The Unf*ck Your Fitness Podcast

159. Redefining Fitness Culture

• Kristy Castillo

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Something that has really been on my mind lately is fitness culture (or gym culture), and what it looks like to redefine that.



Fitness culture is EVERYWHERE these days. It can provide motivation, support, and a sense of community, which are all amazing things!



But…it can also lead to unhealthy thoughts and beliefs that are unrealistic, and end up doing more harm than good.



I personally LOVE following other women in the fitness space; I look to them for inspiration and motivation, but I also find myself feeling overwhelmed and drained if I’m doing too much of it. I bet you can relate to this, too!



Instead of following and consuming content from every.single.fitness coach, influencer, etc. online, I want to encourage you to ONLY learn from those who align with your personal goals.



Redefining fitness culture/gym culture is super important to me - it’s a huge reason why I’m all about helping you unfuck your fitness with this podcast, my programs, and more. 



Ultimately, I hope this episode leaves you refreshed, inspired, and ready to embrace the path that feels right for YOU!



In this episode, we cover:

  • What you think you’ll feel vs. what you *actually* feel when consuming other people’s content online
  • What gym culture/fitness culture refers to
  • Navigating overwhelming fitness advice & feedback from others
  • Redefining fitness culture and what that means for YOU
  • Being particular about who you follow and consume content from


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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Un-Fuck-Your-Fitness Podcast. I am your host, Christy Castillo, and I'm here to give you real talk and cut the BS so you can actually enjoy building a body you love. I'm a personal trainer obsessed.

Speaker 2:

What's up? Welcome to today's episode. I want to talk today about gym culture and I've had this thought lately about redefining gym culture and kind of recreating which is the basis, essentially, of Unfuck your Fitness right. The goal is to unfuck your fitness and to kind of say the things that people are thinking, say the things that people are wondering, kind of take all the pieces of your fitness journey right, your fitness and your health, your mental health, your physical health, your food, your nutrition, your walking, your all the pieces there's so many and kind of help you put them together and help you understand that there's not a right way for across the board, there's not a right way for every single person to do it the same, there's not a wrong way. So what some people say is right might not be right for someone else. It might be completely wrong for someone else. And that's kind of the premise, obviously, of Unfucking your Fitness. That's the goal of what I wanted to do here was just to kind of push away all the bullshit and really get down to the nitty gritty of how and what and when. Right, all of these things. And I think when I think about fitness culture and it's, I'm surrounded by it.

Speaker 2:

Unfortunately, and actually, as I was creating notes for this little short, spicy episode, I realized, even for myself, I need to go into my own Instagram because lately I followed a lot more women in fitness, and I love to follow women in fitness because I like to see their workouts, I like to see their gym, I wanna see their hair, I wanna see their workout clothes, like I just love watching people train, like I love it. But essentially it's getting me deeper, even into the fitness culture of things. And I was also thinking over the weekend of like creating, like consuming, like what we consume. As far as myself, like I don't consider, okay, here we go with the influencers again, I don't consider myself a content creator, but at the same time I do create content. So that's neither here nor there. But what I mean is, this weekend I was feeling kind of stuck. I would get on my computer to create a reel or to create any kind of content for the podcast or anything, and I was feeling completely uninspired, and so I would get on Instagram and just kind of watch and thinking like, okay, this should inspire me to create. What are other people talking about, what are questions, what are struggles I can create, you know, content, education, knowledge, about that.

Speaker 2:

So I went into my saved section of my Instagram to look at posts that I've saved. For that reason, I pretty much only save posts to go back to and kind of be inspired from, like, oh, that's a really good topic. I, if I'm needing a topic for a podcast and I feel stuck, I'm going to go in here and kind of look through my saved section. Well, I was in there and I felt completely overwhelmed. I had no direction once I got on there and once I got off of Instagram. So I was thinking I'm doing more consuming than I am creating.

Speaker 2:

So when I'm consuming other people's content on Instagram, as far as a content creator, as far as my job, as far as kind of soaking that stuff up, I would think it would be inspiring and it would inspire me to go do instead of kind of makes me feel tired and drained and like I just soaked up 15 minutes worth of who freaking knows what. And now I feel like stuck. You know, in terms of creating content. Now I'm like, well, that didn't help. Of creating content. Now I'm like, well, that didn't help me at all. Now I feel completely overwhelmed, like what does my audience want, need? How can I help? And maybe even I feel some imposter syndrome after I watch all these people doing what they do and feel like, oh, my videos maybe aren't that good. I don't have as many followers, right, like I can kind of get into this. I feel stuck.

Speaker 2:

And so, in relation to fitness culture and even you know someone who's not in my shoes, if I'm in someone else's shoes maybe yours in terms of fitness, and you're getting on Instagram to get a motivational quote, or you're getting on any social media, right, whatever it is Pinterest, you're just Googling motivational quote, then you're going to get pounded with like 600 motivational quotes and it's like, oh, now I feel really overwhelmed. Or if you're typing in leg day workout and then you get 600 leg day workouts and you're like, well, I don't know what to do, right, or how to count macros or which diet is best for me, there's endless amount of questions that we can ask on the internet, or even ask someone, right, if you're asking a friend or a parent or a spouse or whatever, you're going to get different information from each one of those people. So it becomes really, really overwhelming. And so, when I break this down into fitness culture and I was like, okay, I really want to kind of talk about fitness culture and just really get it out there like my feelings about it and just kind of have this raw conversation.

Speaker 2:

The word redefining fitness culture came to me because I literally I got out and Googled what is fitness culture, and so all of this, I have my AI overview here on Google of all the things that are referred to as gym culture and I'm going to get into that in a second. But as I'm reading through it, I thought, wow, I need to redefine fitness culture. I need to, and that is what I'm doing. And then I stepped back and thought, well, that is what you're doing. You're on fucking fitness. That is the same thing. But I think just using that term of redefining it helped me to think, ok, just because, yes, this is, this is gym culture, this is fitness culture. But what does that mean for me and how can I kind of protect myself from it?

Speaker 2:

I feel like, on the like, these last few weeks I've been talking a lot about different fitness things, realms and different ways you can get fit and deal with unsolicited comments and find the baddest version of yourself and kind of diving into this, and all of this is really just deconstructing fitness culture and breaking it down. And what is it right? So gym culture, fitness culture, refers to the shared beliefs, attitudes and practices that permeate the fitness environment, so this can be a wide variety of topics. This is your exercise, your training. This is your body image and how you feel, and about yourself and people talking about you right and how that affects your image, your body image. This is about nutrition and supplements. This is about competition and group fitness and working with other people. It's about comparison. It's about the community that you surround yourself with. It's that social part of it, because that's definitely a part of it. It's etiquette right. Don't go up to someone and give your thoughts and opinions on their body or their workout. It's none of your business. It's also about being safe and practicing good form. So there's a lot that goes into it.

Speaker 2:

Gym culture and fitness culture can provide motivation and it can provide support and that sense of community, and it can also provide unhealthy competition and unhealthy body image and eating disorders and pressure to achieve results that are unrealistic Not that you can never have those results, but the things you'd have to give up to get those results. Maybe you don't want to do and you're not going to do that, right? So gym culture, fitness culture when I Googled it, all of that came up and I thought, wow, that's a lot. And when we think about fitness culture, right, I think we all just think about exercise. What does my training look like? What does my food look like? It's like that's fitness culture and it's not. And that's why I wanted to unfuck this.

Speaker 2:

Because that competitiveness, that comparison, that body image, that mental health, that gym etiquette, how we speak, how we help each other, how we talk about someone's body, if you're gonna compliment someone and you know they've been going to the gym, say they're strong, say they're lifting heavier, don't say things like skinny and small and big, you know, like just kind of changing the verbiage and really understanding that your journey doesn't look like someone else's. Someone is not at the gym for the same reasons as you, so they don't need to be doing the same things that you're doing. And vice versa, which is a good reminder when you're in there thinking, is someone comparing me to what they're doing? It doesn't matter, because you're not there, you know. And vice versa. When you look at someone else and think, oh, they're doing maybe progressive overload. I can tell they're lifting super, super heavy. Maybe I need to do that. They're tracking everything, but you don't because you're not there for the same reason. So who cares what they think? Who cares what they're doing Right?

Speaker 2:

And that can go also into your friends and your family members and people giving you their advice on what you should be eating and what you should be doing. I just was reading through some of my client stuff this morning and I had one client who's struggling with parents and they're kind of making comments about her quote-unquote diet and how she should have a little more freedom, and she's not wanting to do that right now. I had another one and she said that her family's really pushing a carnivore diet and saying she needs to give up sugar and processed foods, and it's just. There's a lot of that going on. There's so much more. That was just today, but those are examples of minding your own business, and that's part of the fitness culture, though.

Speaker 2:

Is this comparison, is this community, it's this protection of yourself and your body image, and I think education and knowledge builds confidence, which builds that ability to be able to say no. I appreciate what you think you're doing for me and saying I should have more cheat days, I should have more flexibility in my meal plan, I should get rid of sugar and processed foods, or I should lift this way, or I should, I should, I should. As my friend Aaron says, don't should on yourself, don't let other people should on you as well. But seriously, it makes. When you have that confidence, you're able to stand up for yourself and say no, thank you. I understand what you're trying to say, but I don't want to hear it. Good for you, and I'm glad that you're doing that, I'm glad that's working for you, but I didn't ask for your opinion on my body and my food and this. I don't want to hear it, right? So I think there are ways that fitness culture hurts us so badly and I wanted to just chat about that in a real sense, because, when you break it down, fitness culture is everywhere, and I was also. I don't know if I was.

Speaker 2:

It was a documentary I was watching, I don't remember, but it was saying something. It was a personal trainer and he was saying that you know, a couple years ago, like even like 10 years ago or so, when this person started training, it was not like it is now. There was not as many programs, there was not as many trainers online and people doing you know coaching that aren't even certified or licensed to do that. And it's just it's grown so much in the last few years of who thinks that they can say whatever they want online, even if they don't have a certification. They work for this company, so they feel entitled or they feel like they have the backup to be able to do so. But there's a lot of information out in the world, right? You can, like I said, google, instagram, tiktok. There's so much fitness culture. It leaks into everything. And if you are trying to stay motivated and you're trying to even get motivated and you're trying to find workouts and you're trying to figure out what macros are or how to eat.

Speaker 2:

I'm in this group on Facebook I think it's called Gym Girlies and I really like it. But every time someone asks a question you know how should I they show a picture of their body and they show a picture of what they want to look like and they ask which is crazy, asking random people, how can I get this body? And all these people who think they know what they're talking about give information. So there will be thousands of comments on this one post. That's crazy, because even if some of these comments are right which, yeah, a lot of them are okay and they have some substance to them it's completely overwhelming. Like, where would you start? Even reading hundreds, even 12 comments is a lot. But I'm not kidding when I say there's hundreds to thousands of comments on one post of what to do to get that body. I'm sure that person thinks what am I supposed to do now? That was not helpful in the least bit. And now I probably feel even more confused because these comments are probably totally contradicting each other and you just feel lost.

Speaker 2:

So, fitness culture I think, while the basis of it is really good, right, I don't think anyone ever gets into fitness culture. And as a coach or as a personal trainer, a dietician, I don't think people get into these careers just for fun. Like, of course we want to help people, of course we want to share our workouts and share what we do and, you know, have a podcast and, like, get our words out there. We never think that this is hurtful or anything. That's never the basis of it, but it's still so overwhelming. So for you, I want you to think about redefining fitness culture for yourself. Literally, go to your TikTok, go to your Instagram, go to your Pinterest, go to whatever it is that you follow, anyone, anything whatever and just get rid of it. Find people that you.

Speaker 2:

My plan is to get rid of almost everyone on there, except for just a couple people that I really really really learned from and something that's really pissing me off lately. There's two men that I really really like on Instagram and I won't say their names very, very well known. I think their programs are amazing. Their education is amazing, very scientific, very, very smart. They've adopted to this strategy now on social media, where they take videos from other people and they just say whether they approve or disapprove or don't like or whatever, and it's so annoying to me because it's not original content. I understand what they're doing and I really do value their opinion on that video, but I would rather you just say it. I don't wanna have to watch this video of this person and then watch this video of this person saying whether or not it's right or wrong. I don't like that. It's just like recycling content and it's getting. It's really shitty. Like the content scrolling the fitness, the education, the literal of the fitness, the nutrition, the tips, everything is shitty, it's not good quality, it's not helpful. So think about redefining fitness culture.

Speaker 2:

When you come across a video and you're like I follow this person, is what they're saying helpful or is it confusing? Or am I following too many people for it to be confusing? Who am I socializing with about my fitness? Do I have a community? If not, get into my app and do Fit Club. It's $35 a month right now.

Speaker 2:

Get in there because you have me, you have macros, you have workouts, you have community. It's safe, it's awesome. I'm in there checking it out. I know what's being said in there. If anything is wrong that anyone comments, I correct it. I delete it being said in there. If anything is wrong that anyone comments, I correct it. I delete it. Like I'm in control, right.

Speaker 2:

What are you comparing yourself to for your body image? Who are you comparing yourself to? What do you need to do for your exercise and training? What do you need to? I'll tell you right now. You're not going to learn on Instagram. You're not going to get on Instagram and type in hashtag macros or hashtag body recomp. Those are ones that I use. You're not going to learn exactly.

Speaker 2:

I'm giving tips on there and other people are giving tips, and maybe very thorough, you know captions of how to calculate. You will still feel lost. You have got to start taking control and only following people, or hiring people, or working with people surrounding yourself, with people that are going to figure out what's right for you, and then you can take that information and all you have to do is do Okay, I would much rather talk to someone one-on-one. This is my problem. This is my height, weight, age, this is what's going on right. How do I get to where I want to go? Is it even possible to get to where I want to go? If so, how do I get there? What do I do? What makes sense for me?

Speaker 2:

Just be very careful about what you are consuming, because fitness culture is very, very, very overwhelming and it's unfortunate because, like I said, all of these people, myself included, started to help. We started to help you and we want we have all this information inside of us to get out into the world. But sometimes it's just too much and you need to scale back. There's no reason to be listening to podcast after podcast after podcast about metabolism. You should get the facts. You should figure out how to improve it and that's it. You don't need to hear about it again. Stop confusing yourself. Stop trying to figure out every single supplement and every single workout plan and every single. Just figure out what your goals are and follow people that are in alignment with that, and then that kind of redefines and unfucks the fitness culture for you, because otherwise you will be spinning your wheels forever and ever and ever.

Speaker 2:

I have ladies on my app hundreds and I have a lot of them message me and saying I'm really lost, I'm feeling really stuck. I'm in my 50s and I'm still struggling with my body. Why do I feel this way? Why is this happening? I really want this to be the last way. I want to dive in and really understand this for myself, and that's what it takes when you really want to understand something. You can't figure it out on Instagram, on TikTok, on Google. It's going to be too much. And if fitness and nutrition is not your job, which that's fine, right.

Speaker 2:

If I wanted to look up some information about how to save money, which is another thing I love to do, and we did have to do that, and we had to budget and we had to figure it all out. I had to really dive in. I didn't go on the internet and Google how to save money, how to get out of debt, how to blah, blah, blah. We bought a program, the Dave Ramsey program actually, and we followed it to a tee and figured it out right. If I would have looked that stuff up, I would have been completely overwhelmed, and that's a totally different realm, but it's the same thing for fitness culture.

Speaker 2:

So, again, I want to just kind of talk on or like say all of these topics. When I typed in fitness culture, it actually went to gym culture. But all of these things, I just want to say them really quickly so you understand all of these things that are fitness culture and all of the things that we're unfucking here and all of the reasons why you could be struggling, because it's not just your steps and your workouts and your macros and your water. That's the basis physically, but there's so many other things. Okay, so, exercise and training, body image and aesthetics, nutrition and supplementation, competition and comparison, community socialization, etiquette and safety. That's a lot of things when it comes to fitness and if you're watching hundreds of reels on these topics, you're going to be so fucking confused. Okay, gym culture can be rough and there's comments from people and people think they know more and people think they've experienced. So they're experts and you have to be careful about what you are listening to. So I hope that helped.

Speaker 2:

I want you to go into this weekend feeling refreshed, feeling like you can be confident, feeling like Christy says this, this and this. I know this is working for me. Or maybe another person you follow says this, this and this is true. I believe them, I trust them. I'm gonna go into the weekend not doing this diet, not doing that diet. I'm gonna do exactly what I know to do for my goals. Fuck fitness culture. Right, I'm going to do me. I think that's a great attitude and just be really, really proud of yourself for being here and figuring all this out. And I will talk to you in the next episode.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to today's show. Go ahead and leave a rating and a review and, of course, follow the podcast so you don't miss out on any future episodes. And I would love it so much if you came to connect with me over on Instagram at Christy Castillo Fit. I will see you next time. Bye.