Fitness Industry - Obsessed by Aesthetics.

As a personal trainer and sports therapist I love my job but I despair at the extent to which the fitness industry media, celebratory worship culture and (in my humble opinion as a result) public perception dictates that we should all look like Barbie dolls and action men.  The concept seems very fake to me.

 

Please don't misunderstand me. I wholeheartedly believe in pursuing a healthy active lifestyle, of course I do. There is a lot more though, to exercise than looking like a front page magazine model. Everyone has heard how keeping your heart and lunges healthy and body fat low can reduce the risk of heart disease , obesity and a whole host of other medical conditions but exercise also helps elevate positive hormones levels such as endorphins and adrenaline as well as promoting the psychological feel-good factor. As a trainer I also believe in helping improve the quality of my clients lives.

 

In such a busy culture, is it not enough to exercise to our means, eat healthily and accept…. no embrace who we are? More trainers should be instilling these values into their clients although many are not. Maybe if they did their clients would achieve better results.

 

 

Media, including fitness magazines and infomercials relentlessly depict scantily clad models advertising their products. The reality is 99% of women and men don’t look like that, nor ever will. In fact the chances are the front page model doesn’t look like that either.  I think it is wrong to tell the public this is how they should look. At no point in our evolution have we looked as some of these images would have us.

 

Inside respective fitness magazines, they advocate various exercises and work outs misleading the reader into believing these routines actually work. Many of them don’t and in fact high numbers of the exercises you read about and attempt can actually result in injury.  It seems a tad unfair to the poor individual who has shed out their hard earned cash on the magazine.

 

Would not Western society not be more content if it relaxed it's vice like grip on the absolute need for cosmetic acceptance? I say people should train or play sport just for the enjoyment and fulfilment it brings. If people want to adapt their psychical appearance, great, as long as they feel good about themselves in the process and stop chasing the proverbial rainbow. Unlike modern media, be real, train towards realistic attainable goals.

 

Take athletes, many don’t have the stereotypical “perfect body” yet they are the quickest, strongest and most agile people on the planet. That's not fake. Their body's are carefully manipulated to undertake and cope with the demands of their sport.  Not to look good or for the sake of vanity or public perception.

 

At the end of the day though I guess (to quote Edward Bernays) “Sex sells”; and people believe what they are told.

 

Just an opinion.

 

www.jwcorept.co.uk