The best thing about the internet is the mass amount of resources and tips you can find for any task. Trying to bake the perfect soufflé? There’s a website for it. Trying to make the perfect DIY distressed jeans? There’s a YouTube tutorial for it. However, there is usually a downside to internet trends. For example, Instagram makeup tutorials don’t usually go well unless you have a $100 brush and $200 eyeshadow palette. For me, there is nothing more frustrating than the health and fitness trends all over Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Here is a list of five fitness trends that I could stand to see disappear forever.
Image Courtesy of: Galore
1. Expensive Foods
Whenever I log onto Pinterest and search “healthy food,” a montage of colorful bowls of exotic fruits and $20 acai bowls fill my screen. Many of these images are taken by Instagram famous models that are paid to promote brands or by the restaurant themselves. These recipes are not ideal for college students who are on a budget. I cannot possibly go to Whole Foods and make an ornate cheese and fruit spread that’ll go bad in one day just so I can take a photo of it.
2. “Fitspo” and “Thinspo”
Many fitness accounts will use the hashtag #fitspo and #thinspo on photos that are extremely facetuned, posed or cropped. A lot of these photos aren’t real and instead of inspiring people to achieve a fit and healthy body, they typically promote people achieving thigh gaps and huge butts. These heavily hashtagged and often edited pictures can be misleading and discouraging. What I like to see instead are progress pictures because they remind me that everybody starts somewhere.
3. The Instagram Sponsorships
Everybody needs to make a living, and getting paid for being hot and posting photos holding a cup of tea can be an easy way to scrounge up the rent money. Instagram sponsorships are becoming extremely popular. Girls with 5,000 followers and Kim Kardashian alike are repping the same brands on their social media accounts. However, some of these trends aren’t always healthy or safe. For example, the craze surrounding waist trainers and stomach wraps are fueled by the Instagram sponsorships. Also, these teatox and protein sponsorships are nothing more than green tea and cheap protein in a cute container with jacked up prices.
4. Unrealistic Facebook Workout Videos
In between watching videos of cute puppies and people cooking, I browse through workout videos. Sometimes the exercises in these videos can be a nice change of scenery from your weekly runs on the treadmill. But most of the time, these videos are extremely edited with tons of jump cuts and moves that are impossible to perfect. Also, who actually works out in full hair and makeup wearing nothing but a sports bra and yoga pants? Not me! And a brief note to the fit couples: your videos are adorable, but they’re making the rest of us feel bad!
Staying healthy and being active is hard enough as a college student. These internet trends make it seem like there are magic shortcuts to get a six-pack that include eating acai bowls, having a huge Instagram sponsorship, and performing outrageous acrobatic exercises in public. These trends have got to go and we need to bring back the classics, protein bars, veggies and gym classes.