“Gym culture and gym bros are so toxic and is so unhealthy”

This quote is from someone I heard while at the gym and is something I hear all the time from non-gym goers and gym criticizers on social media and on the internet as a whole. The issue is, they’re completely wrong.  

But what is “gym culture?” What does it mean to be a “gym bro?” For me, and many others in the fitness community, this means having a consistent workout schedule, engaging in multiple physically demanding activities throughout the week. It often involves eating healthier, whole foods that provide fuel for workouts and avoiding processed, sugary foods that counteract exercise. Gym culture may also include modifying your diet to align with fitness goals – like cutting calories to reduce body fat (which is healthy if done correctly) or bulking up to build muscle mass and strength. The core of gym culture is simply a commitment to regular exercise, proper nutrition, and lifestyle changes to lead a healthier life. 

For most of my life, I was overweight. I was the stereotypical short chubby kid in most of my childhood and teenage years. At least that’s how I felt and looked compared to my peers. Although I was never bullied for my weight, I decided one day I was tired of having an excess amount of body fat and did what most people do when they’re in the same situation as me: I joined a gym. I joined a gym with the sole intention of losing weight. Once I lost that weight, however, I kept going to the gym. Despite me completing the goal and mission I set out to achieve, I decided to keep going to the gym and keep eating healthy. But why? Why bother going to work out and stop eating junk food if I lost the weight I wanted to lose? Because as I improved my body and mental mindset in the gym, so too did I improve and evolve my goals. What started as losing fat turned to building muscle, and then to getting stronger and then to consistently improving myself. That’s what I define as gym culture: constantly upping your goals, challenging yourself, making the best version of yourself 

However, those who claim gym culture is toxic want you to believe that all of this is bad. That all the side effects that come with gym culture are toxic. All the benefits like shedding excess body fat, caring about what you fuel your body with, and literally boosting your mental health and mood with endorphins come with gym culture. They want you to believe that choosing to consume more healthy foods and less processed junk food is an eating disorder. They want you to believe that pushing your body to its limits to ultimately make it stronger than better is bad for you. That looking and being inspired at fitness icons like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Ronnie Colemann or even a small fitness TikTok page is bad for your mental health. They want you to believe that your fitness goals are impossible and that you should just give up. They say that gym culture is toxic. 

I’ve trained with a myriad of people. Whether they be from my hometown or USC, whether they’re black, white, Latino, or Asian, whether they be overweight, underweight or shredded, strong or weak, they all had one thing in common. They all made the decision to go to the gym, to work out, and to eat healthily. How can a culture that has people from every background, a culture where others motivate others, where strangers run up to spot someone on a bench or motivate them to complete that last rep, how can a culture with all that possibly be toxic?