Gym Culture: The Pros and Cons

These days, there’s a good chance you know of someone who works out constantly and their entire lifestyle is surrounded by choices that they believe are forwarding their progress in the gym.

Scientifically speaking, going to the gym and being active is considered highly beneficial to the body and can lead to better mobility and health. However, the culture that has developed around this topic has led to serious mental and physical consequences for many people, especially teenagers. While speaking of consequences, it is important to note that there are both positives and negatives to the rapid increase of what popular culture calls “gym culture”.

Throughout history, it has been noted that being active is the key to a healthy lifestyle. In a world where jobs and school keep most people busy, it's often hard to keep up an active lifestyle and maintain physical health. It has also been suggested that good physical health can lead to better mental health, especially among teenagers. What is different from history and now is the abundance of opportunities to be healthy, like community gyms and such.

While it has been proven that exercise is good for health, these days it has led to the decline of mental health among some teens. Due to the high expectation and beauty standards of society, many people tend to forget that the purpose of the exercise is for fitness and not a competition or to meet a certain standard set by people they don’t necessarily agree with.

This has led to a decline in mental health among teens and has made a greater increase in a mental construct called “body dysmorphia” which is where people tend to only focus on the negative aspects of their body and see a reduction in mental health due to this.

Furthermore, the idea of working out has shifted deeply from positive to negative due to societal standards. While it has become more acceptable these days to change one’s body in a way that caters to their happiness, this has also been interpreted to extremes where people lose sight of

what they want and start focusing on what makes them look “cooler” or more accomplished in front of others.

While going to the gym either to simply be fit or change the way one’s body looks, its effects are good in moderation, but lead to declining mental health or even physical health if done in excess. This is true in most facets of life and holds true for this too.