I don’t like the notion that the “new elite body”, as More magazine calls it, for over-40 women is more gristle than glamour.

The real work is happening in the middle of the physical challenge, not with women who have 6 to 10 percent body fat, but women like Michelle Obama, who work out hard with weights, giving her genuine muscles and physical stature.

Owning sensual “muscle lust” is different than owning “gristle”. I’m not attacking “gristle”, just pointing out that most women over 40 don’t have a BMI of 18-25, and if they do, life can change in many ways. This is where the future lies, the real definition of an “almost elite” body.

The majority of women seeking the new elite body are very easy on the eyes, according to my research. I chuckle with the idea that we over 40 women just can’t get it right, even in our own magazines.

Elements of the article ARE true.

It is amazing, being a woman voer 40, committed to dedicated, demanding workouts that transform one’s body. Sports psychologist Marc Sagal, founder of Winning Mind, a consulting firm, thinks that there’s a new paradigm in town: “To look like that? And be over 40? It’s like, holy cow…this is possible.”

I agree that the experience is a head trip. Society and pop culture told me that I would be all washed up by now, physically undesirable, in fact.

That’s not my reality, and it doesn’t belong to any woman who gets serious in the gym.

I am not speaking of women who use the treadmill. I speak of cardio, for certain, but then lunges, squats, weights, crunches. It’s not fun, but the resulting woman is.

Confidence is powerful stuff.

Guy Richie may not like Madona’s muscles, believing that she’s not “cuddle stuff.” I’m not on the receiving end of those comments, because I don’t look like Madonna.

What I hear from very successful men is that an over 40 woman, who is serious in the gym, and then combines confidence, life experience, and intellectual brain power is a far sexier cocktail, than the California girls “seriously lacking in brain matter.”

We have a bit of rivalry brewing here, with the over 40 set of women who seek an elite body. The Smart Sensuality woman evolves beyond Sex and the City girl talk, and into some serious thinking about life, business, global issues.

At the risk of saying the wrong thing here. perhaps the Smart Sensuality woman is more “alpha male” in her approach to living, but she adds a lot of heart to her life experience, expressing her nurturing, female side.

More Than Thin Skin

41-tear-old Olympic mom Dara TorresI also want to contradict a statement in the More article, re the thinning of the skin of the older woman, causing her to look harder across her muscles. Many women over 40 are on hormone replacement therapy, me for one.

A woman doesn’t have to lose her soft skin. I haven’t at all, and I receive compliments on my skin all the time. Thankfully, I also inherited my grandmother’s genes and I never smoked.

Take seriously this new Smart Sensuality woman, because she’s crashing through stereotypes about aging and body image. She is strong and sexy, and I hate to tell the naysayers, but she has men falling all over her.

Is she dangerous? Not really, but one thing she has is confidence.

Powerful Workouts and Self-Confidence

Those kick-butt workouts not only release powerful endorphins that enhance her private sense of self.

A woman who commits to taking control of her body to pursue good health and as much control of the aging process as she can muster (while not denying the reality), achieves a sense of self mastery unknown to a woman whose life is chaotic, depressed, and going downhill.

Especially in these challenging economic times, self-discipline helps keep us stable. And vigorous, demanding exercise … yes to pursue our best body is a good thing in my playbook.

I don’t appreciate articles, especially in a women’s mag devoted to over 40, that suggests that pursuing the course of an elite body will cause a woman to be sexually undesirable or not her best self.

Not true! Not true! Not true! Anne

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