Is it possible to have too much of a good thing? Can it turn into a bad thing, even if the thing is initially good? Take the gym for example, there are a lot of amazing things that come from the gym and having an active lifestyle, but when is the fitness world and culture getting to be too much?? This week we’re going to delve into, what I call, the dark side of the gym.
What I mean when I refer to the dark side of the gym is, all of the negatives that come along with the positives of working on your personal fitness and health. I’ve found that once you get into the groove of going to the gym, and you start seeing more about it on social media, it can very quickly turn into a black hole of negative thoughts and emotions.
For example, some of the topics that are brought up on social media are, body dysmorphia, comparing yourself to others, eating disorders, over-training, supplements, sexualization, etc. So, from all of those things, it’s not hard to believe that the gym can turn into a really negative and self-deprecating space that becomes toxic for everyone who’s in it.
I believe that the biggest culprit of what makes the fitness world such a toxic place, is social media! The effect that social media has on just about everything is insane! You never really grasp what social media does to a person’s mental stability until it’s too late!
But anyway, let’s go into slightly more detail below about two of the negative biggest aspects of the negativity in the fitness realm, that coincide with social media!
Body Image and Body Dysmorphia
Body Image = the subjective picture or mental image of one's own body
Body Dysmorphia = obsessive focus on a perceived flaw in appearance
As you can tell, the definitions of both of these topics, are very individual and personal to whoever the negative thoughts are affecting and can be triggering and difficult to talk about in certain situations. And as sad as it is, for most people especially in the social media era, it is a normal occurrence to have a negative thought about themselves and their appearance.
With both body dysmorphia and body image issues, they were already present in society, due to what generations have already done in the past to create the “ideal body type”, and still now that social media is a factor, I don’t think society has progressed at all. And due to social media platforms being easily consumable, there is so much content that's at a click of a button, which also makes it easy to constantly compare yourself to what you see on social media accounts.
And while comparing yourself to others can be good, in the way that it can give you motivation, it has more of a potential to have negative effects on your self-esteem and body image. So, this is your reminder to be kind to everyone, because you never know what someone is going through internally.
Misinformation
When it comes to misinformation in the fitness world, I mean it in the sense of an individual seeing something on social media and then automatically believing that it’s true without any further research on the topic.
In today’s society, again in the social media era, it’s very common for people, especially those who are fitness influencers, to get brand deals or create promotional content for brands. But within the business of brand deals, there’s a big chance that the products they are advocating for potentially have products with harmful ingredients, or products that just flat out don’t work or look the way it’s advertised. And that can lead to A LOT of misinformation being spread among the individuals who are impressionable and thinking that they have no other options.
Just about anyone can create an account on a social media platform and gain somewhat of a following just by posting content and interacting with other accounts just like it. But does that mean what they’re posting is correct?
Both of these topics have very big impacts on the fitness world and create this said “dark side” of the gym due to the severity of how they affect the people in it.
I hope that after reading this post it doesn’t scare you off from starting, re-starting, or continuing your fitness journey, because that’s the complete opposite reason behind me writing about these topics! I wrote this just as a way to talk about some of the affects that arise, so that people reading this are cautious of the negative thoughts and emotions that can happen, as a way to prepare and to know that you’re not alone!
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Lastly! I have some news… as you know if you read my last post, I will be taking a break from writing blog posts, which means that this post will be the last one for a few weeks! I’ve enjoyed writing posts on these topics, and I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading them! Along with that, I want to thank all of the people who’ve read every week and have subscribed to my site!!
But with that sad news, I have some good news too!! Even though I’m not going to be posting here, I’ll still be posting on Instagram (gym.withjenna) and Twitter (gymwithjenna) weekly! So, if you haven’t already, go follow me on those platforms!!
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