“I’ve Gotten A Few Plantar Warts On My Finger Because Of The Gym” – Gym Goers Are Sharing Its ’Dark Side’...
by Benjamin Dzialdowski · BuzzFeedHaving a healthy, active lifestyle is of course a wonderful way to live, but gym life isn't necessarily all that glamorous.
So, when REDADMIN1 asked r/AskReddit, "Gym goers, what's the dark side of the gym life that no one ever admits?" We thought we'd share some of the top responses.
1. "Nothing is really that clean."
2. “I had a roommate who was a very serious lifter, basically dedicated his life to it and was on roids and idk what else. He was jacked. But in his mind, he was always small, and no amount of gains could get him to where he wanted to be. There was always a bigger dude. Definitely had some big mental issues from it and was extremely insecure, even though the average dude could dream of having his physique.”
3. "All the laundry."
"The real reason Ancient Greeks exercised naked."
4. "Feeling guilty when you don’t go."
5. “Pain sometimes, in the joints and tendons. Even if you do everything right. And fatigue all the time.”
6. “Not being able to stop going to the gym because, if you don’t go, you can feel yourself getting weaker by the second.”
7. “It’s dirty af. I’ve gotten a few plantar warts on my finger because of the gym. I always wipe the mats and foam rollers, before use and after use.”
8. “Overall, nothing dark. My life is better for it. The only downside is that it’s a time suck. I would like going to the gym more if I had an extra hour in a day, four days a week. I enjoy working out, but trying to fit in the time means that I have less time to spend on other things I enjoy.”
9. “There’s a lot of body dysmorphia going on in the gym."
“There’s a lot of body dysmorphia going on in the gym. Most gym-goers are doing it for their health or because they enjoy it, but there are a lot of, especially younger, men who spend an ungodly amount of time in the gym because they hate how they look. It’s always been a thing, but social media has just been pouring petrol on the flames.
Their feed is full of roided-up influencers benching six plates for breakfast, and they get the idea that those people are normal and not extreme statistical outliers. People forget that a very average-looking dude with love handles and a 135 bench is actually in much better shape than the vast majority of the population.”
10. “The roving gangs of high schoolers in pyjamas aren’t actually bothering anybody. Gymfluencers are a far greater problem.”
11. "They say once you get in the habit it'll be fun and you'll miss it if you can't go for some reason. 10 years in, I'm still waiting for that. It's a chore every time. The only reason I do it is because I like living and being in shape."
12. “That so many people who manage to get in shape after years of being out of shape make the gym their entire personality, to the point where they’re unavailable to do other things."
"One of my friends who I play pickleball with has a wife who went from out of shape to in amazing shape, lifts all the time, always working out, etc., but she’s afraid to play pickleball with us because she doesn’t want to throw off her workout schedule/CICO.
It’s great to get in good shape, but when your entire life revolves around the gym, it’s no way to live, IMO.”
13. “Worst-smelling stalls ever. Worse than an outhouse. It’s like some people hold in their foulest-smelling shits strictly for the gym.”
14. "70% of guys don’t wash their hands after they use the bathroom."
15. "People going in even when they have a cold that’s gonna spread around."
16. “Drugs. Honestly, way more people are using performance-enhancing drugs than you think. That ‘popped’ look isn’t natural. Even women are increasingly on them.”
17. “A gym-goer for many years, the dark side would be the fact that more and more people feel entitled at the gym. In recent years, I’ve seen a lot of people at the gym recording their sessions and spending, like, two hours on a machine, not even caring about others. There have also been people who get pissed off when someone else walks through their video.”
18. "For me, it's toxic men and women who take up too much space with their routine or body language. Going to a community gym rather than private helps a lot."
19. “Once you get far enough into it, you start lifting enough weight that it can seriously injure you just from half a second of your form breaking down."
"Eventually, you learn to change the goal from trying to lift as heavily as possible to trying to lift as lightly as possible to still get a good stimulus. But usually, that lesson only comes after some real hardship. And when you have built up a really strong, capable body, a tough stretch of injuries can be very hard to recover from mentally.”
20. "It consumes your life. If you go in the mornings, you have to plan your sleep. Sleep early enough to do gym before work. Then after work, be disciplined enough to sleep early."
21. “The vanity involved."
"Such a big part of gym culture is going into the place and wanting people to look at you for validation. I think that having physical insecurities helps a lot of people develop themselves, but there’s a point where it clearly becomes glorifying vanity. I mean, the amount of people just staring at themselves in the mirror for extended periods of time is not normal to me.
And I see a lot of this glorification of vanity as if exercising and staying in shape is some Spartan-warrior-level of honour, or some kind of heroic thing. I think your physical fitness should be an imperative regardless of anything, measured against yourself and your own strengths/weaknesses.”