It’s natural for your body to change when you move.
You probably know that no one will always have ripped abs, even if they spend hours a week in the gym, and fitness coach Molly Ava wanted to drive this point home.
The 23-year-old from Bournemouth took to Instagram to show how her body can be transformed in just a few seconds, as she posed in activewear from Honor Active to demonstrate.
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In the first clip, titled “My Body,” Molly pulls up her leggings, maintains good posture and places her hands on her hips, showing off her incredibly toned arms.
But in the second video, captioned “My body too,” she’s smiling broadly, relaxing as she pulls down her leggings. Her body’s natural creases are visible, and she looks beautiful and happy.
“Starting the week with good vibes, self love, and my authentic body,” Molly captioned the post, and also included some body-positive hashtags, including #YouAreEnough and #PositiveEnergy.
Many people loved Molly’s powerful message: her post garnered 6,100 likes and many positive comments on Instagram.
One commenter commented: “I watched this video right before I hit the gym. My confidence went from zero to hero.”
“Thank you so much for making this video it helps so much,” another wrote, adding, “Beautiful both ways!!”
Molly graduated from university with a geography degree during lockdown and started taking candid photos of her body two years ago. She then qualified as a personal trainer and has been involved in fitness ever since.
Her goal is to see more “real” bodies celebrated online, in mainstream media and on TV, which is important because so many of us are used to seeing heavily filtered snaps in our feeds.
Molly told the Daily Star: “Everyone has the absolute right to post their favourite photo or pick one out of hundreds of photos, but for me, the limit is picking a photo and then filtering them all.”
“We pay for subscriptions to 10 filters every month and use apps to distort how we look, so I think we need more authenticity, especially when it comes to influencers, celebrities and reality TV stars.”
“I think they feel pressured to look a certain way, but if they don’t share that side and that vulnerability, it puts pressure on people younger than them and those who look up to them. I think they should try harder, even if it’s just one small step, to try to push out of their comfort zone and share a little bit of the reality of their lives.”
“There’s a lot of social pressure on people – you see comments like, ‘I’m 14 and I want to lose weight and look like so-and-so’ – but there’s not a lot of protection in place to help raise awareness.”
