Body image expectations have swung all over the place over the years. In cavemen times you had to store enough fat to make it through the winter. In A.D 800 you had to be fit enough to go to war with a broken leg. In Tudor Times you had to rock a laughable haircut and still take yourself seriously. In 2019 you had to have a voluptuous dad bod.
Well, now that’s all changed. Now, at the risk of projecting our own insecurities on the rest of you, we all need rippling abs and a huge chest.
That’s if you take Russell Westbrook, father of three, as the new benchmark for dad bods. The 32-year-old NBA star (he is a nine-time NBA All-Star and earned the NBA Most Valuable Player Award for the 2016–17) recently posted a bunch of images with his family at the beach that make us want to make a beeline for the gym.
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It seems we are not alone. Fitness training account with 1 million followers @justtrain wrote: “Incredible!!! Also I’m headed to the gym!” underneath Westbrook’s post.
Artist Cory Bailey wrote: “Enjoy that time off big dawggg.”
This image, which Westbrook posted last month, as well as more recent images, which Westbrook posted last week, were all reposted on Instagram by Complex on the weekend, sending the internet into a low key frenzy.
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Captioning the post, “family matters” Complex sparked a tonne of Dom Torreto quips and comments.
From “Russell Chestbrook” to “Dom Torreto enters the chat” Complex followers had a field day.
Though Westbrook is a professional athlete and so obviously going to be in much stronger shape than the bulk of the population, we’ll be damned if we’re not going to admire it.
We’d even say he has set the ‘summer body’ bar higher than Cristiano Ronaldo did last year.
Now if you’ll excuse us we’re off to find some barbells.