Fitspiration. Fitspiration. Fitspiration.

Have you ever scrolled through a social media site and randomly seen a picture of a sexy woman captioned with a motivational fitness phrase? Well then, Muscle Milk bros and cardio bunnies, you have been a victim of fitspiration. What exactly is fitspiration anyways? According to the good old internet fitspiration is defined as taking any aspect of fitness and presenting it in a way that can motivate an individual to want to work hard to achieve their exercise goals.

After searching fitspiration on google images I ran into multiple types of fitspirational images that led me to ask myself, “Do these fitspirational images even help people to become motivated to want to exercise and eat healthy? Or do these fitspirational images just make people feel so insecure and ashamed of themselves that it scares them to not work out or guilts’ them into having to work out all the time?”

Let’s look at some fitspirational images shall we?

These two fitspirational images above are your standard neutral motivational fitness pictures that try to convince you that even though working out isn’t easy you can still work out if you find the means to do so. If someone just presented me with these quotes by themselves without the girl (who has a flat stomach and big butt) in the background, then I feel that I’d be really motivated to work out. However, just seeing these unrealistic body physiques behind these “motivational” words just makes me wish I looked like these women instead of actually motivating me to go out and exercise.

This fitspriational image attempts to motivate the individual by focusing more on trying to be a better you instead of a skinnier you. To be honest I absolutely love this quote. However, this image once again doesn’t motivate me to go out and exercise because even though the image is telling you to not focus on being skinny but just bettering yourself, there’s still a skinny and “perfect” looking woman in the background letting you know that in reality becoming skinny will always be the REAL goal.

And then you have fitspiration gems like these. These fitspirational images were made in order to shame people who weren’t on the train to skinny-ville or who strayed off the yellow brick road of strict healthy eating to get their lives back on track and ignore the sweet temptations. To me this doesn’t motivate me to work out at all. The fact that these fitspirational images are trying to scare individuals to keep working out and starving themselves of food by using the concept of “fat” repulses me. These images are shaming people who give into eating a donut or cupcake as humans that everyone should try to avoid at all costs.

The next few fitspirational images may upset you so please try to not give them the power to hurt you.

Now this is just rude. The fact that food, a basic component of life that is essential for survival, is deemed to be too animalistic to take pleasure in after a good workout is ridiculous. Like how do you expect someone to be motivated by this? It’s pictures like these that make it seem as if it’s okay to young girls (and guys) that developing eating disorders is okay all because they’ll help you be skinny. It’s pictures like these that make me realize why a lot of girls have such high levels of social physique anxiety.

Now this one I didn’t think was as rude but more demeaning. Images like this one above make you feel guilty for not working out ALL THE TIME. It places unnecessary pressure to constantly be eating healthy and working out, while deeming that it is irresponsible to take an off day to recover. When I was looking at these fitspirational photos and when I actually came across this one I was sitting on my couch eating candy so naturally I laughed out loud because at the time this fitspirational quote was judging me personally. I shrugged it off and immediately thought, “it’s images like this that enable people to maintain very low levels of self esteem.”

So, Muscle Milk bros and cardio bunnies, always remember that the affect of fitspiration on people is very powerful and real so be sure to always look out and not believe everything that you see on the Interweb. Also, be sure to work out for yourself and not a fitspirational photo you saw online.