Katie Meeker, Opinions & Humor Editor
As both an employee and patron of Cary Street Gym, I have become extremely familiar with both the good and bad aspects of today’s exercise culture.
When I first started my exercise journey, I went to my co-workers and gym-frequenting friends for guidance. They helped me figure out what workouts best suited my goals and gave me tips on how to get the most out of each exercise.
Much of the advice I got was extremely helpful, but I did notice a pattern — a lot of people seemed to assume my goals were appearance-based.
While this assumption was valid but mostly inaccurate, it illustrates an issue within gym and exercise culture that has become increasingly prominent — the prioritization of perception and aesthetics over actual health and wellness.
This issue has always existed, a byproduct of the ever-fluxuating beauty trends and standards our society seems to adore. The body positivity movement of the 2010s was thought to have made at least a little bit of progress, decentering from the unhealthy obsession with thinness that plagued the early 2000s.
Current gym culture, however, highlights that this issue hasn’t gone away, but just taken another form.
Now, the name of the game is bulking, cutting and the overall “gym rat” persona. Muscle growth and body building is prioritized above all else. If you’re not maxing out your daily protein intake, then you’re doing something wrong.
There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to get swole — it’s your body, and you choose what you want to do with it. The real issue manifests when we misrepresent bulking and body building as a way to “be healthy” when, in actuality, many aspects of that culture are actively bad for your health.
The best illustration of this issue is the recent rise in “protein products.” It’s not just protein bars and smoothies anymore — these days, products like protein pizza and protein soda are easily found at any grocery store, and often promoted by gym or “wellness” influencers on social media.
These products are advertised as healthy alternatives due to their protein content, but many seem to forget that protein content is not the only standard by which something can be considered “healthy.” These products often include harmful additives and high levels of sugar and sodium.
Take the viral protein Pop-Tarts as an example. While being promoted as healthy for containing ten grams of protein per serving, this product also contains 270 milligrams of sodium and 31 grams of total sugar additives.
While the protein Pop-Tarts might help you meet your daily protein goal, the added sugar and sodium certainly won’t help you become any healthier, especially as we lean toward these products and stray away from eating real, whole foods, with the vitamins, minerals and fiber needed to sustain a healthy brain and body.
A broader issue with this prioritization of bulking comes in how it has a tendency to promote an unhealthy mindset.
While it can seem harmless on the surface, some of the behaviors and techniques associated with bulking are deeply concerning to me, and unfortunately, deeply familiar. The calorie-counting and tragic, protein-prioritizing meal-prepping I’ve witnessed my peers and many online partake in and promote feels grotesquely reminiscent of my time on Tumblr in middle school — an internet era defined by its romanticization of eating disorders.
Is a gym influencer’s “what I eat in a day” video as they pose in front of the camera not the same as a 2016 Tumblr or Pinterest “military diet” or “flat-stomach foods” post?
Whether the goal is skinniness or bulkiness, a hyper-focus on appearances — and a willingness to do anything to meet those appearances — is incredibly dangerous. This issue is only exacerbated by the fact that health is often improperly equated with conventional beauty standards.
When we deprioritize health within exercise culture, we run the risk of promoting toxic behaviors that have very real consequences. If we push going to the gym as the only path to achieving health or the unrealistic body standards social media shows us, the value of other forms of exercise is also overshadowed.
Take outdoor exercise, for example, going for a jog or even a walk outside and seeing the sun has positive impacts on both physical and mental health. However, if you can’t track the calories burned, as you can on a treadmill, the current gym culture tells us that exercise is pointless without a tangible result.
When done right, there are so many great things about the gym and exercise. Beyond the obvious health benefits, there’s the potential to be a part of a thriving and supportive community. I’ve found lasting friendships from my time at the gym, and it is a place where I truly feel like I can better myself.
Acknowledging the toxic aspects of that culture, though, is a very important step when it comes to making sure the gym is a safe space for everyone — a space where everyone is focused on being the best, healthiest version of themselves they can be.