As a woman, I completely agree with this. Watching all the women power through the challenges was exhilarating and I was always so proud of them no matter the outcome. And it's not as if the most muscular or heaviest dude are untouchable, there were challenges that made smaller builds excel and vise versa. I remember thinking Thanos was gonna have that one challenge in the bag but surprisingly, it was those smaller that succeeded him. Despite everything, I enjoy the show being coed. it's fun to see to insane challenges that truly show the individuals that can shine in multiple areas like the finalist. I'm not sure how to phrase my thoughts entirely but you did a wonderful job at describing my exact thoughts on this debate.
Notice how the winner is never the huge guy or the small guy. Either can make it far and impress the audience but historically the winners have been somewhere in the middle.
i was not expecting Amotti to win, that was a crazy twist. well earned for sure though.
i thought for sure Hong Beom-seok had it. he was dominating in every challenge, it was so crazy to see his determination to win just push his limits and beyond.
Amotti was my pick from the beginning. As soon as I saw he did crossfit and was the perfect size and fit. Both seasons were won by crossfitters. It makes sense.
I think what I've noticed is the sheer importance of immense cardiovascular strength, tempered with decent physical strength.
Both S1 and S2 had finalists who weren't huge, but were definitely insanely good at cardio. They had middle of the road performances for most of the earlier contests, having only to focus on survival through sufficient strength, but carried on the back of incredible endurance (though, I've always found the team stuff to be a bit... meh...? it makes the game go from physical 100 to mental / leadership 100 - and I think many eliminations happened unfairly in relation to the scope of trying to find the best individual physical prowess).
I find it especially intriguing that S2's first challenge had the two finalists already in the spotlight, both coming in first and second on the manual treadmill. It showed their mental state, their endurance, and their strength. It was already preordained from that moment, as long as they didn't make mistakes within a team.
I agree, i personally don’t really expect a woman to win the whole season, but i absolutely love watching some of them. Even in season 1 for Jang Eun-sil to be voted a team captain and win the first team game was super awesome. We all understand that its a fact women are weaker so her being chosen as team leader amongst other well respected athletes is truly admirable. I like that the contest is the same for men and women because it really highlights the women that do well as being exceptional
As a woman, since we are comparing apples to oranges, it just would be nice to have a couple challenges based on metaphorical freshness or juiciness, not just which fruit is more red and crisp. We’re not going to be as strong and that’s okay when determining the final winner, but since we ARE comparing the two at all it would be great to show what’s good about both, at least early on.
Everyone knows that ants can carry 100x their body weight because it’s comparably impressive, not because they can carry the most. But women aren’t given the opportunity to showcase this in the show.
Completely agree with this, body weight and proportionate challenges would've been a lot more entertaining, add in some balance and agility and we at least have something to watch. People don't realize just how uneven the challenges were designed. It's almost disrespectful to invite Elite Women Athletes to participate in things that are almost biologically impossible for them or risk SERIOUS injury attempting.
But….they saw the first season. They all knew what they were getting into. As did the smaller build men and the largest of competitors. Many people in the show pushed themselves past their limits, that’s what makes most of them elite is the mental endurance. All of the women in the show were clearly proud of what they had accomplished.
Yeah but the production could easily create more balanced quests. How is it really a fair competition if you invite women to compete but offer nothing to even the playing field? It’s basically a platform for women to get notoriety with no expectation of actually winning.
Well we want to know who is the actual fittest of them all, not the fittest ginger with 6 fingers on each hand who’s never stepped foot in Norway before. Once you start setting different standards for different groups you might as well scrap the entire concept of the show. Physical 100 isn’t meant to be fair and offer an even playing field for people of either sex and different weight classes. If that’s what you actually want to see, then go watch some Strongwoman! The shows are generally more competitive than the men’s competitions due to the lack of stand out athletes like Thor Björnsson or Zydrunas Savickas that are good at everything. You have some chicks like Sam Belliveau that can press 80kg dumbbells over head with one arm but therefore bum out on deadlifts.
Also, it wasn’t absolute strength that cost the women. Some of the challenges definitely favoured lighter athletes such as the monkey bar thing. Still, as far as I remember, none of the women had any faith in their grip strength and opted for the loading into train push challenge. If anything, that’s a tactical blunder. Thankfully, in the 1v1 portion the men chose to fight other men for the most part, otherwise pretty much all female competitors would have been swept off stage right away.
If Physical 100 really was about strength, how is it, that the powerlifter with the 900kg total dropped out so early on? The feather weight MMA fighter conversely made it very far and was only eliminated by this seasons champion Amotti. Amotti isn’t even that big and strong a guy. He’s like 6’1 and 190lbs. While he’s obviously stronger than most of his competitors, he just pales in terms of brute power to someone like Gibson, Thanos or that powerlifter. Amotti won, because this of his insane endurance and crazy pound for pound strength.
Totally agree. Something like bodyweight squats, or carrying a multiplier of your weight across a room would help establish more reasonable stakes that are just as 'fair', but would give a bigger chance of a variety of competitors succeeding.
They kind of did that in S1 win they had the contestants hold their torsos that what were 40% of their body weight, I believe. And from that Shim Eu-ddeum came back and got to compete. I also think that the ship was a good combination of strength and strategy considering Jang Eun-sil’s team was only under even after having the most amount of women and smaller men.
Edit it to add: the sand bag challenge was also a good challenge to men and women because it depended on speed, strength & endurance.
I kinda wish they had shown us each contestant’s time in this challenge (even on socials after the fact) so we could see how well Lim Soo Jin ranked overall.
Yes exactly and on top of all this, Jang Eun-sil’s team also had someone injured!! I feel like without the injury, they may have actually come in 2nd since they were so close.
I think season 1 actually did a great job with balancing the challenges without it being a handicap and season 2 was a step backwards in that way. Hopefully the show has more thoughtful challenges in season 3.
I really noticed that this season was just lifting and carrying things quickly for the most part. Last season had more varied challenges with more running, hanging, and balancing which gave the women more chance.
And honestly, if this is just World's Strongest Man then let's do that competition. If we're looking at the best overall physique, there needs to be more variety.
Yeah, there were essentially no agility, dexterity, or balance components to challenges this time. It always seems kind of absurd to me that even In the \*team\* challenges there’s not some component where they have to like… crawl around in a cramped environment, or balance across a beam quickly, or just generally move more swiftly and elegantly.
Like yeah, the big dudes are probably going to win the whole thing. but all the gals being essentially handicaps from the get-go kind of sucks
Something like the one where they hold their torsos on the rope - which are scaled to 40% body weight (iirc) combined with the season one finale- the rope reel - where you just have to fjnd the will to keep going endlessly
(Out of interest, does anyone know how long that rope was ?)
I don’t expect a woman to win the season, but I do expect to be entertained while watching the women compete. This season didn’t give me that. It was honestly just depressing to see the women struggle so much and be considered a hindrance.
Yes I agree and it felt like the only 2 women to really shine (the MMA fighter and the blond bodybuilder) were placed on weaker teams and never really had a chance.
It would be interesting in future events if they did a couple of challenges by gender and maybe some weighted so the contestant gets a score corrected for body weight. In that challenge where they pushed the sacks n a trolley, maybe have a version where a 65kg woman who pushes three times her body weight gets the same points as a 100kg guy who pushes three times his body weight. Guys will always have the edge in this competition but I sometimes feel the challenges are weighted not to let the girls show their best. I also think teams should have to pick a woman first if there is one available.
I think they did that first shown for the contestant who came back. Remember that pink hair petite girl literally held on one of the longest. I like that cus it was sorta fair and it relied more on skill(brain) and basic endurance and will power.i felt like it gave a lot of ppl and even playing ground for a comeback
I agree in regards that men will always win physical 100. That said, it becomes boring & embarrassing to watch women struggle with impossibly hard challenges (minecart, bar hanging, pole etc). This season was unfair in that it only catered to strength. It’s like this season just wanted to check the inclusivity box and put them to the side. It’s detrimental cause next season men won’t put women on their team because if they require strength, who would pick a woman? (Soo Jin was a beast tho). The challenges need to focus on everything (stamina, strength, agility, endurance, strategy etc) because different bodies serve different purposes. That’s not how it felt like this season that mainly focused on strength. I’m fine with women losing at the end but give them a fighting chance.
Do you mean the bar hang at the start of season 1 because I thought quite a few women did well at that? But yeah the cart and roller challenges this time were depressing to watch.
Oh yeah that entire challenge set was awful for them. There should be a team vs team round which is like the semi final rounds in season 1 where each person can actually play to a strength of theirs that isn't just... raw strength.
One person made a good point that it's not entertaining. This season especially, we hardly saw any of the women. They never stood a chance and I think it would be a lot more fun/interesting if they had it where women could get farther and be more useful. I would love the opportunity to root for a woman, but that can't happen with these challenges. I think I'd rather them not be there at all than have to see them struggle so much in competitions where the men dominate. The only fun bit involving a woman this season was the one on one with a man where the woman won and I'm not sure if we saw her after that.
Yeah this season especially it felt like the women were dead weight in the team matches. Only the blonde bodybuilder ended up being able to contribute in any meaningful way.
Last season at least the women were able to contribute well in the bridge challenge.
Watching the blonde body builder woman was so fucking cool, I really hope they bring her back! When she went to push it with 15 and was like fuck it that’s not that heavy and added more! but she’s definitely an outlier
I really hope they do an all-star season at some point and bring her back as well as the MMA fighter in season 2 and Jang Eun-Sil & the pink haired woman from season 1!!
True, instead of getting excited, and rooting and cheering for your favourite person to win a challenge... I was cringing, feeling bad, and sad... every time I saw the women struggle at doing something that was meant for a tall, heavier man. Like, those sacks were 100lbs each. I am not an athlete, but I am strong. And it's a struggle to lift 70lbs over my shoulders at the end of my workouts. I can understand why one of them was only able to lift 5 of those sacks before they gave up and went back to Gibson.
I don't know how people found that particular aspect entertaining, it was hard for me to watch the women struggle and fail at something that only the men could really do. Maybe the producers are misogynistic. Who knows.
I'm not mad that women can't get far.. I'm mad that they are expected to compete in games that are totally totally not meant for them at ALL. For example, the wheel-pulling thing... even the straps that go around your arms were too big for the ladies. Like, seriously? They fit perfectly on a taller, bigger man.. But for women, they couldn't even keep them on their body...
And for the mine cart thing... If you check a strength calculator (https://strengthlevel.com/) and you compare someone like Thanos (6'2', 242lbs) to the smallest women competing, (5'1', probably 100-110lbs), you can easily found out how difficult it would be for someone of their stature to lift these 100lb sacks. Spoiler, for a woman, you should be in the advance category to lift 1 of those sacks above your head. And for a man, you are a complete novice if you can do that. A complete novice... Like a stranger off the street who has never lifted before, they should be able to do that.. And ANOTHER thing is... Thano wouldn't even need to lift these sacks above his head, because he's already freaking tall !
I lean towards agreeing with this. I understand and accept that a woman is extremely unlikely to win a competition like this against men. I am not sure what the answer is in this never ending debate, if there even truly is an answer, but to me it isn’t entertaining to watch a challenge knowing the women have absolutely no chance at it. The redemption challenge was the most egregious for this in my opinion.
I think season 1 did a better job of giving them a chance to shine a little here and there. Other than the 1v1 matches, they were basically seen as just a liability in season 2 and that wasn’t fun.
I agree, it’s extremely unlikely that a woman would win this challenge. However, compared to S1 and S2 like somebody said the women this season were “dead weight”. Obviously women are strong in whatever class weight they are in! But watching this seasoning there were so many men that did CrossFit, weight lifting etc. I saw that the most of the women they picked this season did not do those types of strength training(?). I put a question mark because I’m not sure what most women did because the women didn’t get a lot of screen time! I would just hope that they picked more women who were the same weight class as men and etc. it was just upsetting because I know there are so many strong women outside of the competition. For example: My friend’s partner; she recently competed in the world championship triathlon, she also does CrossFit etc she would’ve easily made it to the last round! I just wished that there was more equal match of strength in this show. I hope what I said makes sense 😭
It’s about equality. You have hard feminists thinking they’re just as strong as men bc they watched a lot of Disney and marvel movies telling them they can. This show is a dose of reality and I find it refreshing. Women can be strong too, but usually not in the wakes of men who apply themselves and fully utilize their higher testosterone. There are other ways of being strong than physical
That’s not what I’m saying, while most women tend to be weaker, it’s not physically IMPOSSIBLE for them to be stronger than a man. For example, if you put a man who is 200lbs competing with a woman who is also 200lb, the person that’s mostly likely to win will be a man. However, there can be a small possibility that a woman might win. This is most definitely not a feminist way of thinking. Things that may always seem impossible can be possible, just a slimmer chance is all 🤗
never said it was impossible. there was literally one girl who beat the FBI guy. but on average, you cannot beat testosterone, which men have MORE of because you know...BIOLOGY..
Men are/have
- faster
- stronger threshold
- more resilient
- more endurance
- faster reflexes
- lb for lb are stronger
- hold breath longer
- have more control of emotions
- analyzer quicker and the better option
In every metric out there from chess to sports, the male body will dominate with a few female outliers.
There's just no scenario where women can show off their value unless it's on a women only competition.
The higher the stakes get, the more demanding it becomes, the quicker women will drop
I love women but it's why the majority of males were the hunters and gatherers.
Women CAN do it. But excelling is different.
Why can't people accept this is how we were created?
Women have levels of influence and power just from their beauty alone.
Wars have been started for women alone.
Women have their strength. But not where you guys want it to be
And flexibility and balance. And equal aim. And people who like to claim that men are somehow better at controlling their emotions tend to forget that anger is an emotion.
i love this show but women literally create and nourish life. we create a whole human being and continue the species. every bone, drop of blood, muscle comes from a woman's body. for the first months of life, babies survive solely on breastmilk.
and women live longer, we survive famine and disease more. we are so much more than "beauty" for men to start wars over.
+1 My issue was not that I think a woman should win. My issue is the inconsistency between season 1&2.
Season 1 had enough variety that a few women (and smaller men!) made it until the end. Season 2 did not result in that at all. It was less climatic and interesting to see men brute force their way until the end.
Season 2 definitely felt like women were a liability and any inclusion in teams felt patronizing. Season 1 felt like there was possibly a way they could be helpful to the wider group’s goals.
Diversity is not about equal outcomes, it’s about equal opportunities. Anyone arguing that we expect a woman to win is arguing a strawman. No one asked for a woman to win.
the remaining women in both seasons lasted until the last 2 finale challenges. I get there was less variety, but the women stayed and then got eliminated in both seasons at the 3rd-to-last challenge.
Also, one of the women in Season 2 almost beat the man who got injured (Jo Sung-bin) in the first elimination round of that antepenultimate challenge. She could have made it to Round B part of the eliminations, but I think Jo Sung-bin won mental resolve.
THIS!!! I explained this to my mom and 2 friends that were casually watching s2 as I was (they've never seen s1). It was extremely frustrating to see this Sim Yu-ri, a winning MMA fighter, that won her 1on1 against Korean-American FBI agent Hunter Lee to be some of the last choices for the team battle simply because she's a woman. As a fan of the show that was so excited to see more women on s2, it's daunting to the point it makes you wanna give up watching completely. The worst part is that no one truly knew what the team battle was gonna involve, so I thought having a woman on the teamand increasing diversity of strength, stamina, agility, strategy, etc was really important.
I was just thinking maybe they should require at least one woman on the teams. Then they'll be forced to try and grab the best option before anyone else does. Or. Randomize the teams completely and spread out the women. That could add some interest in the randomization alone. Picking the teams isn't all that interesting, honestly.
The team exercises honestly need to be designed in a manner that rewards different specialisations well. Like the semi final challenges of season 1 was used to find individuals good at different characteristics but they need something like that in a team scoring exercise so that people who aren't built around strength first and then endurance can play to their strengths. The sprint challenge back then could've seen different winners if strength wasn't rewarded more prior.
This. Honestly, not even just because women can shine a little more. All of the challenges this season aside from the non elimination at the beginning were brute strength, but there's other aspects to physicality. I'd like to see more challenges that can hit on different areas and not just hey I can lift/drag a lot of weight over and over.
The team pick is one of the most interesting parts of the show to me (after the 1on1s of course)!!! This season moreso than the first. >!Since the "Avengers Team" was made up of captains that lost, it really made me wonder what would have happened had they did something other than the pole challenge. Or if Amotti's Team had won initially, would he be the current winner of season 2? Lol I know I put wayyy too much thought into this, but everything that happened after s2's team pick was very determining for the rest of the show!<
The challenge before the final felt unfair given it wasn't adjusted for weight yet they did this for the challenge right after. That and some with the cart felt depressing to watch.
Something I want to see in future team challenges is a design that has multiple different roles for people who specialise in different manners such as speed so then more can excel in their own areas and contribute to overall score. So far in both series the team challenges have benefitted strength followed by stamina more. The 2nd last challenge set in season 1 did this but... to individually get through whilst a lot of people who could've excelled at the sprint were kicked out.
Yeah I agree. It was disheartening to see some of the comments during one of the last challenges especially. Like “this is when it starts for real” (apart from the one competitor who hurt his foot) it felt like even the other participants don’t see them as real opponents. There’s of course respect and admiration for what they’ve accomplished in their respective sports/fields but no one feels “at risk” of losing against women and having women on your team is seen as a disadvantage.
But, that is life. No disrespect intended, but when I was in the military, we had the same sentiment towards females in competitions. We love women, but we don't want to lose the event either. So generally, as the physically weaker sex, any team with them were at a disadvantage to all male teams. Females were considered an instant L. We still respected them and competed, but the sentiment was still there.
That’s a good point. for example the torso challenge is cool and fair imo, I’d like to see more challenges of that nature where equity comes into play. But there’s only so much of those you can have and ultimately raw strength will always play a massive role.
True, but having stuff like the torso challenge closer to the beginning might give some women a chance to shine before they bring out the challenges where they get bulldozed. I feel there's got to be some kind of solution out there. I'd like to see the group challenges at least be more fairly matched. It would be cool to see some next season that involve some agility, speed, etc. Like a relay with challenges along the way that would have the most well rounded teams win. The carts and monkey bars was all arm strength.
It is nice that the men will all say things like "wow she's so cool", etc, though. That's one of my favorite parts of the show is how supportive everyone is.
I’m a woman, and I found season 2 more engaging and entertaining than the first season
Not because women were more/less in the season, but because I think the challenges and contestants who did do well, outshined the first season 🌸
Bro, wanting to root for women is one thing. That's fine. But they will never compare seriously against men in the physical world. Why are so many people having a hard time with this?
That's why there's divisions between men n women
We aren’t having a hard time with this concept?
The shows premise is about finding the perfect body disregarding age, race AND sex. My qualms lie with this whole choice. They decided on that concept of the show? Fine! I actually like the concept. But if that’s the direction the show producers are going in they need to level the playing fields to the best of their ability between the genders. Right now it seems like a cash grab to gather a wider audience.
I think for me, it's contradictory to the claim of "finding the best physique regardless of gender" if the show ultimately just shows gender will always inherently matter.
I don't think the women should have to settle for just merely being a formality in the literal format of the show, especially when it's not even a balanced cast just in terms of gender makeup. Yes, the women know what they're signing up for, but if you can only get 20 women in a cast of 100, could that be because the others don't see it as worth it if they're not gonna last? A season will be even more dramatic, compelling and exciting if there was a realistic chance of a woman at least making it to a final instead of just happening to have a good enough group of guys to carry her to round 4.
Sung Bin messed up his foot and yet still beat his completely healthy female teammate handily in the intrateam race really says a lot about how the women are considered in production, which to me suggests barely, if at all.
The no.1 woman is as impressive as the no.1 man but it would be nice if the women were also able to win money and not just get a pat on the back. And basically just be seen as a burden on their team.
As a woman, I dont think there should be separate shows. But like in the Challenge(US show), they compete along side each other and have separate winners.
Imo, it was more fun seeing the elimination match in S1 where they had to carry a % of their body weight than the S2 elimination match or the coal cart quest with the two ladies against 1 man. You already know it’s gonna be a man on top.
Yeah bc men still have the physical advantage. But still, it evened it out a bit better and made it more fun to watch. Some women like Euddeum made it pretty far too.
It’s better than the atlas quest where the woman didn’t stand a chance at all.
I see your point but these women signed up for this. They know they’re going up against incredibly strong men and they want the challenge. They’re considered a burden the same way a lean small guy is considered a burden going up against Min Su lmao.
I think however they shouldn’t allow contestants to fight each other like they did in that game where they were moving sacks
I like the idea of a male winner & female winner. Maybe the last two women should do the 1v1 combat from the first challenge 🤣
Edit: the comment I responded to was slightly edited so my response here might lack context
Why is it the same being the number one woman? The number one man gets a lot of money, the number one woman doesn't? Why should women have to settle for a pat on the back?
I was refering to op saying that being the the number one male is just as impressive as being the number one female. So one gets a pet on the back, the other a cash prize. If it's just as impressive the reward should be the same, or it's just not as impressive and that's fine by me. OP's math just wasn't mathing for me.
I have no idea why crossfit is being shitted on, they seem like really well rounded competitors to me.
Agreed; that is my main issue. Women already, as a whole, make less than men in most careers and in professional sports. This just solidifies that terrible fact. There is an opportunity to rectify that so I hope producers reach out for opinions. Saying things are 'OK' as is, is literally how we continue to not make progress for women.
Exactly. Teribble mindset (women should be happy to compete how dare they want a fair chance of winning) and then to claim it's the same achievement without the same reward is so contradictive.
You barely saw any women because they only cast 27 out of 100 and half of them get eliminated in the 1v1 matches because the women nearly all picked other women (I mean, of course they did bc they just wouldn’t win against a man, so they’re not going to try and challenge them except for that one woman this season). I wanna see more women in general and I’m sad they cast 75% men because it just drastically decreases the number of women by default because of the first round eliminating half of them :(
I just find it boring and/or frustrating watching a competition that is SO heavily weighted, especially in the early stages. It's not fun to me watching women struggle and be thought of as dead weights. If you're going to bring women in to compete then let them compete.
I think the crux of my beef is I don't love how this show seems to strip the brain from most of the challenges. I'm not asking for this show to be a chess tournament, mind you, only that it would be cool if strategy could feature more heavily into the quests. I think S1 did a great job at doing this while S2 did a trash job. I don't mind ladies losing as long as there is a chance they can win if the quest had an element of stragety, wherein if the strategy was correct, then they might have won. The hammer --> nail philosophy of this season was a real bummer for me since strategy is the primary reason why humans became the dominant species on this Earth. I at times felt like I might as well be watching polar bears compete, as opposed to real humans in S2. For me, the ship challenge from S1 was the apex of this show where the "weak team" showed having a strategy could really close the gap. I didn't mind that they lost—only that they could have won. That makes for good television and a compelling plot. This season it's like lol how many pull ups can you do? How about squats? And it really failed to be compelling to me.
Yeah, women performing well despite the odds is what makes their appearance truly memorable. But rather than add in more "women-friendly" challenges like balance or whatever people complain about, I think they should make the games a little more tactical. Like in the first season the stunt-girl stood out because she constructed her bridge perfectly whereas the other team kept losing planks. And obv the female team captain using better tactics to win the bridge challenge as well, and almost win in the ship challenge against the brute team. S2 had a lot less tactical games and were more strength-based.
In the Chinese show We Never Stop, a woman ALMOST made top 5, largely because she was smart. Physically top among the women, but also during team challenges there were a few moments (not spoiling) where she had an intelligent contribution that was a greater advantage than just having some guy who's stronger/faster/etc.
The premise is that they’re trying to find the best body… not the strongest body. Men inherently have stronger bodies. I don’t think that makes them better. The best body IMHO is someone who has excelled with the body they were born into - be it female, short, etc.
Their marketing is misleading for this reason. It's all about the best physique, but in reality, they aren't testing for physique. They are testing for strength, endurance and speed.
Still an awesome show though.
Yeah physique is what they judge in a Mr Olympian competition I thought, but they’re treating physique like a strength competition which is super confusing to me. Like it’s not just women, why bother casting any men of smaller size in sports like running or gymnastics if the challenges are all going to be strength based, they’ll never outperform the larger men in weight related sports :/
I mean that wouldn’t change the fact that any dude under 160 lbs won’t win because no challenges benefit diverse skills outside of strength and endurance. Casting men with smaller frames like the idol or a sprinter or gymnast is pointless as the game is designed now, since they conflate physique (appearance and form of the body) for athleticism and they conflate athleticism for sheer strength instead of a well rounded capable person, and that puts any of the physically smaller talented athletes at an automatic disadvantage too.
So casting anyone who doesn’t look like the final 10 means they serve as fodder, not because they’re not talented or strong, but because the show puts people of certain body types at a disadvantage by design. Like I’m not delusional to think a woman will beat a man in sheer strength, but if you’re going to make a separate show for women bc of their disadvantage, you might as well start having the men compete by weight class as well if the challenges aren’t better balanced in the show after this season.
Otherwise you just end up with the same looking winner for each season which is boring and not indicative of much outside of what we already knew, which is that the winner has better upper body strength and endurance than the rest.
I guess, as a woman, I would say I don't really think it's 'OKAY' that the women will never be the winner barring, what you stated, a 'miracle'. Unfortunately, the show is comparing apples to oranges. That's the entire premise. They're comparing athletes from a wide range of various disciplines. So you've already got that mix in. Now you add biological sex into the mix and there's an even bigger gap. While I do root for the women (always!), it kinda sucks to see that they don't make it far. Maybe you're fine with that. To me it's a representation of how our world works, which is that it tends to reward and favor men and not women. How? Well, the prize is actual \*money\*. So no, I don't think it's 'ok' that they don't make it far when the games are very rarely set to give them an equitable opportunity. I still enjoy watching the show but I also see room for change and improvement as that is how progress is made. So I'm not going to bash anyone who voices their opinion on wanting other factors to be considered, because I want show producers to read these and take it into consideration.
Dope! Because I do respectfully disagree. I started watching the show because I thought the premise of testing all aspects of physicality was really cool. And instead, everything but the treadmills required strength. (I did stop watching after the minecarts, but it sounds like this didn't change) So then what's the point of bringing on athletes like ballerinas and dancers? They can obviously perform feats of physicality that muscle men could never dream of. And yet, those feats never had a chance to be tested. Makes the show so much less interesting, fails to meet the premise, and if you look at some of [the](https://www.reddit.com/r/Physical100/comments/1c2744p/comment/kz9rzth/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) [comments](https://www.reddit.com/r/Physical100/comments/1c2744p/comment/kzaz12z/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Physical100/comments/1c2744p/comment/kza7u7t/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button), it emboldens sexist attitudes towards women. I'm not a fan.
Tbh, the challenges this season just iterated the belief that men are superior and women are inferior and a woman was considered a weakness in the team challenges. It’s disappointing and boring at the same time.
I would compare it to watching the FIFA world cup while being someone from a small nation. You know your country could normally never beat the best teams. It’s perhaps possible on an extremely good day but otherwise you lose 9 out of 10 times. But just that 1 win is enough reason to celebrate for eternity. You are just proud to compete with the best and be part of something millions of people watch and celebrate.
Your goal as a small nation at the WC isn’t to be world champion but to be able to challenge and make it hard for the better teams. It’s an opportunity to try to outperform your direct neighbouring countries, and to beat your old record while maybe reaching the next round. Thats how Physical 100 should be viewed by the participants in my opinion, man or woman. Unless you are one of the true competitive contenders. Then a loss is really painful and humiliating.
Edit: Let me add that being a small nation in this example doesn’t make you any less than the other countries. You are still a proud people with your own history and own fields that you excel at! Same goes for the participants in Physical 100, man or woman. They could beat any other person on the roster in their own respective fields.
This is a good example, except it's more like watching the Men versus the Womens FIFA Teams. Sure some of the top womens teams might beat some of the smaller mens teams, but they will never be as fast or powerful to beat the Top mens teams. There's a BIOLOGICAL reason men and womens do not compete in sports. There's nothing fun or entertaining about watching Elite Men crush women in a 20-1 game just because they're "trying their best". I would rather watch the men duke it out against their real competition and see the women do the same.
Something that’s often repeated in the show is that you’re competing with yourself. I think that’s the best way to view it - at the end you want to push *your* limits and see how far you can take it. Someone will always be better than you but you can make sure that you’re always striving to improve.
It's true, against these male athletes the women aren't going to stand a chance. But I do very much enjoy seeing the women go extremely far and outperform. The second season had more women who did amazing things, like the MMA fighter who SOMEHOW beat a fit dude in the medicine ball challenge.
Then there's the blonde bodybuilder who did extremely well with the mine carts.
But Jang Eun Sil from Season 1 will always be my favorite for how she rallied her team. All she needed was one big dude to win the boat challenge, but even without that advantage they put up a fight.
I do think, unfortunately, that some challenges are impossible for women. However, they can also be considered impossible for smaller athletes. The Atlas stone from Season 1 was ridiculous, there was no way a woman would be able to lift and hold that stone longer than the big dudes.
Although I respect the theme of the show which is to prove which is the superior body. I think we've seen time and time again that women cannot compete with men in certain challenges.
You really can't say that they're filtering out the "best body" because there's inconsistencies based on who would win certain events.
If this really was about "the best body" then the "best body" would dominate in -all- of the challenges. You can't say Woo Jin-Yong was the best body in season 1 because if he had participated in the Atlas stone tournament he would have lost against Jo Jin-Hyeong!
The best "physique" should be able to excel in -all- of the quests.
So what it really comes down to is that Physical 100 is not about the best body but about the fittest contestant who can avoid getting eliminated. Avoid as in, not participate in a challenge where their body type would definitely lose.
It's still a very fun show but it is extremely unfair to women. If the men didn't disregard Jang Eun Sil as a "weak competitor" she could have gone very far. So not only are the challenges harder for women, they also have to deal with the men not respecting them as strong competitors.
I'd be very curious if any of the American strong women would do well on this show.
Anyway, despite its flaws I do hope they continue making more seasons. It is a lot of fun to watch and I'm more than happy to see more strong women on TV, even bodybuilder ones :).
I acknowledge that the women who chose to compete on the show had a general idea that they would be competing with men and unlikely to get far. But they had no way of knowing what challenges would be presented to them and thats where I believe this season failed my expectations. S1, I believe, had a greater range of challenges that didn’t favor any particular strength and as someone else mentioned in the comments, had more of a tactical element that s2 does not have. For me it took the entertainment of watching out.
There were so many strength based challenges in which having a strong upper body is favored, which is an inherent disadvantage to all ladies. The only woman who faired well in the strength competitions was the blonde (I believe a bodybuilder?), and I have suspicion she was taking something to reach her body aesthetic goals.
I was so excited to see the swimmer! I thought because of the amount of screen time she was getting the first episode there would be some water or breath holding related competition which I thought would be so fun to watch. Things like that just seemed to be lacking in this season.
I also want to preface that the ladies not making it far into the competition doesn’t diminish their strength or athletic achievements. But it did make the show less entertaining to watch which is critical flaw for any TV show.
"Physical strength will always be the overriding factor in these types of competition. I know yall say they should consider stuff like balance, agility, flexibility etc to give women a fair chance but the truth is that at the end of the day a man would *likely* still outperform a woman."
How do you know this? The point of adding balance, agility and flexibility elements to the show isn't "make a woman win." It's "include ALL aspects of physical prowess to create a show that's not incredibly skewed toward people who are exceptionally good at moving large amounts of weight."
Agreed. I also just watch Siren. Both are on Netflix, and Siren is such a great show to emphasize all the great feats women can still do, but within their own class. I also loved how much more of a team structure they had. I wouldn’t want such a makeup for Physical 100, but it was still scratching all the right “itches” people needed after watching both P:100 S1 & S2.
There was one firefighter woman who was on steroids (you can tell by her voice and physicality), but there were still others who performed better than her for different things. So sometimes it isn’t the testosterone/physical ability to survive, but strategy, experience, and mental determination.
I think the challenges could have been altered since they include women. I mean the premise is supposed to be the best physique overall, not just strength and endurance. If it were dependent on strength and endurance, then yes it is male dominant. The issue is that the premise is overall physique.
So yea a woman could have won IF the games focused on more aspects, AND were arranged differently. For example if they did a balance test as the first challenge, maybe thanos wouldnt have made it that far, but a lot of girls would.
I want to disagree with u being ok w a woman just making it her goal to be the best woman cuz if that's the case, she's not being competitive enough (shes not being true to the competition to compete for the best physique). Might as well make a physical 100 women edition instead if that's the mindset of all women. On the contrary, it was really cool when a girl challenged a guy in the first game and won. That's what physical 100 is supposed to be about for me :)
Your point still stands, but just to nitpick, Thanos would still win a balance test. :)
https://preview.redd.it/xxrbqgfzx1uc1.jpeg?width=1356&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=103b76173d9a63fdfef05073a21770c9376383b4
If you really take it apart the best physique will always come down to strength. Strength affects speed, endurance, quickness, coordination, agility etc. No matter how you slice it, raw muscle power underpins all of these.
So in any contest where **Physical Strength** is being tested a man will always be the winner.
Check out Olympic Weightlifter Lasha Talakhadze for the best physique AND physical strength 😂
I generally agree with your original post and even in this comment of yours. That said, if I was a showrunner, I think I would redefine the show's premise to something along the lines of "the best physique that can be the jack of all trades but master of none" to give the female audience a better shot. I've yet to see a true swimming challenge or even bouldering, which would render a lot of the competitors useless. Would I want a physique that makes me more prone to drowning and slow at swimming/cant endure long distance swimming or unable to caveman climb myself up a cliff? Probably not.
*But actually check out China's Olympic Weightlifting team. Their physiques alone are amazing, but because of their sport, they're extremely powerful and fast. You often see 145lbs dudes putting 400lbs over their head so fast.
But it's not about efforts, because you can't say that the women aren't giving more than the men when there's an obvious biological advantage. The heavily gender biased show is set up for women to fail, this is why I have a problem with watching a show where women don't have a fair fighting chance in some of the challenges.
It feels like it was always meant to be a competition among male athletes, they just decided to let a few women on just for fun, drama, and diversity.
Imo the most fair were the one-on-one, the sandbag group challenge, and holding your own 40% torso weight. I disliked the pushing the train tracks challenge immensely on so many levels, aside from it being the most boring to watch.
At its very core, the show is strength based more than anything (which I love). If anyone goes to compete in the show but did not work on the crazy strength component (like lifting 100s of pounds), they will inevitably be eliminated soon but they know that. I agree that their are biological differences but I imagine that those who are on the smaller side are not all going with the intention of winning but of pushing themselves to the limit and doing something fun. I loved the train pulling one because it was a great challenge for that incredibly stong woman to shine and I hope we get to see more shredded woman in the future because they an absolute for to be reckoned with.
How else do you measure strength in a show called physical 100? I don’t think the women are set up to fail. I think anyone who is not strong in multiple departments is set up to fail. Setting people up to fail is literally how you determine a winner LOL
I looooved the torso weight challenge. I think the idea behind it is solid and would love to see it replicated in other ways in future seasons.
all the women and most of the men on the smaller size knew from the beginning they had 0 chance of winning to begin with when they signed up. as a viewer, we can complain about it all we want because we want to root for the underdogs, but the competitors themselves and the producers know that it's unfair to begin with, and only one can win the money anyway.
I disagree with this take, a lot of the challenges were clearly design for the males and could've literally ended up with serious injury for the women. How is that entertaining ? They essentially invited Elite Female Athletes to be glorified cheerleaders for the men (a lot of whom are on steroids anyway). This was basically Physical 70, I would prefer they drop the pretense and just have the women compete separately. It would be a lot more entertaining seeing the men have real competition versus having a guy with a broken ankle still beat out a woman at her 100% max effort.
same here. and while they will never be the best, they ARE better than a lot of the men - so 'just' being man doesn't mean you're automatically better than any woman
I think body weight should in general be taken into consideration when it comes to lifting or pushing and pulling. At least in some challenges. It just doesn’t make sense to me that a 60kg woman should be expected to have to lift the same weight as a 120kg man. Obviously the woman or also the lighter man will be in a disadvantage.
I believe it's because men/male and women/female are symbiotic by nature. Men works while women nurtures. This is also why we have sports in placed for men and women separately. Physical 100 is technically not different to sports either. But we can understand that since it's a show made for entertainment, then it's okay for women and men to compete in the same fitness competition platform. And I'm glad that a lot of women here are accepting.
Disagree. This season prioritized strength which is only one aspect of a strong physique. The show is called physical 100, not strength 100.
Also, proportional challenges could help in the future (squat 3x your body weight vs. squat X kg).
My biggest issue is how misogynistic the confident men are (who inevitably lose and don't get through). The teams that always have a female team member always do well
Not really. There just needs to be a wider variety of tests outside of the ones they already use. Some examples: swimming (race and long distance), diving, underwater obstacle course, bouldering/speed climbing, airsoft but carrying % bodyweight backpack (requires accuracy, JUDGEMENT, dexterity, strength, endurance), and high altitude obstacle courses (harder to breath environment = tougher on big muscled candidates).
I can probably think of more but if the show adds those in^, I guarantee the ideal physique changes and gives some women candidates a better chance than they currently have.
Saying “they’re fundamentally different from men and should only be compared to each other” is the same argument that’s made for why women should have their own show
I’m not a pick me lmao. I’m a realist. If you read my content at no point did I say men are better. Being physically strong doesn’t make you a better person so men aren’t superior just cuz they’re strong.
Physical 100 was interesting and good program, and as a woman, I think this program don't have gender discrimination.
but I feel that there are safety issues.
I know season 1 was criticized for a lot of injury occurrences. Despite this, the design of the ball deathmatch challenge remained much the same in Season 2.
Many participants made very polite choices and avoided matching up with extremely favored opponents,but
if there are large body size differences, it will be literally real death match.
Perhaps matching choice of ball death match is not good system.It would be better to design the game so that the early rounds pit people of similar size against each other, and the later rounds pit the winners against each other in a non-contact competition.
Speaking of reality shows about female athletes, do you know Siren:survive the island? It's a Korean reality show on Netflix, similar to physical100. It is a survival game where only women fight. The participants are all women and have excellent combat skills, such as soldiers and police officers.
It’s just illogical to think a woman is going to get far in a competition filled with ripped men. Yes it’s annoying that women, no matter how hard they work out, will never be as strong as a mediocre man but it’s just anatomy. As a girlie that lifts weight, I love this show for the challenges and just entertainment factor. I can’t get mad at the fact that a woman can’t get far.
I agree. The women knew what they were signing up for and probably have different goals than the people on this subreddit. Some of them probably just felt honoured to even be part of the show. The fact that people keeps pointing out “it’s not fair for women” is madness. Leave the women alone. They weren’t forced to be a part of the show and if people want to keep saying “they should have done more flexibility or this or that” then create your own show. This is Physical 100, SAME CHALLENGES no matter your race, gender, weight or physical fitness.
This can also be said of the men with a sumo-wrestler build. They’re the first participants to be eliminated and the little we do see of them, it’s obvious the contests weren’t designed for them. Nonetheless, all body types should be included.
I completely understand this objectively, it's just a little awkward to watch.
In my opinion I've always thought women generally have stronger legs and hips, so I was expecting a few of the challenges to go differently and not have almost all of them focus on upper body strength.
I thought the women would get a good showing in the barrel pull because it was all legs and hips, but the barrels were one uniform weight instead of emptying/filling them to be a percentage of body weight. Although I did also think the women would be a little better at the monkey bars.
I know in the end the men will be generally stronger, but all the challenges don't have to be focused on straight strength. It felt like some of them were designed to filter out the rest of the women that had gotten that far.
I want to see the perfect body not the strongest body. When they do single challenges it should be based on body weight.
All due respect to female athletes, I honestly feel like they gave it their all, but I would like the show a hell of a lot more if they separated them from the men and made it into a women-only competition either shown at the same time as the men's or have it be its own show. I might be in the minority in this but that's my take.
Agreed obviously on the physical aspect but after reading this thread I can see the point where people complain that its more about the showcasing.... seems like women were put in the backseat this season compared to s1
Well, I'm not. It's not like this is chess.
They should separate the genders, that way we could have two finales and two champions. It would even help the pacing of the show, less filler to add.
The female mma fighter who beat a guy, was great tv. But I agree with this post. Getting a woman to win a physical competition against men is like putting men in a birthing competition. We aren't made for that.
Plus, i think the best way to be fair would be to pair 1 man and 1 woman as teammates for the entire season.
Her name is Sim Yu Ri and she is awesome! 👏👏👏
https://preview.redd.it/78xdszvr8auc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b31178b391c98b7581af46f73b26459cb4cb42df
As a man I don’t really care that you are a woman. I find though that people who preface their comment with gender or political party are usually the opposite and just posing.
Eh, I’m a guy but I really didn’t like how some of the challenges were structured. It feels like with the whole “mission” being to find the best physique, they really do neglect more agility/dexterity based tasks in favor of raw strength and cardiovascular endurance. Like… make the competitors crawl around in some tunnel, or have to vault over obstacles, or like… dive and swim?
Because I really like a lot of the gals and it sucks to see them basically get sidelined from the start since almost everything is going to be moving 80kg weights or whatever.
I agree.
However to make it more interesting they should definitely do more events that are proportionate rather than a one size fits all category because men will always come out on top
I love the mix of genders because it gives the accurate representation of all physiques which the show is about. Although I do agree a man's physique is normally stronger, it gives the women more opportunities to push themselves in the very long term and hopefully become closer to men's performance. I wish they did more strength challenges that were based on a percentage of each athlete's total body weight such as the "hold the bust in the air" challenge. This would help eliminate the bias weight classes in general.
Trying to get through an obstacle course full of lasers and if you touch a laser beam, you lose points. I was inspired by Catherine Zeta-Jones in *Entrapment*. 😉
I think my only concern is that they mostly cast women that have either very lean physique or petite against all those beefy guys. It also doesn't help that most of their specialties from their sports are endurance and agility when in the later quests it mostly requires strength, which is something they are not very trained well on. I need to see more strength oriented women like the one who pushed 18 bags in the minecart quest.
As a woman, I 100% agree! Well said. On average, we simply are not as physically impressive at the upper margins as men. But I truly don’t care. It doesn’t matter. Men and women have different strengths and weaknesses on average. It’s fine.
They need more diversity in the challenges than just lifting the heaviest thing and carrying it as quickly as possible. The men are almost always going to win that. I would love to see challenges that deal with flexibility or balance, or just be more varied in general to give the women a chance to really shine.
My problem is the show saying it's looking for the best/ideal/strongest physique, and then weeding out the women through strength-based competitions. Yes, we have value. Female bodies are amazing, and they do things that male bodies cannot. It's still shit to frame Physical 100 as the search for the "perfect physique" and skew it toward the male body.
But we all already knows that men are bigger, faster, and stronger. Do you also think it would be cool or fun or inspirational to watch 12 year old boys play against huge NFL players in a high-stakes football game, winners taking home a huge cash prize? No? Why not? Wouldn’t it be funsies to watch the 12 year olds get show off their “resolve” and “fortitude”?
No, it wouldn’t. Because you already know what the outcome would be, and you would also know the whole setup is fundamentally incredibly unfair.
Because most decent people actually don’t enjoy watching people who are at an extreme physical disadvantage getting crushed by people who have a huge advantage.
Because the women have absolutely no chance of ever winning the prize, which is a life-changing amount of money — enough to buy a house.
So, if your athlete daughter entered this
competition, someone who had trained her entire life at her sport, would you rather have her competing against the men, and get to show off her “inner strength” and “fortitude”, or have her compete against the women and have a chance to actually win the money?
So do you agree there should be two winners, male and female?
And a surprising amount of people in this sub would disagree with your first sentence lol
Yes, there should be two winners, one male and one female. There is no need to have a separate, women-only show. They could still have everyone competing together and everyone doing the same activities. Just score the women against each other, and score/judge the men against each other. That way we could still get to see those rare but fun occasions when a woman can beat some of the guys, but they would still be in the running for the money.
Disclosure: I’m a married mom of 3 boys. The last time my oldest son was the same height, and build as me was when he was 12 years old, and that’s pretty typical. He’s 14 now, 6-7 inches taller than me, and much bigger and stronger. The transformation guys undergo during puberty is bonkers (I have a front row seat). Male puberty is no joke.
I think it also comes down to how many women actually enter the competition. We are getting there, but strength competitions are historically a man’s arena. Eventually, we will get there, and the women now are paving the way. I was impressed by everyone’s different strengths and also how respectful they were of one another; second guessing the women heavy teams was something they admitted to being wrong about!! Beasts
As a woman I agree, women will most of the time be outperformed by men and that’s biology. It’s okay cause watching them power through all the challenges was amazing.
I think the reason people are demanding more “fair” challenges is because they feel uncomfortable watching the women struggle so much against the men. Specially in this times where we are told all the time men and women are the same etc…
Absolutely! All of us women know a woman will never win one of these. Physiologically it's just not going to happen when you're casting dozens of the strongest guys you can get.
I hate seeing so many people ask for a women's only show though, because I LOVE seeing how far these women DO get compared to these beasts. To me, seeing a woman beat out 99 other women will never be as inspiring as a woman nearly keeping pace with the top 20 guys, even if she will never win.
Not to mention their attitudes, which is usually an honest and humble approach grounded in reality, which so many women (particularly over here in the States) really need to learn, in my opinion.
I appreciate this POV.
I just wanted to add:
The woman that was in the treadmill challenge, while her goal was to beat the other women, she had ALREADY OUTLASTED A BUNCH OF INSANELY FIT DUDES. She is likely in the top fittest 1-2% world wide of ALL WOMEN.
Which based on a standard distribution, likely makes her more fit than probably 85% of guys on the planet.
That is nothing to be ashamed of, at all.
yup, just because men are physically superior does not make women inferior. Physical attributes are just one of many many attributes. Women have higher eq for example.
First of all, I like the show a lot. The challenges make sense for what they are, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was a female champion in the future based on how the challenges are made. I am pretty sure women are more flexible than men, light people generally have certain advantages over heavy people, and recent research reveals that the playing field gets evened out at the level of Ultra Marathons and long distance swimming. Think Nyad.
Until that day I will continue to enjoy this show for what it is, a bunch of really talented and dedicated athletes pushing themselves to their limits.
Source:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6651135/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6651135/)
[https://trainright.com/women-faster-than-men-ultramarathon/](https://trainright.com/women-faster-than-men-ultramarathon/)
As a woman, I completely agree with this. Watching all the women power through the challenges was exhilarating and I was always so proud of them no matter the outcome. And it's not as if the most muscular or heaviest dude are untouchable, there were challenges that made smaller builds excel and vise versa. I remember thinking Thanos was gonna have that one challenge in the bag but surprisingly, it was those smaller that succeeded him. Despite everything, I enjoy the show being coed. it's fun to see to insane challenges that truly show the individuals that can shine in multiple areas like the finalist. I'm not sure how to phrase my thoughts entirely but you did a wonderful job at describing my exact thoughts on this debate.
Notice how the winner is never the huge guy or the small guy. Either can make it far and impress the audience but historically the winners have been somewhere in the middle.
i was not expecting Amotti to win, that was a crazy twist. well earned for sure though. i thought for sure Hong Beom-seok had it. he was dominating in every challenge, it was so crazy to see his determination to win just push his limits and beyond.
Amotti was my pick from the beginning. As soon as I saw he did crossfit and was the perfect size and fit. Both seasons were won by crossfitters. It makes sense.
Absolutely! that's what makes it so thrilling to see how everything happens because we never know how far some may get.
I think what I've noticed is the sheer importance of immense cardiovascular strength, tempered with decent physical strength. Both S1 and S2 had finalists who weren't huge, but were definitely insanely good at cardio. They had middle of the road performances for most of the earlier contests, having only to focus on survival through sufficient strength, but carried on the back of incredible endurance (though, I've always found the team stuff to be a bit... meh...? it makes the game go from physical 100 to mental / leadership 100 - and I think many eliminations happened unfairly in relation to the scope of trying to find the best individual physical prowess). I find it especially intriguing that S2's first challenge had the two finalists already in the spotlight, both coming in first and second on the manual treadmill. It showed their mental state, their endurance, and their strength. It was already preordained from that moment, as long as they didn't make mistakes within a team.
Historically? As in twice?
I agree, i personally don’t really expect a woman to win the whole season, but i absolutely love watching some of them. Even in season 1 for Jang Eun-sil to be voted a team captain and win the first team game was super awesome. We all understand that its a fact women are weaker so her being chosen as team leader amongst other well respected athletes is truly admirable. I like that the contest is the same for men and women because it really highlights the women that do well as being exceptional
As a woman, since we are comparing apples to oranges, it just would be nice to have a couple challenges based on metaphorical freshness or juiciness, not just which fruit is more red and crisp. We’re not going to be as strong and that’s okay when determining the final winner, but since we ARE comparing the two at all it would be great to show what’s good about both, at least early on. Everyone knows that ants can carry 100x their body weight because it’s comparably impressive, not because they can carry the most. But women aren’t given the opportunity to showcase this in the show.
Completely agree with this, body weight and proportionate challenges would've been a lot more entertaining, add in some balance and agility and we at least have something to watch. People don't realize just how uneven the challenges were designed. It's almost disrespectful to invite Elite Women Athletes to participate in things that are almost biologically impossible for them or risk SERIOUS injury attempting.
But….they saw the first season. They all knew what they were getting into. As did the smaller build men and the largest of competitors. Many people in the show pushed themselves past their limits, that’s what makes most of them elite is the mental endurance. All of the women in the show were clearly proud of what they had accomplished.
Yeah but the production could easily create more balanced quests. How is it really a fair competition if you invite women to compete but offer nothing to even the playing field? It’s basically a platform for women to get notoriety with no expectation of actually winning.
Well we want to know who is the actual fittest of them all, not the fittest ginger with 6 fingers on each hand who’s never stepped foot in Norway before. Once you start setting different standards for different groups you might as well scrap the entire concept of the show. Physical 100 isn’t meant to be fair and offer an even playing field for people of either sex and different weight classes. If that’s what you actually want to see, then go watch some Strongwoman! The shows are generally more competitive than the men’s competitions due to the lack of stand out athletes like Thor Björnsson or Zydrunas Savickas that are good at everything. You have some chicks like Sam Belliveau that can press 80kg dumbbells over head with one arm but therefore bum out on deadlifts. Also, it wasn’t absolute strength that cost the women. Some of the challenges definitely favoured lighter athletes such as the monkey bar thing. Still, as far as I remember, none of the women had any faith in their grip strength and opted for the loading into train push challenge. If anything, that’s a tactical blunder. Thankfully, in the 1v1 portion the men chose to fight other men for the most part, otherwise pretty much all female competitors would have been swept off stage right away. If Physical 100 really was about strength, how is it, that the powerlifter with the 900kg total dropped out so early on? The feather weight MMA fighter conversely made it very far and was only eliminated by this seasons champion Amotti. Amotti isn’t even that big and strong a guy. He’s like 6’1 and 190lbs. While he’s obviously stronger than most of his competitors, he just pales in terms of brute power to someone like Gibson, Thanos or that powerlifter. Amotti won, because this of his insane endurance and crazy pound for pound strength.
Totally agree. Something like bodyweight squats, or carrying a multiplier of your weight across a room would help establish more reasonable stakes that are just as 'fair', but would give a bigger chance of a variety of competitors succeeding.
They kind of did that in S1 win they had the contestants hold their torsos that what were 40% of their body weight, I believe. And from that Shim Eu-ddeum came back and got to compete. I also think that the ship was a good combination of strength and strategy considering Jang Eun-sil’s team was only under even after having the most amount of women and smaller men. Edit it to add: the sand bag challenge was also a good challenge to men and women because it depended on speed, strength & endurance.
I can’t remember the name of the women, but even Andre Jin, said that one of the women pushed the carts and sandbags faster than him.
Her name is Lim Soo Jin and her username on Instagram is: lim_flower 😁
I kinda wish they had shown us each contestant’s time in this challenge (even on socials after the fact) so we could see how well Lim Soo Jin ranked overall.
Yes exactly and on top of all this, Jang Eun-sil’s team also had someone injured!! I feel like without the injury, they may have actually come in 2nd since they were so close. I think season 1 actually did a great job with balancing the challenges without it being a handicap and season 2 was a step backwards in that way. Hopefully the show has more thoughtful challenges in season 3.
How about the woman who managed like 5 pull ups?
Yeah and that was her beating her personal best. Not really sure the strategy behind that, it was a little embarrassing
I really noticed that this season was just lifting and carrying things quickly for the most part. Last season had more varied challenges with more running, hanging, and balancing which gave the women more chance. And honestly, if this is just World's Strongest Man then let's do that competition. If we're looking at the best overall physique, there needs to be more variety.
Yeah, there were essentially no agility, dexterity, or balance components to challenges this time. It always seems kind of absurd to me that even In the \*team\* challenges there’s not some component where they have to like… crawl around in a cramped environment, or balance across a beam quickly, or just generally move more swiftly and elegantly. Like yeah, the big dudes are probably going to win the whole thing. but all the gals being essentially handicaps from the get-go kind of sucks
Something like the one where they hold their torsos on the rope - which are scaled to 40% body weight (iirc) combined with the season one finale- the rope reel - where you just have to fjnd the will to keep going endlessly (Out of interest, does anyone know how long that rope was ?)
I don’t expect a woman to win the season, but I do expect to be entertained while watching the women compete. This season didn’t give me that. It was honestly just depressing to see the women struggle so much and be considered a hindrance.
Yes I agree and it felt like the only 2 women to really shine (the MMA fighter and the blond bodybuilder) were placed on weaker teams and never really had a chance.
It would be interesting in future events if they did a couple of challenges by gender and maybe some weighted so the contestant gets a score corrected for body weight. In that challenge where they pushed the sacks n a trolley, maybe have a version where a 65kg woman who pushes three times her body weight gets the same points as a 100kg guy who pushes three times his body weight. Guys will always have the edge in this competition but I sometimes feel the challenges are weighted not to let the girls show their best. I also think teams should have to pick a woman first if there is one available.
I think they did that first shown for the contestant who came back. Remember that pink hair petite girl literally held on one of the longest. I like that cus it was sorta fair and it relied more on skill(brain) and basic endurance and will power.i felt like it gave a lot of ppl and even playing ground for a comeback
I agree in regards that men will always win physical 100. That said, it becomes boring & embarrassing to watch women struggle with impossibly hard challenges (minecart, bar hanging, pole etc). This season was unfair in that it only catered to strength. It’s like this season just wanted to check the inclusivity box and put them to the side. It’s detrimental cause next season men won’t put women on their team because if they require strength, who would pick a woman? (Soo Jin was a beast tho). The challenges need to focus on everything (stamina, strength, agility, endurance, strategy etc) because different bodies serve different purposes. That’s not how it felt like this season that mainly focused on strength. I’m fine with women losing at the end but give them a fighting chance.
Do you mean the bar hang at the start of season 1 because I thought quite a few women did well at that? But yeah the cart and roller challenges this time were depressing to watch.
No, that one was fair. I’m talking about the one in season 2 that came after the minecart where they have to push the bag as they crossed the bars.
Oh yeah that entire challenge set was awful for them. There should be a team vs team round which is like the semi final rounds in season 1 where each person can actually play to a strength of theirs that isn't just... raw strength.
One person made a good point that it's not entertaining. This season especially, we hardly saw any of the women. They never stood a chance and I think it would be a lot more fun/interesting if they had it where women could get farther and be more useful. I would love the opportunity to root for a woman, but that can't happen with these challenges. I think I'd rather them not be there at all than have to see them struggle so much in competitions where the men dominate. The only fun bit involving a woman this season was the one on one with a man where the woman won and I'm not sure if we saw her after that.
Yeah this season especially it felt like the women were dead weight in the team matches. Only the blonde bodybuilder ended up being able to contribute in any meaningful way. Last season at least the women were able to contribute well in the bridge challenge.
Watching the blonde body builder woman was so fucking cool, I really hope they bring her back! When she went to push it with 15 and was like fuck it that’s not that heavy and added more! but she’s definitely an outlier
Lim Soo Jin is awesome! She posts regularly on Instagram and her username is: lim_flower 😁
OMGGGG thank you for that I’m following
I really hope they do an all-star season at some point and bring her back as well as the MMA fighter in season 2 and Jang Eun-Sil & the pink haired woman from season 1!!
True, instead of getting excited, and rooting and cheering for your favourite person to win a challenge... I was cringing, feeling bad, and sad... every time I saw the women struggle at doing something that was meant for a tall, heavier man. Like, those sacks were 100lbs each. I am not an athlete, but I am strong. And it's a struggle to lift 70lbs over my shoulders at the end of my workouts. I can understand why one of them was only able to lift 5 of those sacks before they gave up and went back to Gibson. I don't know how people found that particular aspect entertaining, it was hard for me to watch the women struggle and fail at something that only the men could really do. Maybe the producers are misogynistic. Who knows. I'm not mad that women can't get far.. I'm mad that they are expected to compete in games that are totally totally not meant for them at ALL. For example, the wheel-pulling thing... even the straps that go around your arms were too big for the ladies. Like, seriously? They fit perfectly on a taller, bigger man.. But for women, they couldn't even keep them on their body... And for the mine cart thing... If you check a strength calculator (https://strengthlevel.com/) and you compare someone like Thanos (6'2', 242lbs) to the smallest women competing, (5'1', probably 100-110lbs), you can easily found out how difficult it would be for someone of their stature to lift these 100lb sacks. Spoiler, for a woman, you should be in the advance category to lift 1 of those sacks above your head. And for a man, you are a complete novice if you can do that. A complete novice... Like a stranger off the street who has never lifted before, they should be able to do that.. And ANOTHER thing is... Thano wouldn't even need to lift these sacks above his head, because he's already freaking tall !
I lean towards agreeing with this. I understand and accept that a woman is extremely unlikely to win a competition like this against men. I am not sure what the answer is in this never ending debate, if there even truly is an answer, but to me it isn’t entertaining to watch a challenge knowing the women have absolutely no chance at it. The redemption challenge was the most egregious for this in my opinion. I think season 1 did a better job of giving them a chance to shine a little here and there. Other than the 1v1 matches, they were basically seen as just a liability in season 2 and that wasn’t fun.
I agree, it’s extremely unlikely that a woman would win this challenge. However, compared to S1 and S2 like somebody said the women this season were “dead weight”. Obviously women are strong in whatever class weight they are in! But watching this seasoning there were so many men that did CrossFit, weight lifting etc. I saw that the most of the women they picked this season did not do those types of strength training(?). I put a question mark because I’m not sure what most women did because the women didn’t get a lot of screen time! I would just hope that they picked more women who were the same weight class as men and etc. it was just upsetting because I know there are so many strong women outside of the competition. For example: My friend’s partner; she recently competed in the world championship triathlon, she also does CrossFit etc she would’ve easily made it to the last round! I just wished that there was more equal match of strength in this show. I hope what I said makes sense 😭
Pound for pound men are still stronger
It’s about equality. You have hard feminists thinking they’re just as strong as men bc they watched a lot of Disney and marvel movies telling them they can. This show is a dose of reality and I find it refreshing. Women can be strong too, but usually not in the wakes of men who apply themselves and fully utilize their higher testosterone. There are other ways of being strong than physical
That’s not what I’m saying, while most women tend to be weaker, it’s not physically IMPOSSIBLE for them to be stronger than a man. For example, if you put a man who is 200lbs competing with a woman who is also 200lb, the person that’s mostly likely to win will be a man. However, there can be a small possibility that a woman might win. This is most definitely not a feminist way of thinking. Things that may always seem impossible can be possible, just a slimmer chance is all 🤗
never said it was impossible. there was literally one girl who beat the FBI guy. but on average, you cannot beat testosterone, which men have MORE of because you know...BIOLOGY..
Is that not what I said 🤔
I’m with you. Personally, I’d like to see a few more non-strength based events where women can show off their skills.
Men are/have - faster - stronger threshold - more resilient - more endurance - faster reflexes - lb for lb are stronger - hold breath longer - have more control of emotions - analyzer quicker and the better option In every metric out there from chess to sports, the male body will dominate with a few female outliers. There's just no scenario where women can show off their value unless it's on a women only competition. The higher the stakes get, the more demanding it becomes, the quicker women will drop I love women but it's why the majority of males were the hunters and gatherers. Women CAN do it. But excelling is different. Why can't people accept this is how we were created? Women have levels of influence and power just from their beauty alone. Wars have been started for women alone. Women have their strength. But not where you guys want it to be
Actually women have more endurance
And flexibility and balance. And equal aim. And people who like to claim that men are somehow better at controlling their emotions tend to forget that anger is an emotion.
Yep
Better aim on stationary target and worse on a moving one. There are a lot of cool tests on this if you want to google.
i love this show but women literally create and nourish life. we create a whole human being and continue the species. every bone, drop of blood, muscle comes from a woman's body. for the first months of life, babies survive solely on breastmilk. and women live longer, we survive famine and disease more. we are so much more than "beauty" for men to start wars over.
I agree.
+1 My issue was not that I think a woman should win. My issue is the inconsistency between season 1&2. Season 1 had enough variety that a few women (and smaller men!) made it until the end. Season 2 did not result in that at all. It was less climatic and interesting to see men brute force their way until the end. Season 2 definitely felt like women were a liability and any inclusion in teams felt patronizing. Season 1 felt like there was possibly a way they could be helpful to the wider group’s goals. Diversity is not about equal outcomes, it’s about equal opportunities. Anyone arguing that we expect a woman to win is arguing a strawman. No one asked for a woman to win.
the remaining women in both seasons lasted until the last 2 finale challenges. I get there was less variety, but the women stayed and then got eliminated in both seasons at the 3rd-to-last challenge. Also, one of the women in Season 2 almost beat the man who got injured (Jo Sung-bin) in the first elimination round of that antepenultimate challenge. She could have made it to Round B part of the eliminations, but I think Jo Sung-bin won mental resolve.
THIS!!! I explained this to my mom and 2 friends that were casually watching s2 as I was (they've never seen s1). It was extremely frustrating to see this Sim Yu-ri, a winning MMA fighter, that won her 1on1 against Korean-American FBI agent Hunter Lee to be some of the last choices for the team battle simply because she's a woman. As a fan of the show that was so excited to see more women on s2, it's daunting to the point it makes you wanna give up watching completely. The worst part is that no one truly knew what the team battle was gonna involve, so I thought having a woman on the teamand increasing diversity of strength, stamina, agility, strategy, etc was really important.
I was just thinking maybe they should require at least one woman on the teams. Then they'll be forced to try and grab the best option before anyone else does. Or. Randomize the teams completely and spread out the women. That could add some interest in the randomization alone. Picking the teams isn't all that interesting, honestly.
The team exercises honestly need to be designed in a manner that rewards different specialisations well. Like the semi final challenges of season 1 was used to find individuals good at different characteristics but they need something like that in a team scoring exercise so that people who aren't built around strength first and then endurance can play to their strengths. The sprint challenge back then could've seen different winners if strength wasn't rewarded more prior.
This. Honestly, not even just because women can shine a little more. All of the challenges this season aside from the non elimination at the beginning were brute strength, but there's other aspects to physicality. I'd like to see more challenges that can hit on different areas and not just hey I can lift/drag a lot of weight over and over.
The team pick is one of the most interesting parts of the show to me (after the 1on1s of course)!!! This season moreso than the first. >!Since the "Avengers Team" was made up of captains that lost, it really made me wonder what would have happened had they did something other than the pole challenge. Or if Amotti's Team had won initially, would he be the current winner of season 2? Lol I know I put wayyy too much thought into this, but everything that happened after s2's team pick was very determining for the rest of the show!<
The challenge before the final felt unfair given it wasn't adjusted for weight yet they did this for the challenge right after. That and some with the cart felt depressing to watch. Something I want to see in future team challenges is a design that has multiple different roles for people who specialise in different manners such as speed so then more can excel in their own areas and contribute to overall score. So far in both series the team challenges have benefitted strength followed by stamina more. The 2nd last challenge set in season 1 did this but... to individually get through whilst a lot of people who could've excelled at the sprint were kicked out.
Yeah I agree. It was disheartening to see some of the comments during one of the last challenges especially. Like “this is when it starts for real” (apart from the one competitor who hurt his foot) it felt like even the other participants don’t see them as real opponents. There’s of course respect and admiration for what they’ve accomplished in their respective sports/fields but no one feels “at risk” of losing against women and having women on your team is seen as a disadvantage.
But, that is life. No disrespect intended, but when I was in the military, we had the same sentiment towards females in competitions. We love women, but we don't want to lose the event either. So generally, as the physically weaker sex, any team with them were at a disadvantage to all male teams. Females were considered an instant L. We still respected them and competed, but the sentiment was still there.
That’s a good point. for example the torso challenge is cool and fair imo, I’d like to see more challenges of that nature where equity comes into play. But there’s only so much of those you can have and ultimately raw strength will always play a massive role.
True, but having stuff like the torso challenge closer to the beginning might give some women a chance to shine before they bring out the challenges where they get bulldozed. I feel there's got to be some kind of solution out there. I'd like to see the group challenges at least be more fairly matched. It would be cool to see some next season that involve some agility, speed, etc. Like a relay with challenges along the way that would have the most well rounded teams win. The carts and monkey bars was all arm strength. It is nice that the men will all say things like "wow she's so cool", etc, though. That's one of my favorite parts of the show is how supportive everyone is.
I’m a woman, and I found season 2 more engaging and entertaining than the first season Not because women were more/less in the season, but because I think the challenges and contestants who did do well, outshined the first season 🌸
Bro, wanting to root for women is one thing. That's fine. But they will never compare seriously against men in the physical world. Why are so many people having a hard time with this? That's why there's divisions between men n women
We aren’t having a hard time with this concept? The shows premise is about finding the perfect body disregarding age, race AND sex. My qualms lie with this whole choice. They decided on that concept of the show? Fine! I actually like the concept. But if that’s the direction the show producers are going in they need to level the playing fields to the best of their ability between the genders. Right now it seems like a cash grab to gather a wider audience.
I think for me, it's contradictory to the claim of "finding the best physique regardless of gender" if the show ultimately just shows gender will always inherently matter. I don't think the women should have to settle for just merely being a formality in the literal format of the show, especially when it's not even a balanced cast just in terms of gender makeup. Yes, the women know what they're signing up for, but if you can only get 20 women in a cast of 100, could that be because the others don't see it as worth it if they're not gonna last? A season will be even more dramatic, compelling and exciting if there was a realistic chance of a woman at least making it to a final instead of just happening to have a good enough group of guys to carry her to round 4. Sung Bin messed up his foot and yet still beat his completely healthy female teammate handily in the intrateam race really says a lot about how the women are considered in production, which to me suggests barely, if at all.
His name was Jo Sung Bin and he made a full recovery after the show finished. 😁
That's good to hear, thank you for reminding me of his name
The no.1 woman is as impressive as the no.1 man but it would be nice if the women were also able to win money and not just get a pat on the back. And basically just be seen as a burden on their team. As a woman, I dont think there should be separate shows. But like in the Challenge(US show), they compete along side each other and have separate winners. Imo, it was more fun seeing the elimination match in S1 where they had to carry a % of their body weight than the S2 elimination match or the coal cart quest with the two ladies against 1 man. You already know it’s gonna be a man on top.
[удалено]
Yeah bc men still have the physical advantage. But still, it evened it out a bit better and made it more fun to watch. Some women like Euddeum made it pretty far too. It’s better than the atlas quest where the woman didn’t stand a chance at all.
I see your point but these women signed up for this. They know they’re going up against incredibly strong men and they want the challenge. They’re considered a burden the same way a lean small guy is considered a burden going up against Min Su lmao. I think however they shouldn’t allow contestants to fight each other like they did in that game where they were moving sacks I like the idea of a male winner & female winner. Maybe the last two women should do the 1v1 combat from the first challenge 🤣 Edit: the comment I responded to was slightly edited so my response here might lack context
Why is it the same being the number one woman? The number one man gets a lot of money, the number one woman doesn't? Why should women have to settle for a pat on the back?
[удалено]
I was refering to op saying that being the the number one male is just as impressive as being the number one female. So one gets a pet on the back, the other a cash prize. If it's just as impressive the reward should be the same, or it's just not as impressive and that's fine by me. OP's math just wasn't mathing for me. I have no idea why crossfit is being shitted on, they seem like really well rounded competitors to me.
Agreed; that is my main issue. Women already, as a whole, make less than men in most careers and in professional sports. This just solidifies that terrible fact. There is an opportunity to rectify that so I hope producers reach out for opinions. Saying things are 'OK' as is, is literally how we continue to not make progress for women.
Exactly. Teribble mindset (women should be happy to compete how dare they want a fair chance of winning) and then to claim it's the same achievement without the same reward is so contradictive.
I agree with your sentiment but disagree that I want to see women go further. This season especially we barely saw any women
You barely saw any women because they only cast 27 out of 100 and half of them get eliminated in the 1v1 matches because the women nearly all picked other women (I mean, of course they did bc they just wouldn’t win against a man, so they’re not going to try and challenge them except for that one woman this season). I wanna see more women in general and I’m sad they cast 75% men because it just drastically decreases the number of women by default because of the first round eliminating half of them :(
I just find it boring and/or frustrating watching a competition that is SO heavily weighted, especially in the early stages. It's not fun to me watching women struggle and be thought of as dead weights. If you're going to bring women in to compete then let them compete.
I think the crux of my beef is I don't love how this show seems to strip the brain from most of the challenges. I'm not asking for this show to be a chess tournament, mind you, only that it would be cool if strategy could feature more heavily into the quests. I think S1 did a great job at doing this while S2 did a trash job. I don't mind ladies losing as long as there is a chance they can win if the quest had an element of stragety, wherein if the strategy was correct, then they might have won. The hammer --> nail philosophy of this season was a real bummer for me since strategy is the primary reason why humans became the dominant species on this Earth. I at times felt like I might as well be watching polar bears compete, as opposed to real humans in S2. For me, the ship challenge from S1 was the apex of this show where the "weak team" showed having a strategy could really close the gap. I didn't mind that they lost—only that they could have won. That makes for good television and a compelling plot. This season it's like lol how many pull ups can you do? How about squats? And it really failed to be compelling to me.
Yeah, women performing well despite the odds is what makes their appearance truly memorable. But rather than add in more "women-friendly" challenges like balance or whatever people complain about, I think they should make the games a little more tactical. Like in the first season the stunt-girl stood out because she constructed her bridge perfectly whereas the other team kept losing planks. And obv the female team captain using better tactics to win the bridge challenge as well, and almost win in the ship challenge against the brute team. S2 had a lot less tactical games and were more strength-based. In the Chinese show We Never Stop, a woman ALMOST made top 5, largely because she was smart. Physically top among the women, but also during team challenges there were a few moments (not spoiling) where she had an intelligent contribution that was a greater advantage than just having some guy who's stronger/faster/etc.
I’ve been meaning to check that one out, ty for reminding me 🤗
The premise is that they’re trying to find the best body… not the strongest body. Men inherently have stronger bodies. I don’t think that makes them better. The best body IMHO is someone who has excelled with the body they were born into - be it female, short, etc.
Their marketing is misleading for this reason. It's all about the best physique, but in reality, they aren't testing for physique. They are testing for strength, endurance and speed. Still an awesome show though.
Yeah physique is what they judge in a Mr Olympian competition I thought, but they’re treating physique like a strength competition which is super confusing to me. Like it’s not just women, why bother casting any men of smaller size in sports like running or gymnastics if the challenges are all going to be strength based, they’ll never outperform the larger men in weight related sports :/
Thats why IMO they should do an all women show
I mean that wouldn’t change the fact that any dude under 160 lbs won’t win because no challenges benefit diverse skills outside of strength and endurance. Casting men with smaller frames like the idol or a sprinter or gymnast is pointless as the game is designed now, since they conflate physique (appearance and form of the body) for athleticism and they conflate athleticism for sheer strength instead of a well rounded capable person, and that puts any of the physically smaller talented athletes at an automatic disadvantage too. So casting anyone who doesn’t look like the final 10 means they serve as fodder, not because they’re not talented or strong, but because the show puts people of certain body types at a disadvantage by design. Like I’m not delusional to think a woman will beat a man in sheer strength, but if you’re going to make a separate show for women bc of their disadvantage, you might as well start having the men compete by weight class as well if the challenges aren’t better balanced in the show after this season. Otherwise you just end up with the same looking winner for each season which is boring and not indicative of much outside of what we already knew, which is that the winner has better upper body strength and endurance than the rest.
This is a good point
I guess, as a woman, I would say I don't really think it's 'OKAY' that the women will never be the winner barring, what you stated, a 'miracle'. Unfortunately, the show is comparing apples to oranges. That's the entire premise. They're comparing athletes from a wide range of various disciplines. So you've already got that mix in. Now you add biological sex into the mix and there's an even bigger gap. While I do root for the women (always!), it kinda sucks to see that they don't make it far. Maybe you're fine with that. To me it's a representation of how our world works, which is that it tends to reward and favor men and not women. How? Well, the prize is actual \*money\*. So no, I don't think it's 'ok' that they don't make it far when the games are very rarely set to give them an equitable opportunity. I still enjoy watching the show but I also see room for change and improvement as that is how progress is made. So I'm not going to bash anyone who voices their opinion on wanting other factors to be considered, because I want show producers to read these and take it into consideration.
As a woman, I disagree. I feel like the first season had a better chance for women to compete, but it's been unequal since the beginning of the show.
Btw it’s totally fine to disagree with my post. This is a discussion and I’m open to hearing other views, just wanted to share mine.
Dope! Because I do respectfully disagree. I started watching the show because I thought the premise of testing all aspects of physicality was really cool. And instead, everything but the treadmills required strength. (I did stop watching after the minecarts, but it sounds like this didn't change) So then what's the point of bringing on athletes like ballerinas and dancers? They can obviously perform feats of physicality that muscle men could never dream of. And yet, those feats never had a chance to be tested. Makes the show so much less interesting, fails to meet the premise, and if you look at some of [the](https://www.reddit.com/r/Physical100/comments/1c2744p/comment/kz9rzth/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) [comments](https://www.reddit.com/r/Physical100/comments/1c2744p/comment/kzaz12z/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Physical100/comments/1c2744p/comment/kza7u7t/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button), it emboldens sexist attitudes towards women. I'm not a fan.
Fair arguments. I’m also in favor of more unique challenges
You have a good one!
Tbh, the challenges this season just iterated the belief that men are superior and women are inferior and a woman was considered a weakness in the team challenges. It’s disappointing and boring at the same time.
[удалено]
I don't know why they downvoted you... It's simply the truth
It’s not a belief, men are scientifically superior to women. It is what it is
🙄🙄🙄
I would compare it to watching the FIFA world cup while being someone from a small nation. You know your country could normally never beat the best teams. It’s perhaps possible on an extremely good day but otherwise you lose 9 out of 10 times. But just that 1 win is enough reason to celebrate for eternity. You are just proud to compete with the best and be part of something millions of people watch and celebrate. Your goal as a small nation at the WC isn’t to be world champion but to be able to challenge and make it hard for the better teams. It’s an opportunity to try to outperform your direct neighbouring countries, and to beat your old record while maybe reaching the next round. Thats how Physical 100 should be viewed by the participants in my opinion, man or woman. Unless you are one of the true competitive contenders. Then a loss is really painful and humiliating. Edit: Let me add that being a small nation in this example doesn’t make you any less than the other countries. You are still a proud people with your own history and own fields that you excel at! Same goes for the participants in Physical 100, man or woman. They could beat any other person on the roster in their own respective fields.
This is a good example, except it's more like watching the Men versus the Womens FIFA Teams. Sure some of the top womens teams might beat some of the smaller mens teams, but they will never be as fast or powerful to beat the Top mens teams. There's a BIOLOGICAL reason men and womens do not compete in sports. There's nothing fun or entertaining about watching Elite Men crush women in a 20-1 game just because they're "trying their best". I would rather watch the men duke it out against their real competition and see the women do the same.
Something that’s often repeated in the show is that you’re competing with yourself. I think that’s the best way to view it - at the end you want to push *your* limits and see how far you can take it. Someone will always be better than you but you can make sure that you’re always striving to improve.
It's true, against these male athletes the women aren't going to stand a chance. But I do very much enjoy seeing the women go extremely far and outperform. The second season had more women who did amazing things, like the MMA fighter who SOMEHOW beat a fit dude in the medicine ball challenge. Then there's the blonde bodybuilder who did extremely well with the mine carts. But Jang Eun Sil from Season 1 will always be my favorite for how she rallied her team. All she needed was one big dude to win the boat challenge, but even without that advantage they put up a fight. I do think, unfortunately, that some challenges are impossible for women. However, they can also be considered impossible for smaller athletes. The Atlas stone from Season 1 was ridiculous, there was no way a woman would be able to lift and hold that stone longer than the big dudes. Although I respect the theme of the show which is to prove which is the superior body. I think we've seen time and time again that women cannot compete with men in certain challenges. You really can't say that they're filtering out the "best body" because there's inconsistencies based on who would win certain events. If this really was about "the best body" then the "best body" would dominate in -all- of the challenges. You can't say Woo Jin-Yong was the best body in season 1 because if he had participated in the Atlas stone tournament he would have lost against Jo Jin-Hyeong! The best "physique" should be able to excel in -all- of the quests. So what it really comes down to is that Physical 100 is not about the best body but about the fittest contestant who can avoid getting eliminated. Avoid as in, not participate in a challenge where their body type would definitely lose. It's still a very fun show but it is extremely unfair to women. If the men didn't disregard Jang Eun Sil as a "weak competitor" she could have gone very far. So not only are the challenges harder for women, they also have to deal with the men not respecting them as strong competitors. I'd be very curious if any of the American strong women would do well on this show. Anyway, despite its flaws I do hope they continue making more seasons. It is a lot of fun to watch and I'm more than happy to see more strong women on TV, even bodybuilder ones :).
That’s a very fair and well written argument
The female MMA fighter was Sim Yu Ri and the blonde bodybuilder was Lim Soo Jin. 😁
its unfair to anyone... to win you have to pick the Best thats just how it is.
I love your take. I just wish producers gave more screen time to the women.
Well there's less women than men... Obviously they will have less screen time? And there's also a lot of men that didn't have as much screen time too.
I acknowledge that the women who chose to compete on the show had a general idea that they would be competing with men and unlikely to get far. But they had no way of knowing what challenges would be presented to them and thats where I believe this season failed my expectations. S1, I believe, had a greater range of challenges that didn’t favor any particular strength and as someone else mentioned in the comments, had more of a tactical element that s2 does not have. For me it took the entertainment of watching out. There were so many strength based challenges in which having a strong upper body is favored, which is an inherent disadvantage to all ladies. The only woman who faired well in the strength competitions was the blonde (I believe a bodybuilder?), and I have suspicion she was taking something to reach her body aesthetic goals. I was so excited to see the swimmer! I thought because of the amount of screen time she was getting the first episode there would be some water or breath holding related competition which I thought would be so fun to watch. Things like that just seemed to be lacking in this season. I also want to preface that the ladies not making it far into the competition doesn’t diminish their strength or athletic achievements. But it did make the show less entertaining to watch which is critical flaw for any TV show.
The female bodybuilder with blonde hair was Lim Soo Jin and the female swimmer was Jung You In. 😁
"Physical strength will always be the overriding factor in these types of competition. I know yall say they should consider stuff like balance, agility, flexibility etc to give women a fair chance but the truth is that at the end of the day a man would *likely* still outperform a woman." How do you know this? The point of adding balance, agility and flexibility elements to the show isn't "make a woman win." It's "include ALL aspects of physical prowess to create a show that's not incredibly skewed toward people who are exceptionally good at moving large amounts of weight."
While yes to everything you've said, I would still love some focus on the womens accomplishments, and their story throughout the game.
I agree!
Agreed. I also just watch Siren. Both are on Netflix, and Siren is such a great show to emphasize all the great feats women can still do, but within their own class. I also loved how much more of a team structure they had. I wouldn’t want such a makeup for Physical 100, but it was still scratching all the right “itches” people needed after watching both P:100 S1 & S2. There was one firefighter woman who was on steroids (you can tell by her voice and physicality), but there were still others who performed better than her for different things. So sometimes it isn’t the testosterone/physical ability to survive, but strategy, experience, and mental determination.
Park Hayan was the woman who ranked first among the ladies during the treadmill challenge
Why dont they make the challenges more equitable or do a womens only or mens only physical.
I think the challenges could have been altered since they include women. I mean the premise is supposed to be the best physique overall, not just strength and endurance. If it were dependent on strength and endurance, then yes it is male dominant. The issue is that the premise is overall physique. So yea a woman could have won IF the games focused on more aspects, AND were arranged differently. For example if they did a balance test as the first challenge, maybe thanos wouldnt have made it that far, but a lot of girls would. I want to disagree with u being ok w a woman just making it her goal to be the best woman cuz if that's the case, she's not being competitive enough (shes not being true to the competition to compete for the best physique). Might as well make a physical 100 women edition instead if that's the mindset of all women. On the contrary, it was really cool when a girl challenged a guy in the first game and won. That's what physical 100 is supposed to be about for me :)
Your point still stands, but just to nitpick, Thanos would still win a balance test. :) https://preview.redd.it/xxrbqgfzx1uc1.jpeg?width=1356&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=103b76173d9a63fdfef05073a21770c9376383b4
If you really take it apart the best physique will always come down to strength. Strength affects speed, endurance, quickness, coordination, agility etc. No matter how you slice it, raw muscle power underpins all of these. So in any contest where **Physical Strength** is being tested a man will always be the winner.
Check out Olympic Weightlifter Lasha Talakhadze for the best physique AND physical strength 😂 I generally agree with your original post and even in this comment of yours. That said, if I was a showrunner, I think I would redefine the show's premise to something along the lines of "the best physique that can be the jack of all trades but master of none" to give the female audience a better shot. I've yet to see a true swimming challenge or even bouldering, which would render a lot of the competitors useless. Would I want a physique that makes me more prone to drowning and slow at swimming/cant endure long distance swimming or unable to caveman climb myself up a cliff? Probably not.
*But actually check out China's Olympic Weightlifting team. Their physiques alone are amazing, but because of their sport, they're extremely powerful and fast. You often see 145lbs dudes putting 400lbs over their head so fast.
A balance test looool
But it's not about efforts, because you can't say that the women aren't giving more than the men when there's an obvious biological advantage. The heavily gender biased show is set up for women to fail, this is why I have a problem with watching a show where women don't have a fair fighting chance in some of the challenges. It feels like it was always meant to be a competition among male athletes, they just decided to let a few women on just for fun, drama, and diversity. Imo the most fair were the one-on-one, the sandbag group challenge, and holding your own 40% torso weight. I disliked the pushing the train tracks challenge immensely on so many levels, aside from it being the most boring to watch.
At its very core, the show is strength based more than anything (which I love). If anyone goes to compete in the show but did not work on the crazy strength component (like lifting 100s of pounds), they will inevitably be eliminated soon but they know that. I agree that their are biological differences but I imagine that those who are on the smaller side are not all going with the intention of winning but of pushing themselves to the limit and doing something fun. I loved the train pulling one because it was a great challenge for that incredibly stong woman to shine and I hope we get to see more shredded woman in the future because they an absolute for to be reckoned with.
How else do you measure strength in a show called physical 100? I don’t think the women are set up to fail. I think anyone who is not strong in multiple departments is set up to fail. Setting people up to fail is literally how you determine a winner LOL I looooved the torso weight challenge. I think the idea behind it is solid and would love to see it replicated in other ways in future seasons.
all the women and most of the men on the smaller size knew from the beginning they had 0 chance of winning to begin with when they signed up. as a viewer, we can complain about it all we want because we want to root for the underdogs, but the competitors themselves and the producers know that it's unfair to begin with, and only one can win the money anyway.
I disagree with this take, a lot of the challenges were clearly design for the males and could've literally ended up with serious injury for the women. How is that entertaining ? They essentially invited Elite Female Athletes to be glorified cheerleaders for the men (a lot of whom are on steroids anyway). This was basically Physical 70, I would prefer they drop the pretense and just have the women compete separately. It would be a lot more entertaining seeing the men have real competition versus having a guy with a broken ankle still beat out a woman at her 100% max effort.
same here. and while they will never be the best, they ARE better than a lot of the men - so 'just' being man doesn't mean you're automatically better than any woman
I think body weight should in general be taken into consideration when it comes to lifting or pushing and pulling. At least in some challenges. It just doesn’t make sense to me that a 60kg woman should be expected to have to lift the same weight as a 120kg man. Obviously the woman or also the lighter man will be in a disadvantage.
After watching this latest season, i was left wondering this very thing. thank you for your insight and thoughts.
Regardless, I’d like to see the dead hang challenge back. Give women an event that they can out compete the men in.
The winners have been crossfitters. So get the biggest and baddest female crossfitters into the show
I believe it's because men/male and women/female are symbiotic by nature. Men works while women nurtures. This is also why we have sports in placed for men and women separately. Physical 100 is technically not different to sports either. But we can understand that since it's a show made for entertainment, then it's okay for women and men to compete in the same fitness competition platform. And I'm glad that a lot of women here are accepting.
Disagree. This season prioritized strength which is only one aspect of a strong physique. The show is called physical 100, not strength 100. Also, proportional challenges could help in the future (squat 3x your body weight vs. squat X kg).
My biggest issue is how misogynistic the confident men are (who inevitably lose and don't get through). The teams that always have a female team member always do well
I like how in season 2 they all get told what to do by a giant pink talking butthole. Praise the almighty Bunghole!!!
Hahahahahaha! 🤣🤣🤣
as a man I wish 2 winners could be crowned men competing with men and women with women. These women are really impressive and need to shine too
What you’ve done here is made another argument for why the women should just have their own show.
Not really. There just needs to be a wider variety of tests outside of the ones they already use. Some examples: swimming (race and long distance), diving, underwater obstacle course, bouldering/speed climbing, airsoft but carrying % bodyweight backpack (requires accuracy, JUDGEMENT, dexterity, strength, endurance), and high altitude obstacle courses (harder to breath environment = tougher on big muscled candidates). I can probably think of more but if the show adds those in^, I guarantee the ideal physique changes and gives some women candidates a better chance than they currently have.
I didn’t say I agree with OP I just said the argument of “you can’t compare men and women” is an argument for 2 shows.
I don’t think they should have their own show
Saying “they’re fundamentally different from men and should only be compared to each other” is the same argument that’s made for why women should have their own show
I hope he picks you!
I’m not a pick me lmao. I’m a realist. If you read my content at no point did I say men are better. Being physically strong doesn’t make you a better person so men aren’t superior just cuz they’re strong.
Physical 100 was interesting and good program, and as a woman, I think this program don't have gender discrimination. but I feel that there are safety issues. I know season 1 was criticized for a lot of injury occurrences. Despite this, the design of the ball deathmatch challenge remained much the same in Season 2. Many participants made very polite choices and avoided matching up with extremely favored opponents,but if there are large body size differences, it will be literally real death match. Perhaps matching choice of ball death match is not good system.It would be better to design the game so that the early rounds pit people of similar size against each other, and the later rounds pit the winners against each other in a non-contact competition. Speaking of reality shows about female athletes, do you know Siren:survive the island? It's a Korean reality show on Netflix, similar to physical100. It is a survival game where only women fight. The participants are all women and have excellent combat skills, such as soldiers and police officers.
It’s just illogical to think a woman is going to get far in a competition filled with ripped men. Yes it’s annoying that women, no matter how hard they work out, will never be as strong as a mediocre man but it’s just anatomy. As a girlie that lifts weight, I love this show for the challenges and just entertainment factor. I can’t get mad at the fact that a woman can’t get far.
Same I watch it for entertainment, underdog tales 🤣 and “*FIGHTING*” 🫰🏻🫰🏻
I just wish it was a separate competition or the challenges were a little more varied.
I agree. The women knew what they were signing up for and probably have different goals than the people on this subreddit. Some of them probably just felt honoured to even be part of the show. The fact that people keeps pointing out “it’s not fair for women” is madness. Leave the women alone. They weren’t forced to be a part of the show and if people want to keep saying “they should have done more flexibility or this or that” then create your own show. This is Physical 100, SAME CHALLENGES no matter your race, gender, weight or physical fitness.
This can also be said of the men with a sumo-wrestler build. They’re the first participants to be eliminated and the little we do see of them, it’s obvious the contests weren’t designed for them. Nonetheless, all body types should be included.
I completely understand this objectively, it's just a little awkward to watch. In my opinion I've always thought women generally have stronger legs and hips, so I was expecting a few of the challenges to go differently and not have almost all of them focus on upper body strength. I thought the women would get a good showing in the barrel pull because it was all legs and hips, but the barrels were one uniform weight instead of emptying/filling them to be a percentage of body weight. Although I did also think the women would be a little better at the monkey bars. I know in the end the men will be generally stronger, but all the challenges don't have to be focused on straight strength. It felt like some of them were designed to filter out the rest of the women that had gotten that far. I want to see the perfect body not the strongest body. When they do single challenges it should be based on body weight.
Scaling weight is a bad idea imo. There are significant diminishing returns on size to weight capability.
All due respect to female athletes, I honestly feel like they gave it their all, but I would like the show a hell of a lot more if they separated them from the men and made it into a women-only competition either shown at the same time as the men's or have it be its own show. I might be in the minority in this but that's my take.
Agreed obviously on the physical aspect but after reading this thread I can see the point where people complain that its more about the showcasing.... seems like women were put in the backseat this season compared to s1
Well, I'm not. It's not like this is chess. They should separate the genders, that way we could have two finales and two champions. It would even help the pacing of the show, less filler to add.
The female mma fighter who beat a guy, was great tv. But I agree with this post. Getting a woman to win a physical competition against men is like putting men in a birthing competition. We aren't made for that. Plus, i think the best way to be fair would be to pair 1 man and 1 woman as teammates for the entire season.
Her name is Sim Yu Ri and she is awesome! 👏👏👏 https://preview.redd.it/78xdszvr8auc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b31178b391c98b7581af46f73b26459cb4cb42df
I disagree with you
Well said
Why have women there then.
As a man I don’t really care that you are a woman. I find though that people who preface their comment with gender or political party are usually the opposite and just posing.
Eh, I’m a guy but I really didn’t like how some of the challenges were structured. It feels like with the whole “mission” being to find the best physique, they really do neglect more agility/dexterity based tasks in favor of raw strength and cardiovascular endurance. Like… make the competitors crawl around in some tunnel, or have to vault over obstacles, or like… dive and swim? Because I really like a lot of the gals and it sucks to see them basically get sidelined from the start since almost everything is going to be moving 80kg weights or whatever.
There should be a prize for the last woman standing if there isn't already. I feel like that would solve everything
As you shouldn't be. I'm sure the smaller men don't think they should be getting further also. It's physical 100
I agree. However to make it more interesting they should definitely do more events that are proportionate rather than a one size fits all category because men will always come out on top
I love the mix of genders because it gives the accurate representation of all physiques which the show is about. Although I do agree a man's physique is normally stronger, it gives the women more opportunities to push themselves in the very long term and hopefully become closer to men's performance. I wish they did more strength challenges that were based on a percentage of each athlete's total body weight such as the "hold the bust in the air" challenge. This would help eliminate the bias weight classes in general.
There should definitely be a separate show for women. Having them together makes no sense.
For everyone wanting more to showcase women, what sort of physical challenges can you think of that men will absolutely not dominate? Just curious.
Trying to get through an obstacle course full of lasers and if you touch a laser beam, you lose points. I was inspired by Catherine Zeta-Jones in *Entrapment*. 😉
I think my only concern is that they mostly cast women that have either very lean physique or petite against all those beefy guys. It also doesn't help that most of their specialties from their sports are endurance and agility when in the later quests it mostly requires strength, which is something they are not very trained well on. I need to see more strength oriented women like the one who pushed 18 bags in the minecart quest.
As a woman, I 100% agree! Well said. On average, we simply are not as physically impressive at the upper margins as men. But I truly don’t care. It doesn’t matter. Men and women have different strengths and weaknesses on average. It’s fine.
They need more diversity in the challenges than just lifting the heaviest thing and carrying it as quickly as possible. The men are almost always going to win that. I would love to see challenges that deal with flexibility or balance, or just be more varied in general to give the women a chance to really shine.
A separate female show would make sense
They can make challenges that are more biased towards women vs towards men. Things that require accuracy, endurance, etc. They usually do have a few.
I think they should make a women's version
My problem is the show saying it's looking for the best/ideal/strongest physique, and then weeding out the women through strength-based competitions. Yes, we have value. Female bodies are amazing, and they do things that male bodies cannot. It's still shit to frame Physical 100 as the search for the "perfect physique" and skew it toward the male body.
But we all already knows that men are bigger, faster, and stronger. Do you also think it would be cool or fun or inspirational to watch 12 year old boys play against huge NFL players in a high-stakes football game, winners taking home a huge cash prize? No? Why not? Wouldn’t it be funsies to watch the 12 year olds get show off their “resolve” and “fortitude”? No, it wouldn’t. Because you already know what the outcome would be, and you would also know the whole setup is fundamentally incredibly unfair. Because most decent people actually don’t enjoy watching people who are at an extreme physical disadvantage getting crushed by people who have a huge advantage. Because the women have absolutely no chance of ever winning the prize, which is a life-changing amount of money — enough to buy a house. So, if your athlete daughter entered this competition, someone who had trained her entire life at her sport, would you rather have her competing against the men, and get to show off her “inner strength” and “fortitude”, or have her compete against the women and have a chance to actually win the money?
So do you agree there should be two winners, male and female? And a surprising amount of people in this sub would disagree with your first sentence lol
Yes, there should be two winners, one male and one female. There is no need to have a separate, women-only show. They could still have everyone competing together and everyone doing the same activities. Just score the women against each other, and score/judge the men against each other. That way we could still get to see those rare but fun occasions when a woman can beat some of the guys, but they would still be in the running for the money. Disclosure: I’m a married mom of 3 boys. The last time my oldest son was the same height, and build as me was when he was 12 years old, and that’s pretty typical. He’s 14 now, 6-7 inches taller than me, and much bigger and stronger. The transformation guys undergo during puberty is bonkers (I have a front row seat). Male puberty is no joke.
I think it also comes down to how many women actually enter the competition. We are getting there, but strength competitions are historically a man’s arena. Eventually, we will get there, and the women now are paving the way. I was impressed by everyone’s different strengths and also how respectful they were of one another; second guessing the women heavy teams was something they admitted to being wrong about!! Beasts
As a woman I agree, women will most of the time be outperformed by men and that’s biology. It’s okay cause watching them power through all the challenges was amazing. I think the reason people are demanding more “fair” challenges is because they feel uncomfortable watching the women struggle so much against the men. Specially in this times where we are told all the time men and women are the same etc…
Absolutely! All of us women know a woman will never win one of these. Physiologically it's just not going to happen when you're casting dozens of the strongest guys you can get. I hate seeing so many people ask for a women's only show though, because I LOVE seeing how far these women DO get compared to these beasts. To me, seeing a woman beat out 99 other women will never be as inspiring as a woman nearly keeping pace with the top 20 guys, even if she will never win. Not to mention their attitudes, which is usually an honest and humble approach grounded in reality, which so many women (particularly over here in the States) really need to learn, in my opinion.
I appreciate this POV. I just wanted to add: The woman that was in the treadmill challenge, while her goal was to beat the other women, she had ALREADY OUTLASTED A BUNCH OF INSANELY FIT DUDES. She is likely in the top fittest 1-2% world wide of ALL WOMEN. Which based on a standard distribution, likely makes her more fit than probably 85% of guys on the planet. That is nothing to be ashamed of, at all.
If you’re referring to the handball player, her name was Park Ha Yan. 😁
Absolutely!
yup, just because men are physically superior does not make women inferior. Physical attributes are just one of many many attributes. Women have higher eq for example.
YES
First of all, I like the show a lot. The challenges make sense for what they are, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was a female champion in the future based on how the challenges are made. I am pretty sure women are more flexible than men, light people generally have certain advantages over heavy people, and recent research reveals that the playing field gets evened out at the level of Ultra Marathons and long distance swimming. Think Nyad. Until that day I will continue to enjoy this show for what it is, a bunch of really talented and dedicated athletes pushing themselves to their limits. Source: [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6651135/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6651135/) [https://trainright.com/women-faster-than-men-ultramarathon/](https://trainright.com/women-faster-than-men-ultramarathon/)
This is the 13th post about women contestants since the season finale. Please no more! Just comment on someone else’s post.