Summer is just three months away, and the clock is ticking to build the “perfect summer bod.” But is that really the goal we should be striving for?
No matter how many before-and-after body transformation videos pop up on your social media feed, constantly changing diets or pushing yourself to the max seven days a week without rest can be harmful to your body. While being hardworking is certainly an admirable trait, overworking yourself can have negative effects — something that is hard to keep in mind when the vision of having the “perfect summer bod” or being the most athletic person on your sports team is dangling in front of you.
Freshman Tres Onyejekwe, a track and basketball player, had trouble in his previous club and school seasons with finding a healthy balance of training. “I tried to overwork myself, and that had negative impacts on my season,” Onyejekwe said. Onyejekwe said he felt more fatigued when he tried to overwork himself and ended up getting injured.
It is important to recognize when you need to rest and take a few days off. However, it can be hard to pull back from exercise, especially when your goal is to look like a photo of a fitness model online — whose body may have been heavily edited.
The power of online editing tools has gotten to a point where it may be hard to recognize what’s real and what’s not. For example, when a video of someone explaining how they got these contoured abs and perfect “pilates arms” comes across your feed, it can be hard to ignore the toxic messaging behind the post.
While watching someone your age run 10 miles on a typical day can seem motivational, it often leaves you with a pit in your stomach — this feeling of guilt that you aren’t accomplishing what people your age on social media are.
Comparing yourself to those you see online can lead to a dangerous cycle of low self-esteem and perfectionism. Onyejekwe finds it hard to stop feeling the need to compare himself to others online, especially if he is striving to emulate them. “If you see people doing stuff online, you really want to replicate that, especially if they’re successful,” Onyejekwe said.
Usually, accompanied by the unrealistic bodies of fitness influencers online is the encouragement of outlandish workouts. For example, walking for three hours straight on the StairMaster or performing difficult calisthenics to hold yourself up on a pole like a flag.
However, these workout trends come and go faster than the next TikTok dance: one day Russian twists are the key to an “hourglass” waist, and on the next, the new craze is plank dips. Soon you find yourself doing a million different exercises that help tone each individual muscle in your body when in reality, you could accomplish the same in a couple of controlled reps. It becomes an addiction, stretching your body to its absolute limits just to reach that unrealistic goal.
“We could be, like, taking part in these workouts because we want the effects that we think they’re gonna do, but we’re actually harming our bodies more,” Parnika Patel, Menlo’s girls lacrosse head coach, said.
Not only are we influenced by these workout trends, but also by dieting trends — and it’s important to remember that those aren’t realistic either. While fueling your body requires choosing healthy food options, eating healthy doesn’t have to mean following an extreme diet.
A fit-looking influencer claims their “what I eat in a day” diet consisting of only hard-boiled eggs and cucumbers has helped them achieve their physique, and the next thing you know, your fridge is filled with eggs and cucumbers. However, dry-scooping pre-workout to get the best pump or weighing each nanogram of protein you take in could lead to bigger issues than its supposed benefits. Calorie counting may seem like the best way to get your perfect physique, but it too can lead to an unhealthy relationship with food that is hard to change.
Freshman Addi Bruni said that she tries to avoid workouts and diets she sees online. “I just don’t let it get to me because I know that it’s just gonna bring me downhill,” Bruni said.
Between fake bodies, fake workouts, fake diets and more, it’s hard to avoid falling into the trap of social media and toxic workout culture. While social media impacts us daily in many ways, it shouldn’t influence how we treat our bodies.
When working out, it’s important to remember that, as Patel notes, everyone’s body is different, depending on your hormones and genetics, and will look differently than others you see online. “You need to figure out what works for you,” Patel said.
