When I first started my fitness journey, back in middle school, it was to lose a couple pounds, and most importantly: to get abs! I had been told by many that this was the key to feeling better, and more importantly, getting girls to notice you. So, as any 13 year old would do, I went on Youtube and found Mike Chang’s Six Pack Shortcuts channel. I thought that if I did this consistently, and suffered through the pain. I would get abs and be a happier, more confident person who people liked. For that's what so many of the fitness gurus I read about said.

“The reward of diet and exercise is a set of abs that are the envy of everyone you know” (Muscle and Fitness).

As I kept working, I finally began to have abs! I was the fittest I had been in my life!

Yet I was sicker than I had ever been as well...

Confused?

So was I….

I had done everything I researched. I ate the right foods, worked out hard at the right times with the right exercises. And yet, something felt off.

I may have been admired more for becoming more fit and looking good. But my true friends began to worry about me. Everything I said about myself was very critical. There was always something else I needed in order to be content.

I had totally lost the meaning of exercise. I became so consumed by the internet's flowing stream of pictures of the “perfect man”, I lost sight of true health. The pictures all showed strong, muscular men; with faces showing no emotion, with quotes like the one above.

Because that’s what a “real” man is supposed to represent. Or at least that's what we are taught to be like. The only way to be respected by other men, or get a girl is to get bigger and act tougher. But this only creates an unhealthy person, who is angry at the world.

Ever see that guy who is obviously lifting too heavy, bending his back to extremes just to get the weight up? This is a man absorbed by a boys ego. It’s okay, we’ve all been there…

Exercise should never be about perfection, or waiting to reach an end goal in order to be happy, because it will never come. It should be about the journey of spiritual growth. Is it important to work hard for goals? Yes! But under the right intention.

Being someone who enjoys art, I began to realize how similar exercise is to art. For, just like art, exercise is a physical way to express ourselves; to grow from being vulnerable.This allows us to use working out as a way to work on our flaws and to work on daily improvement. Strive not for validation, but a being that is honored.

It is time men start taking action like women in search for a positive body approach to training.

I think this ego-less journey will help us all find ourselves in a happier and healthier place.

Much love,

Sam