Reviews For Shape Magazine

I read through this in about 1/2 hour, most of articles are either uninteresting or repeats as well as the exercise and diet tips. I will not renew this one.

Although the articles within the magazine are great, the rest of it is full of paid advertisment for supplements, and "plans" that many fitness experts have already debunked as NOT helpful, and in some cases, harmful. I wouldn't recommend this to any beginner exercisers, who should be focusing on healthy eating and exercising rather than diet pills and "cure-all" methods.

Ok I'll be firm! This is a pretty good fitness magazine, but most of the images aren't very supportive for everybody at all. Sure they encourage me to try be fit but yet again I fear that these overly skinny models will make readers become anorexic or something. After all most people in the success stories arent what I'd call thin.. maybe more like fit overly aged individual. One look at this magazine and you'd think "Oh wow, I'm sure this magazine is telling me I can be that thin if I only read the magazine!" ERrrr... That's totally wrong! The most this magazine can do for you is make you fit for your age, not necessarily physically thin. Otherwise If you ignore the images I'd say this is a pretty good magazine. They even give you makeup tips and give good healthy eating habits. Although I have heard that this magazine is not diverse as in most of the models are white... It does kinda make you go..."Ok so only white people are fit?" I too also think it'd be nice if they added a African American model much more or if they added Asian women in it too.

Although some of the Shape articles are about self-esteem and feeling good about oneself, they have these articles with photos of models who are all extremely thin. I know this is most pleasing to the eye and probably makes the magazine sell, but for some folks, this isn't a great idea. Also, some of the exercise suggestions are very very general, so it's kind of boring sometimes. I have a degree in nutritional sciences and I'm certified by the American College of Sports Medicine, so I am kind of critical with magazines like this. The exercises segments are usually pretty decent, especially when the writers discuss interval training & interesting ways to do cardio workouts to prevent boredom. However, some of the strength or yoga moves are a bit hard to follow. Additionally, the recipes are flavorful and unique. I am not so fond of the fashion segment of this magazine, since I usually purchase Shape to read about new exercise trends or get new ideas for exercises.

This magazine (Shape) is interesting and has good advice, but their subscription department is really frustrating, and not helpful in solving subscription problems. I only recommend this magazine if you have plenty of time and patience to get your subscription sorted out!

While many have been quite angry with the models featured on this mag, I would like to defend their choice. Good looks sell. Realistically speaking, we live in a shallow world with shallow principles whose sole purpose is to get you to buy the goods. Cosmopolitan does it, Glam, Fair Lady etc. all they do is make you feel fat without giving you a solution. Shape on the other hand says hey, you don't like what you look like? Here you go, 'feast' on this. Obviously some of the products they advertise may not be 'kosher' but business is business and most mag's make their money from advertising. I've found some exercises helpful and others not so helpful but if you really are a person obsessed about your looks and trying to find a 'healthier' alternative, try Shape...or you could just learn to let go of ever being a 'good looking' corpse...that's where we're all headed anyway.

I use to subscribe to SHAPE several years ago, and then it was packed full of great work out routines, meal plans, etc for women at all levels of fitness.

Well . . . my last few months of Shape have been a complete disappointment. I found very few pages of good genuine fitness and healthy eating advice. Instead, it ranks right up with Glamour in the category of magazines with the highest percentage of advertisements, nearly all of the excercise material is supposed "quick fix" fitness fluff which gives women very unrealistic expectations, and the healthy eating advise is absolutely elementary.

There is no substance in here for women like me, the average working woman who desire to live a healthy life everyday and have limited time to commit to exercise. I want a magazine that is inspiring with a focus on living a sustained healthy lifestyle, not a joke about getting flat abs in a week with illustrations of perfectly chiseled models who obviously do not face the body challenges of average women. I'm sorry but most women are not going to look like "her" after two weeks, or many months of Shape's 10-30 minute a day routines, but they sure lead you to beleive so.

I highly recommend "Her Sports" it is THE magazine for women desiring to live an active, day-to-day healthy life!

I am a subscriber to Shape and I will not be renewing my subscription. If I had a self esteem problem looking at this magazine would just make it worse. I have been quite disappointed with the models used in the articles. Most of them look as if they are posing for Victoria Secrets and not a fitness magazine and they are extremely skinny. The clothes that are advertised are not affordable for the average working women and many of the articles are not that helpful. The only section I do enjoy is the "Success Stories" which portray real women in real life situations. I really wish the magazine would revamp itself and gear it more towards the "Real Woman".

This fitness magazine is weak. The models are generally skinny and not exceptionally toned. Lots of ads featuring rail-thin girls hanging on to musclebound greased up dudes. Even the models posing for the work-out sections are usually super skinny anemic models who would topple over in exhaustion if they had to work-out with anything but a rubber band or a 3 lb hand weight. Nothing wrong with superskinny women, but these are the same body types I see in Vogue and Cosmo--the type who don't really want to gain muscle in the first place.

Did I fail to mention that the magazine is packed full of silly makeup hints, love quizzes and how to be a better lover tips? gag

How to workout with a rubber ball and get fit with a kitchen dishrag, really isn't my idea of working out. If you are more serious into weight training, seeing strong looking role models with cut bodies and trained muscles try magazines like HERS and Oxygen. In these magazine the women have strong healthy bodies, feminine fitness models and mind you, not those behemoth heavyweight muscle bulging steroid type. The work-outs and training tips are lot more helpful in HERS and Oxygen as well. SHAPE Mag is way to foofoo for the serious minded Female fitness nut.

I have been subscribing to Shape for about two years now, and its the same thing every month. I agree with A.T. who posted a review sometime ago, that Shape is not diverse at all. I have never seen a woman of color on the cover, and maybe 1 or 2 African-American women models. I too am white, but I would love to see a lot more diversity. As far as the fitness articles, they have some usefull tips but other than that it is a bunch of "what to wear this spring" and all the clothing they advertise would look good on you if you were a size 5 with a nice flat tummy. I think Shape should be more realistic in reaching out to the average women.