance to working out in general.
For more visible muscularity, Rachel McLish demonstrated that a woman could have some muscle and still have a very pretty, feminine face. In terms of influence, I would rank Rachel over Cory Everson because, even though she wasn’t huge by today’s standards, I still think Cory had more muscle mass and definition than what most women would want for themselves.
The original American Gladiators in the 80s, particularly Raye Hollitt, also deserve some credit for bringing female muscle into the mainstream.
In the early 90s, Linda Hamilton and Angela Bassett made it cool for female celebrities to have biceps. For making a fit, toned body the thing to have, there was nobody in the mid to late 90s hotter—both in terms of appearance and popularity—than Kiana Tom. Even today, there are many women who would look at Kiana and say, “Yeah, I want a body like that.”
As far as Chyna is concerned, and I don’t say this with any disrespect, she was more of a curio item than an actual influence on how many women wanted to look.
In the 2000s, probably no celebrity epitomized how sexy a fit female body could be better than Jessica Biel.
Today, it’s probably the professional wrestlers like Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill, and Tiffany Stratton who make the biggest impact in favor of female muscle.
I don’t think the “big bodybuilder” look will ever gain mainstream acceptance, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing considering the damaging health effects that go along with achieving that kind of physique.
Awesome, this is the kind of insight I wanted.
Serena is a good call too, probably the most recognisable name of those mentioned so far.
Vladislava Galagan, the younger generations get everything from TikTok and Instagram, and she's the muscle queen of those platforms. Female muscle is more popular than it's ever been thanks to social media.
Vladi is big in our circle but if you want the real deal, who is known by everyone in the gym is LeanBeefPatty
She is very big in the fitness social media and even normal people in the gym know her
I'm not talking about just bodybuilding, but everything in general rather. Which woman has had the greatest positive impact on popularising female athleticism and muscularity? Which woman convinced most other women to hit the gym?