WHY SOCIAL MEDIA CAN HAVE A POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE IMPACT ON OUR FITNESS GOALS
By Catherine Symons
Recently I asked my Instagram followers to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to whether social media has had a negative impact on how they view their own body image. Sadly over 65% answered ‘yes’, with the majority of these being women.
Social media, in particular Instagram, can become pretty addictive; let’s see how many likes and followers I can get for my posts.
Our pages become filled with carefully selected images that showcase our perfect lives, or we end up following accounts that seem to have the perfect life. Soon our perception of what is ‘normal’ can become very warped.
When it comes to fitness and how we look at our own bodies we can be faced with beautifully tanned slim women who don’t know what cellulite is, or men with more muscles than we knew was even possible.
It can become demoralising – ‘how will I ever look like that?!’ But simply editing who we follow can be a real game changer.
Curate your Instagram accounts; choose accounts and posts that make you feel motivated, inspired and happy! There are so many great accounts out there that are motivating, educational and REAL.
Fill your head with positivity instead of negativity. I’m sure by doing this you will feel your fitness goals are much more achievable.
About the author
Catherine Symons is a qualified level 3 personal trainer, and currently studying to specialise in sports performance enhancement with strength and conditioning. Having competed from a young age in middle distance running, including representing Kent in many cross country championships, she understands what hard work is.
For the past two years she has begun to move away from competing in distance running, and instead found a passion in strength training. Combining the two disciplines together, Catherine has a good knowledge of many aspects of sports training.
Catherine has recently completed an internship at University of East London in their strength and conditioning programme where she helps out with a variety athletes, as well as helping out with the athletes at Tonbridge Athletics Club.
Catherine’s passion is to help athletes and the ‘everyday gym goer’ to perform to their absolute best, in the most efficient way possible, to reach their goals and to achieve great results.
