The toxic online cult of resistance training and the harms of weightlifting culture

Resistance training is frequently promoted online as if it has no risks or downsides.

But this is mainly because promoting resistance training like this advances the careers of those who use this kind of messaging.

It isn’t to benefit the their audiences. It’s to benefit the promoters.

And those of us who have been in the lifting game for a while know better.

Resistance training, while having important benefits to function especially later in life, increases the risks of a variety of health problems, including:

Body dysmorphia;

Disordered eating behaviors;

Psychological and physical harms due to disordered eating behaviors (e.g., aggressive bulking and cutting);

Joint damage and chronic injuries that undermine quality of life.

I argue that, in fact, the excess promotion of the benefits of resistance training, and especially more extreme, toxic, “macho” forms of it, increases the risks and harms associated with resistance training.

Indeed, the culture of machismo associated with resistance training online unnecessarily increases its health risks but makes it less accessible to the general population.

I love resistance training and I love lifting weights and being big.

But I would never promote something just because I love it.

I think glossing over the dark underbelly of resistance training does our audiences a disservice—and actually makes resistance training potentially more dangerous than it needs to be.

I believe that if we had a greater emphasis on promoting safe practices—rather than huge PRs, huge muscles, and the toxic ego-driven often associated with resistance training—we would benefit our audiences more.

Those of us who are interested in the health benefits of resistance training should also be interested in the harms. That’s the only way we will minimize the harms and maximize the benefits.

We need to put this goal above the goal of self-promotion.

Come at me, bros.

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