It wasn’t until I was writing a recent post, ‘5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting A Healthier Lifestyle‘ that I came to realise that throughout my fitness journey I’ve been a victim to following fitness trends and whilst this may not necessary be a bad thing – it made me wonder if I done it for myself?
When I first began my fitness journey, two and a half years ago, it was safe to say that I was lured into the current fitness trend at the time. I was uneducated, I knew no better and I practically followed what everybody else was doing and what was the ‘trend’ on social media.
The look of the ‘abs’ Â
At the beginning, abs were everywhere. Skinny and lean girls with hardcore abs rocked the magazines, social media and celebrities were going crazy for them. Remember those abs in under 5 minutes articles that would be featured at the back of a magazine with a fad diet to help achieve your desired fitness look? Well yeah, I was a guilty victim to that.
I followed a low carb diet, I put my body through long sessions of cardio and I worked my abs every single day. Damn, now I think about it I wonder how I didn’t go crazy?! I lived off salads, I said goodbye to pasta and bread and I didn’t even use the term ‘cheat-meal’… because I didn’t have one!! Saying this aloud now makes me realise how badly I was treating not only my body but my mind, too. This trend went on for quite a while and whilst I followed it until mid summer last year (sporting a high defined core), my diet did get better over time – thankfully.
#strongisthenewskinny
At the beginning of last year I slowly saw a new trend forming on social media and it was being introduced as the hashtag #strongisthenewskinny. Evidently, it was weight lifting and I was intrigued.
Of course, I was naive at the beginning of my fitness journey and had always believed that lifting weights would make you manly and should probably be left to the men in the gym. In fact, I didn’t even batter an eyelid about it at first. However, when I saw many of my Instagram girls joining in the new ‘trend’ I decided to look further into it and I purchased my first ever set of weights. My mum thought I was mad! But alas, I started my first strength training challenge by Lauren Gleisberg.
Still to this day, I’m lifting weights and I love it. I admit, I totally got into it because it was the new ‘sparkling’ trend, but I’m glad because I found something that I can jump out of bed everyday for. This one trend, I was grateful for.
The rise of the booty
Last summer we found people coming out of the ‘ab’ trend and welcoming a new one in. I mean, since the majority of us had now introduced weights into our fitness schedule we were bound to gain some mass and with that, some curves, right? Aka, a booty.
At first, I didn’t quite know what to make of the trend. I’ve never had a ‘big’ rear but I loved how everybody was promoting women’s curves and that the look of being skinny and toned was no longer the norm for social media. In fact, I noticed that when the new trend took to affect that the look of the ‘abs’ slowly died out. Nobody seemed to care about a hardcore stomach anymore – it was about fuelling yourself the best way possible and making your body strong. And yup, within time I found myself saying goodbye to my abs and entering a bulk to grow some muscle and enhance my curves. But mostly, I was intrigued to see just how much my body could change and if it would change the way I hoped.
Cardio ‘na’dio
During the midst of the fitness trends I also found that the liking of cardio suddenly fell out the window. People were no longer hitting the treadmill for an hour or doing their usual 30-45 minute cardio sessions. Instead they were welcoming a new trend, HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training).
Anybody who follows me closely will know that i’m a huge lover of HIIT. Always have been, always will be. So for me, to see it becoming a new welcomed trend was amazing. I loved how people were now swapping out an hour of treadmill work to much more enjoyable 20 minute HIIT session.
However, with the growth of this trend came some backlash and negativity to those who actually enjoyed cardio (not HIIT) and continued on with their sessions – despite what the new fitness trend was (and rightly so). People had started to question the choices of others and why they were enduring 8 mile runs a day, cardio classes or hour long walks. It’s almost as if they were like ‘Hello, there’s a new trend out now. Cardio is soooo last year!’ And it’s this that brings me to this subject… Are we guilty of following a fitness trend for all the wrong reasons? Are we falling victim to a new trend, despite if we like it or not?
Now, if you’re following a trend because you simply love it then great. That’s amazing. If not, then perhaps it’s time to look back on your choices and ask yourself why you’re doing it. Is it because it’s the current fitness trend and everybody else is doing it? I’ve always screamed and shouted that if you don’t love something, then don’t do it. You won’t find the motivation, nor the determination to do something everyday for the rest of your life if you don’t love it. Fortunately for me, despite following the trends, I do love what I do – now.Â
The first fitness trend I followed was purely because of that. It was a ‘trend’ and I wanted to be like everybody else. Luckily, I grew out of that – especially the diet side of it. But despite that, I believe that through every other trend I’ve endured I’ve stuck with it because it worked for me. Going back to the cardio ‘na’dio trend – this is something I haven’t followed, nor will I ever. I love cardio every now and then and if I want to work up a big sweat one morning, then you can sure as hell bet I’m going to and I won’t let a certain trend stop me.
Overall, the moral of this story is to make sure you do something because you want to. If something isn’t the trend but you love it, then do it anyway. If people don’t agree with what you’re doing, then do it anyway. Whilst some trends can be amazing, they’re exactly that – a trend. Don’t let it overpower your choices, don’t let it define you as a person and don’t let it get in the way of the things you love.
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In other news, I just had to show off Pink Soda Sport‘s new gym wear range pictured above. Quite frankly because I am in love! The colours, the material, the sparkle (yes girls, I just said sparkle)Â are all on point and I think it’s their best collection yet. I wear these leggings even when I’m not working out – they are ridiculously comfortable and the colour is between a lilac – grey with the side panel sporting a slight shimmer/sparkle but it certainly isn’t overpowering! Plus, they compliment the booty rather well. Uhh huh.
You can find Pink Soda Sport’s new collection on the following link: Gym wear and Gym clothing
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