Ariel Belgrave aka “GymHooky” on Fitness & Instagram: What’s real? What’s fake? Can You Tell?
“I think what could be really dangerous in the fitness world is not understanding what a person may be doing to get to that hashtag body goals.”
We all know just how powerful the fitness world is on Instagram. That platform was built for workout routines, before and after photos, and all the tips you could ever want when it comes to health and fitness. Oversaturated? You bet! A little confusing? Yup!
As someone who enjoys health and fitness, I’m just as guilty as everyone else when it comes to bookmarking workouts, trying different tips, comparing myself and my body to the insanely great-looking ones I see on Instagram. It took me actually trying fitness modeling to know that your body is nothing like what you see on Instagram or in different fitness publications in real life. There is so much going on behind those photos you don’t see.
To discuss the Instagram world of fitness, I sat down with Ariel Belgrave, aka GymHooky on Instagram, to talk about what’s real, fake, and what we all need to be thinking about when we are scrolling through our feeds. She even drops some myth busters when it comes to fitness.
There is so much we talked about during her interview that not all of it made it to this article, so make sure you take a listen to the full interview on the So She Slays Podcast.
The world of fitness on Instagram vs. Reality, Your thoughts?
I have plenty of thoughts because there are two ends of the spectrum. I feel like you may have people showing up the way you'd see them in real life. Honestly, I put myself in that bucket. But you have to do things to create that level of realness. It's not just the pictures you post; it's what life looks like on the back end. And often have many people on the opposite end of the spectrum where you just see the result of their body, right? They may not be sharing what their lives look like on the back end. And it can be so hard for anyone to see who's scrolling or even wants that body. Let me tell you, first things first.
You cannot judge a book by its cover because you really don't know. People are telling you or showing you what they want you to see.
Now you may have some others that may say like oh, you know, I'm going through this, but that's not the case for everyone. So what you see is this facade of this perfect life now; I do want to bring it up because I think what could be really dangerous in the fitness world is not understanding what a person may be doing to get to that hashtag body goals.
True, fitness and the world, in general, are full of pressures to look a certain way.
ChaleneJohnson is a perfect example. Her experience was being this media personality on Beachbody. So what she was telling the world, what she was selling was Pyo and Turbo Jam and like, oh, you only have to work out this amount of time to be your fit self and look like this. And what she shared was just like, it killed her every day when she knew that she had to do so much more to look like that in the first place. So she was telling people to just workout for 30 minutes, but then she was working out like, like five hours a day to look like that, and there was a lot of deep insecurity that was created, especially being in the fitness space where you know, there's this look that they're expected to have. And she would go on set and think she was in the best shape, and they would be critical of like her body, and she would feel like she has to do drastic things too, you know, have the abs or look smaller. Then what she found was people were validating that mindset when she would come in and go, "Oh my gosh, she looked great." But they had no idea what she was doing to look great. So she felt that that was what she had to do to look great.
So how do you combat the reality vs. Instagram mindset of fitness?
I think it is important in this conversation we have where it's like, you have to check yourself on just the realness like not to say that you can't ever achieve that body but what would you need to do to get there? Will you even be happy? Is it sustainable? Or is it a case where you get there and then end up gaining all the weight back because the method that you use or the approach that you had was too drastic? There may be people you'll see, people who are even athletes, like the moment they no longer need to follow this routine, they fall off. So I'm all about the approach and doing it in a super sustainable way. And I think as we get older, we realize our bodies are also changing significantly as women, how our metabolisms are changing just the things we may have been able to eat 10 years ago and get away with it, and they look a little different now. Now we may eat things and may cause low energy.
It's just there are so many layers to our bodies it's so complex, and I think we just have to permit ourselves to evolve and not necessarily always compare ourselves to the older person from 10 years ago. So what else are you going to do to try to look and feel your best and be happy at the same damn time because nobody is trying to be in these streets miserable.
What are some of the biggest fitness myths you’ve come across from clients?
Number one is that you have to work out for an hour plus to get the best results. And that is not true. You can have an efficient and effective workout routine, where you're working out for 30 minutes, not going on your phone. It's your dedication to be present with that workout and doing it, and you can get results.
Number two is lifting weights, especially as women. I get really excited when I hear the feedback from women who were like, Oh my gosh, like, your arms are like, you know, they're so toned, but then they'll send me a dress, and I look like regular. Like I still got my curves. I'm toning that way, but it's not this look of looking masculine. Now to each their own, some women may be striving for that, some people may be doing bodybuilding, but the reality is a woman has to work really hard to get muscles like the ones of someone who may be bodybuilding. There were clients who I've had who were like; I just don't lift weights, can I just do cardio because I'm not trying to look bulky, and it's like, no actually lifting weights and strength training can help you burn fat faster. It can help you get toned.
The third which you've probably heard is this notion of spot-reducing fat. So what this means is that you can do a specific workout, we can use abs as an example, like okay, I want my tummy flat. I want my waist snatch, so I'm just going to do all the weight, all the ab workouts in the world and do no other form of workout, and I should get my abs. No. It sounds great, but the reality is you can't just do workouts for that area and expect the fat to go away. You need to do full-body exercises; you need to invest in strength training, cardio, or even some high intensity with something that's just more than just doing crunches and situps because you're not going to get the results that you'd like. To burn fat, you have to do more.
A piece of advice for women when it comes to taking on their fitness goals?
We have a woman crowd here, listen, do not compare yourself to men. Please do not compare yourself to men. I have women who have partners who were like, oh, like, you know my husband and my boyfriend are doing the same workouts and losing weight, and I'm not. We cannot compare ourselves to men; they can lose like five pounds in an hour. It sucks, it's really annoying, and it can be discouraging. I have an Apple Watch, and I have a lot of guy friends. I was comparing my daily stats when my ring closes and all that to my husband or even my guy friends, and I'm like, I'm putting in way more work than y'all and like it's even like in our technology's and how they have it set up to be biased, which is crazy. It's hard to compare yourself to men because of how they burn fat. The way their body operates is very different than women's. We got to try a little harder.
Follow Ariel aka GymHooky on Instagram.