NOT JUST ABOUT ABS

The fitness industry is finally embracing workouts designed for actual human bodies, not Instagram fantasies

- WORDS BY LEAH DENNIS

Step into any gym and you'll see them: the dudes pushing through endless crunches, chasing the elusive six-pack.

Meanwhile, the dad with the shaky knee from a high-school rugby injury limps by, convinced his best days are behind him. The high-strung executive with 'stress gut' avoids the weights section completely. The recovering athlete with a barely healed shoulder feels defeated before he even starts.

Here's the thing, though: the fitness industry has spent years selling us a lie. The message has been clear - transform your body into something it was never meant to be, or you're not trying hard enough. But a growing movement of trainers, fitness advocates and medical professionals are flipping the script on that, embracing what they call 'body-positive fitness'; training that works with your specific body, not against it.

THE REAL-BODY REVOLUTION

A growing chorus in gyms and home workouts is telling us to ditch the six-pack obsession and train for life instead. Recent surveys highlight why. In the UK, nearly three in 10 men (28%) say that they've felt anxious about their body image in the past, and just over one in 10 (11%) admitted to suicidal thoughts over it, with about 4% self-harming because of body-size shame.

In the US, Equip Health's 2025 study of more than 1 000 men found that 76% feel stressed if they miss a workout, with 59% admitting to working out to 'make up' for eating, and 49% have avoided social events due to body worries.

Clearly, the old 'no pain, no gain' mentality is doing more harm than good.

Trainers are responding by changing the game. Instead of celebrity physiques, they now showcase real bodies and real progress. As trainer Roy Belzer told Men's Health: "My focus with my clients is functional movement... moving and feeling better without fat loss as a primary goal."