Today’s society has seen the rise of social media and how it has taken over in all aspects of life.
A specific type of influencer has transformed the way people stay healthy by taking over the gym space- this being a “gymfluencer”.
Gym culture has changed from being a safe space where people work out to achieve healthy and realistic goals to a forced environment where toxic ideologies about looking a certain way have become the trend, resulting in the rise of gym anxiety.
Sam Gilder, a personal trainer from Leisure At Cheltenham, has been going to the gym since he was eight years old and has seen the culture change over the years first hand.
“I think people may be setting unrealistic goals by constantly comparing themselves to these gym influencers.
“I wasn’t that aware of the gym culture when I started as I was very young, but I do notice now how much training has changed due to the influence of social media.
“It’s specifically risen a lot over the last three years as fitness influencers have become the focus of a lot of gyms today.
“They need to remember that these people are training multiple hours a day, and you should focus on getting fit by fitting the gym into your own schedule and taking your time to enjoy it,” Gilder said.
With the likes of TikTok and Instagram becoming the main source of information for young adults and teenagers, having a career online has become easy.
Natalee Barnett, known as Nataleebfitness, is an example of this by gaining over two million followers on TikTok which led to her opening a woman’s only gym.
She creates tutorials for people to follow along with which can make it easier for people to feel comfortable within the space yet not everyone has these same intentions.
Gilder comments on this:
“A lot of people may be more comfortable starting off in the gym as they can use social media to follow specific tutorials rather than going in blind and not knowing what to do or how to use the equipment.
“Although this can help people get started, I think it could alter the reality of performance within the gym and the focus of going to stay fit and healthy whilst enjoying yourself.
“It is so easy to compare to other people especially if they are posting all of the time.”
“Today, I think it’s a 50/50 crossover on people going to the gym for the ‘aesthetic’ of it for social media and the following yet, there are also still the hardcore gym goers who live and breathe the gym.”
In 2022, MyProtein released a stat that 90% of people are concerned about how other people perceive them at the gym with 42% admitting they experience appearance based anxiety when working out.
With this being said, has the storm of social media affected your perspective of the gym, and do these influencers have genuine intentions, or are they taking advantage to make a living?
