You're In Better Shape Than You Think (Dangers Of Social Media)

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You're In Better Shape Than You Think (Dangers Of Fitness Social Media)

If you're someone who regularly consumes YouTube fitness and Instagram fitness content, chances are that you're probably in quite a bit better shape than you realize.

What many people forget (particularly bodybuilding beginners) is that the online fitness community and the real every day world are two very different things. And if your mind is constantly absorbed in fitness social media throughout the day, you're actually getting a warped perception of how your own physique fits into the overall scheme of things.

The reality is that if you're a guy who trains consistently and is carrying some decent muscle mass and leanness (around the mid teens body fat percentage wise), that alone already probably puts you in the top 1-3% in terms of what would be considered traditional "physique aesthetics".

The issue though is that when it comes to online "fitness influencers" on these social media platforms, those who receive the most attention are not the top 1-3%. Instead, it's literally the guys and girls with some of the very best physiques in the world. And if not the best in the world, they're still those on the very far end of the bell curve with top tier muscle building genetics.

And as you see these physiques popping up in your feed over and over again on fitness social media, you start viewing it as "normal" and end up constantly comparing yourself to them which is giving you a skewed idea as to how you actually look.

Instagram fitness becomes even more confusing when you take into account the fact that most pictures are shot using the very best angles and lighting which can make a huge difference in terms of how one's physique appears in a given photo. Add drugs and photo editing into the mix and things are skewed even further.

You can't simply look at yourself in the mirror under some random lighting and then compare yourself to your favorite YouTube fitness figure or Instagram fitness influencer, since it's rarely a fair comparison against these "optimized" images and videos.

I'm of course not saying that you shouldn't strive for improvement and maximize your own muscle building potential if that's something you're wanting to do, but along the way for the sake of your own happiness and to make the bodybuilding process more enjoyable, it's very important to keep things in perspective and not take for granted what you've actually achieved.

Also keep in mind that the average person on the street is not looking at "physique aesthetics" in the same way you are. Not that this is all about what other people think, but just remember that other people who aren't spending all this time on YouTube fitness or Instagram fitness are not holding you to the same bodybuilding standards that you're holding yourself to.

To them, as long as you're in decent shape with some good defined muscle and relatively lean body fat, they probably think you look really good physique wise and are probably envious of how you look even if you don't think you look that impressive.

Bottom line?

Remember that building muscle and losing fat is something you should be doing to enrich your life as a whole and to make it better rather than being a source of stress and comparison anxiety.

So, if you are going to compare yourself, remember to look at the entire population at large rather than just honing in on a select percentage of fitness influencers and YouTubers who are probably in the top fraction of 1%.

Aldo remember that a lot of what you see in the online bodybuilding and fitness community isn't realistic in the actual real every day world, and that most of what you see in your Instagram fitness feed is moreso a highlight reel rather anything else.