This article will take you 4 minutes to read. Feel free to leave your questions in the comment section, they will be answered!
The current fitness industry, an alarming situation?
When looking at the fitness industry, I feel like things have changed.
Nutrition and fitness businesses claim to transform and help people’s lives and making them feel healthier.
But is that true?
What’s happening with the fitness industry?
The first sign showing that things have changed in my opinion is the rise of performance-enhancing drug use throughout the industry. Whether these are SARMs or steroids, they have become alarmingly popular amongst folks, and those at a young age aren’t spared from it.
While it is understandable some professionals would want to take it to help them excel in their field, it still does not make sense to me that this is being pushed so far that we’re seeing an increase of use around amateurs and people who aren’t at that advanced level of bodybuilding.
Not the same as before?
It seems like a bigger amount of people these days are not doing bodybuilding for the love of it, but are instead focused purely on the results and looks. That is normal, all of us do it for the looks to some extent. But today, is not this going too far? It also is common to hear ex-pro bodybuilders from the golden era often complain about not seeing this “grainy” look and great conditioning they used to have back then.
I am not supportive of drug use, but it’s hard to deny it was a little bit better back in the days in terms of “gear stacking”. It was healthier, and most importantly, it was way less mainstream and was not readily available to the public and younger generations like it is today.
We live in a pushy environment
There might be a lack of restriction/awareness in organisations and social media platforms pushing its use.
This is the second thing which has had a toll on the fitness industry: social media and fitness organisations. The quality of knowledge coming from influencers seems to have dropped down considerably.
Today most of them are concerned with good looks and appearance. A lot of them use anabolics to help them maintain that looks and figures. It’s hard to tell what’s going on, especially if you’re a beginner and new to the bodybuilding scene.
Social media is a tool that can excel at hiding the truth. You only see the results and trophies. You never see the unethical methods used to achieve them. There is another article going more in depth on that topic.
More often than not, the picture is a bit darker than it looks
In a decade, we’ve seen a huge rise in mental health problems along with the development of social media platforms. This is not surprising. With social media, you are constantly presented with images of people in the best shape of their lives. With a lot of them claiming to have achieved their physiques naturally when they did not.
This is only going to lead to frustration amongst their viewers, who can’t help but compare themselves. They would never be able to achieve similar results naturally. And unsurprisingly, this affects a large majority of younger people.
When people are young, it’s more likely they have more insecurities and are always looking to stand out and better themselves in our competitive society. It only makes sense that they would look up to these people with their perfect bodies and would want to be similar.
The average gym-goer can’t be blamed for following the trends. They simply want to learn more about a new activity. However, they unsuspectingly become hooked into a dangerous fitness industry.
Future situation, what to expect?
That would be great to see a healthier fitness industry grow out of this. It looks to be getting worse over-time. It started naturally, then the golden era arrived but drugs were still kinda low-key…
Even Arnold Schwarzenegger had a word about drug-testing back in South Africa.
So far, nothing is being done – but we can only hope that this gets better over time. With the IFBB decision to link with FISU and develop bodybuilding around colleges and schools, it can be worrisome to see these issues grow in younger generations.
Younger generations are the future, it’s important not to let it happen to them!
So let’s stick to good practices and finish this article with some positivity. Don’t hesitate to spend less time on your phones at the gym or at home – and fully enjoy some time relaxing, meditating (great article), and reflecting!
Let us know if you want to share any story or experience with us. Tackling these public issues by promoting your story and increasing awareness is always welcome!
Also, feel free to let us know what you think in the comments!
