Sports photo shoot: how to photograph inflated muscles correctly

Let's face it — we are all guilty of comparing our bodies with the perfect figures of models we see on Instagram or other social networks. The expertly edited and staged pictures they share are notorious for giving many of us a sense of the insignificance of our own bodies and problems with self-perception.

While the body positivity movement is designed to help in this matter, there is a common misconception that women are more vulnerable to these problems. The truth is that people of both sexes can be dissatisfied with their own bodies and suffer about it.

One American study showed that over the past 25 years, men's dissatisfaction with their appearance has almost tripled. The study showed that about 43% of men are dissatisfied with their appearance, and their number is almost the same as that of women.

Transsexual with the nickname @Trouble-Pasta decided to raise the topic of male body perception and show that all these muscular guys from the Internet look so perfect only when they strain their muscles.

"As a transsexual, over the years I have learned a lot about my body, about building muscle mass and a lot more in this process and realized that one thing is never talked about"

"The muscles are not visible when they are relaxed. Especially, it concerns the press"

To prove these words, the guys from the Reddit site shared their photos in the "before and after" style

Indeed, when the press is not tense, the cubes are not visible

This also applies to other parts of the body

"I rarely see reports about body positivity, with regard to the male body, but I have never seen anyone mention muscles at all"

"If you want, you can call me stupid, but I sincerely believed that such a pumped-up look was achievable in a relaxed state, simply because I had never seen a refutation of it."

"As a person suffering from both dysmorphic phobia and dysphoria, you can imagine what a devastating effect on my psyche an attempt to achieve the impossible could have. I can only imagine how many other male people suffer from this!"

Obviously, there is a common misconception that if your relaxed muscles don't look a certain way, it means that you are not training hard enough

"Bodies that are tense and relaxed look VERY different, and that's normal! There is nothing wrong with the natural and relaxed look of your body, just accept it," wrote one user of the Network