Social Media's Negative Influence on Fitness Industry

Introduction: 

     Social media has been around since the 1970's and has helped shape the way we use it today.  An issue that has been emerging in modern social media is the use of performance enhancing drugs, photoshopping, and other remedies to alter body images or sway social standards revolving around what is seen as aesthetically pleasing to others.  An article by Cleveland Clinic titled "How Social Media Can Harm Your Body Image," discusses about how filters and photo editing apps make it easy to alter someone's original look, which can impact the way people look at themselves (Cleveland Clinic, 2023).  It also mentions how anxiety originates from people have self-conscious feelings over their pictures online, which can make them develop body dysmorphic disorder (BDD).  BDD is a mental health condition that plagues a large amount of the population, especially younger people looking to be seen more pleasing to others through the gym or other ways.  

    A popular gym influencer by the name of Jeff Nippard, delves into the topic of "Who's natty and who's not?", which focuses on how regular gym goers can either be under performance enhancing drugs such as Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS).  This poses a very big issue for many adolescents or people starting their gym journey because it creates false expectations in the gym.  For example, many people in the fitness industry that uses AAS, aren't very transparent with their injections due to being seen differently or it's not anyone's business, but keeping quiet about it does more harm to people that look up to them.  Steroids increase your muscle size twenty times more than supplements like creatine in just one year, so imagine how someone just starting the gym would see another person with just one year or two years of working out looking like an absolute behemoth.  It can definitely alter younger people's perception.  

    The main issue with BDD is that it can ultimately lead to the use of anabolic steroids.  According to an article by "The relationship between anabolic androgenic steroid use and body image, eating behavior, and physical activity by gender: A systematic review," it states that "Body dissatisfaction and body dysmorphia may play a central role in motivating individuals to use AAS." (Zaiser, et al., 2024).  Going back to Jeff Nippard, he states that more people are taking steroids than ever before, and he believes that since many fitness influencers are opening up about their anabolic use.  He then goes on to say that in theory, that this is a good thing since this can make natural lifters set realistic expectations that fit their fitness goals.  This would eventually help set good standards for people.  What really happened though is that people still ended up taking steroids because influencers aren't very transparent with their viewers.  

An Example:

    The Tren Twins are a very popular and famous YouTube channel that mainly focuses on the fitness content, random commentary, and funny moments.  As you can probably tell from the name, the two twins do in fact abuse anabolic steroids, and that's what really helped them reach fame.  The issue with the twins is that although they do advise their viewers to not indulge in steroid usage, they still create content that can seem like steroid promotion.  There was a video that had them buying real steroids in Mexico, but they never took them to the United States or take them.  They are still transparent with their usage, but since their following is so huge, transparency doesn't matter when people are being exposed to these types of influence.
    Another example of influencers that have an impact on a large amount of people are fitness creators like Larry Wheels, and Bradley Martyn that explain their usage of AAS to their audience.  The issue about these influencers is that although they look aesthetically pleasing in terms of their muscle complex, they don't explain the effects of steroid usage, except Larry Wheels.  Bradley Martyn on the other hand doesn't ever confirm or admit his steroid use, even though it's clear as day that he uses them.  This could be a way to deflect or would rather his focus work on his brand and other goals. 

Conclusion: 

    I find the use of social media in the fitness world to be seen as deceiving because although many of these influencers are natural and don't use AAS, there is still a large portion of influencers that don't disclose their use, and it can alter body image views.  I can't lie, these influencers put countless hours into their health and have successfully sculpted their body to what they desire, but this can lead to becoming too fixated on their body and ultimately leads to body dysmorphia.  On the other hand, people who are just starting their fitness journey might look at these influencers and think their physique can be just like theirs's, but that's completely false, unfortunately.  There's a lot of things that go into muscle building, genetics, diet, and dedication.  If these younger populations can realize the true detriments of steroid usage, then I hope they can set realistic expectations and potentially set the true standard of fitness.  

Work Cited: 

Abdullah Al Hamid, Latifah Alomani, Alhanoof Aljuresan, Wasan Alahmad, Zainab Alluwaim,
Steroid and illicit drug abuse in the health and fitness community: A systematic review of evidence,Emerging Trends in Drugs, Addictions, and Health,Volume 5,2025,

Cleveland Clinic. (2023a, July 21). How social media can harm your body image. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/social-media-and-body-image

Nippard, J. (n.d.). Steroids Are Awesome. YouTube. https://youtu.be/lmClPGvdWTI?si=GqOhUnX0Sx8ohrEs

Zaiser, C., Laskowski, N. M., Müller, R., Abdulla, K., Sabel, L., Ballero Reque, C., Brandt, G., & Paslakis, G. (2024). The relationship between anabolic androgenic steroid use and body image, eating behavior, and physical activity by gender: A systematic review. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 163, 105772. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105772


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