What do you see when you look at the photo at the head of this post?
I’ll tell you what I see.
A bunch of fit looking, healthy-looking adults, all bashing away on that piece of exercise equipment.
That’s what the health and fitness industry is telling you is the norm.
Perfect, almost. Except it isn’t.
If you have a look at social media, you’ll see many instances of this.
Perfect people with perfect bodies doing perfect things for exercise.
Not in my gym. Not in my indoor cycling classes.
Now don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of fit people in my gym doing some great work. They are looking out for themselves by exercising.
There are also many people who are not as fit, myself included, who are doing what we can to keep ourselves in shape and healthy.
None of those I’ve described are perfect. I’m certainly not.
I drink beer sometimes. I have a sweet tooth. I like food. I don’t have what you would class as a ‘gym bod’. Nor do I want or need one.
I’m not perfect and there are plenty of us around.
The problem is, the media don’t want to show you them, which I think is wrong.
It’s a kind of shaming experience.
Showing people who are cut/shredded/toned/can hold amazing poses etc is the wrong way to go about persuading people to look after their bodies a bit better than they are doing at the moment.
The bodies that these models have are certainly possible but not normal. Why can’t we see normal?
What’s wrong with being truthful about changing lifestyle to include going to the gym and eating differently?
No talk of ‘success in x weeks’ and ‘the one exercise’.
The ’magic’ drink that will melt body fat away.
The ’ultimate’ exercise plan.
None of that exists and the health and fitness industry should stop pretending (I’d use a stronger word) that it does.
My imperfect self is quite at home in a gym. Yours should be too.
Not because you are going for the ‘perfect’ look that you get bombarded with, but because you know that exercise is good for body and mind.
And if you don’t want to do the gym? Swim. Run. Dance. Cycle. Jump about in the house in a daft moment.
Do those regularly and forget about ‘perfect’.
You’ll be better off for it.
