The Uncomfortable Truth About Fitness Culture
By: Madeleine Ross
As social media has become an integral part of many of our lives, its content is more often than not tailored to our interests. I consume a lot of content related to fitness, as I enjoy having an active lifestyle. I’ve gotten some great advice from the fitness accounts I follow, whether it’s a technique correction or a new workout routine. Even so, there is an undeniable dark side to this fitness culture. While we have important conversations about social media’s impact on body image, understanding the impact of ‘fitness influencers’ or communities is crucial.
While social media has intensified, the pressure to appear a certain way is certainly not the root of the cause. From the brightly clad jazzercise instructors of the ’80s to the Kardashian prototype of today, the “ideal” fit body has had a strong presence in the public eye throughout the past few decades. While these bodies we see all over our social media feeds or on magazine covers may seem like the peak of health, the truth is that there is no one healthy body type. Behind the tiny waist and perfect abs of your favorite influencer are years of training, regimented eating, and genetic luck. Comparing ourselves to someone whose job is to look “in shape” is incredibly mentally taxing. Not only this, but many influencers or coaches who sell their own brand of workouts, special diets, or appetite suppressants, are dishonest in their promotions. Oftentimes, they’ve achieved their bodies through cosmetic surgeries, or simply photoshopped their images to uphold a standard.
A growing concern for fitness culture on social media is the vast audience it is reaching. While TikTok was originally designed to be an app for children, Tiktok videos related to fitness often promote unhealthy behaviors. Trends on TikTok such as “What I eat in a day” videos, in which users post videos of all of their meals, may have started innocently enough. However, over time this trend has become filled with users posting dangerously low-calorie diets under the guise of “clean eating”. This sort of content tends to reach young, female audiences which is troubling, as they are especially vulnerable in terms of developing disordered eating habits.
Our societal focus on bodily perfection has melded fitness into an image, rather than a focus on health and mental wellbeing. Distancing our workouts from physical aspirations and focusing instead on loving our bodies for what they do, may be the best, most sustainable choice.