How Gym Selfies Are Quietly Changing the Way We Work Out

Science takes a hard look at the Instagram-ization of fitness.
Illustration of a man holding a weight in one hand and taking a selfie with the other
Illustration by Alicia Tatone

One minute, you’re soaked in sweat, silently repeating to yourself whatever vaguely inspirational mantra you use to push through each set’s last few agonizing reps. (“Go hard,” “Finish strong,” and “You can get pizza after this” are favorites.) The next, you’re hustling out of the background of a fellow gym-goer's workout selfie—if you aren’t taking one yourself to document your own hard work first.

“I have clients give me their phones—they're like, 'Could you take a quick picture of me?'” said Kenny Santucci, the general manager at Solace New York. (Solace, not coincidentally, appears on a list of the “Most Instagramable Workouts in NYC”). “We're in the middle of class, I've got fifteen other people here, and you want me to take a picture of you!?”

The scenario Santucci details is common in 2018, when everything from brunches to crunches can have the insufferable “do it for the ‘gram” slogan slapped on it. “It's become more of a visual game than ever before," Santucci says. "Instagram specifically has made the fitness culture evolve a lot faster." In a recent poll 43% of respondents reported taking photos or videos at the gym, and 27% of those were selfies. And if you were wondering whether the practice based on gender, Santucci says that in his experience, men and women are equally likely to stop, wipe sweat, pose, and snap.

The gym selfie, experts say, is more than just a visual brag or photo-driven pep talk. Social media is fundamentally changing the way we work out—and the way we see ourselves in the mirror. In a recent study, professors Tricia Burke and Stephen Rains found that individuals who saw more workout posts in their feeds were more likely to feel concerned about their own bodies, especially if the posts came from a person they felt looked similar to them. This means that even a passive scroll through Instagram can be more about stoking self-consciousness, in oneself and in others, than providing motivation—and that we internalize these lessons more easily than we think. “If people become preoccupied with their weight, that could manifest itself in less healthy ways,” Burke told me.

Brunel University professor Tara Marshall was among a team of researchers who examined the how the “big five” personality traits, self-esteem, and narcissism all interact; you may remember their results going viral in 2016 under variations of the title “People who Post About Fitness Are Narcissists.” They found that narcissists were more likely to post online updates about their accomplishments, and, assuming that vanity is among the reasons they exercise, Marshall explains that “discussing their diet or exercise routine on Facebook seems to be one way they broadcast a core aspect of their identity”—here, their physical appearance.


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It’s worth noting that non-narcissists can also enjoy sharing posts about exercise with their friends, even if their motivations for doing so are less, well, narcissistic; seeing someone working out and feeling good can inspire others, even if doesn’t always do so in practice. Rains adds that documenting workouts isn’t necessarily all that different than documenting any of the other mundane things we blast out to our followers without a second thought. “If exercise is part of one's everyday life, it makes sense that it would be documented on social media,” he said.

Mark Ribeiro, founding instructor at FitHouse, echoes Marshall on the potential for gym selfies to do some good in the world. “Fitness is a community,” he says. We all struggle with feeling discouraged, wondering if we’re the only ones having a tough time making it through a session—or venturing to the gym in the first place. Posting fitness-adjacent content and interacting with other people who are battling the same woes, he says, can exude positivity and strengthen connections, especially if you find ways to make clear the purpose of your approach. (Example: Focusing less on the body, or at least keeping the shirt on, perhaps.)

As with everything in life, moderation is key. When your obsession with crafting the perfect string of hashtags starts to bug your coach—or, even worse, when it distracts your fellow gym-goers—that’s when it becomes a problem, says Santucci. His major no-nos include skipping parts of a workout, taking too long to complete it, or interrupting someone else’s routine because you’re too busy arranging the equipment to perfectly frame your face. [Ed. note: God help you.]

New York City personal trainer Elysia Cronheim doesn’t have her clients ask for mid-session photos for a simple reason: She now has to set ground rules about it. “There's this need to prove to the world that you're ‘being your best self’ on social media, but it's not always a reflection of how you're actually spending your time,” she says. She explains she’ll agree to snap a photo when a client hits a major goal, like the first pull-up or a new deadlift personal best, but otherwise avoids paparazzi duties: “The vast majority of gym selfies are oversexualized, and that's where the body image pressure comes in and becomes toxic.”

In other words: Think before you send. Even if your intentions are pure, gym selfies can have ripple effects outside your Instagram grid about which you may not be thinking. Mull over why you’re really taking that selfie: to motivate yourself, or to perform for someone else? And however you come down on that question, a good rule of thumb is to always finish first and and think about hitting the “post” button last. It’ll still be there. We promise.