Google gives 108 million results on the term gym bro, on Instagram there are 1.2 million posts with this tag and on TikTok the expression accumulates almost 191 million views. The gym bros, brothers or gym mates, do not respond to a new concept, but now they are succeeding on the networks: they recommend strength exercises, explain how to get muscles in the arms or the abs – the queen chocolate tile of the gym – (without base scientific and no guarantee of success) and pose in front of the camera to show off their defined and fat-free bodies. Fatigue companions in elfitness: an aid to motivation or a health hazard?; a way like any other to keep fit or a showcase of hegemonic masculinity and misunderstood masculinity?
Regarding the first question, Néstor Serra Verdaguer is clear. He has a degree in Physical Education, trainer and trainer of trainers in fitness, health and performance. While training with someone can help with motivation, “the problem is when this colleague, who is not a professional, dedicates himself to prescribing training according to criteria that are often wrong. In a professional training program there is a quality in the movement, a balance, a progression. This is one of the dangers of gym bros,” he explains.
Although there are gym sisters or gym sis, the concept for women is not as widespread as for men. The reason? It seems that there are more men than women who go to the gym to exercise their muscles for free, to define their body and achieve great volume. “Everyone needs strength training, but gym bros are associated with bodybuilding and exaggerated muscle mass. Very often, women, when you ask them about strength training, remark that they don’t want “exaggerated bodybuilder muscles”, explains the trainer, owner of the Ludus center in Barcelona and member of the College of Professionals of Physical Activity and ‘ Sport of Catalonia. They, who are increasingly aware of the benefits of good strength training in terms of health, prefer to train with a specific program.
Strength training is necessary and a key aspect of aging well, but muscle training focused on hypertrophy with a simple aesthetic goal has dangers. “Very large volumes are sought, and to achieve them it is necessary to take substances that can be doping but which are not recommended”, says Serra. Growth hormone, for example, is not healthy when the body does not need it. There are other examples. “Anabolics have side effects such as the growth of the jaw or the reduction of the testicles, there are studies on their possible effect on the loss of the ability to ejaculate, there is also more fluff on the back…”, comments this specialist
There are not a few false myths spread by non-professional gym bros in gyms. One is that giving up continued training is exposing yourself to muscle turning to fat. Nothing supports this theory. “They are two different fabrics, this is not possible. Now, people who have a lot of muscle mass is because they eat a lot of calories, and if they stop training and continue to eat the same amount, they stop burning them, their muscle mass decreases, and the calories, effectively, are “they accumulate as fat”, says the coach. In addition to training in an unhealthy way, the obsession with muscles can lead to the need to show humanity. “One of the mandates of masculinity is not to show weakness, to be brave, to show strength. This has to do with the muscles, the manifestation of this force.
Now there is a lot of self-demand among men to gain muscle and have a strong person’s aesthetics”, points out Isaac Navarro, gender equality technician for the prevention and awareness program of Plural, the center for masculinities of the Barcelona City Council. “The male beauty canon has always been associated with a person with defined muscles. In women’s magazines there are no protagonists with muscles, but in men’s magazines men often have a significant volume”, adds Serra.
If muscles are synonymous with masculinity, why in certain homosexual circles are they also a way of expressing another masculinity? “A virile male homosexuality is also claimed from the seventies showing strong bodies. In the eighties, with the AIDS epidemic, the muscular body is not only seen as virile, but also as a healthy body”, explains Begonya Enguix, professor of Anthropology at the UOC and expert on the body, gender and masculinities.
In his opinion, “bodybuilding exercises, due to the cultural association between masculinity and muscle, are marked by gender from the beginning, masculinized practices. Muscular women do not break this association, but make it more complex, as shown by the stigma that has historically fallen on women who practice weightlifting, who have been labeled “masculine”.
The gym bro is a cocktail that brings together the importance of the body in social relations, ageism (the glorification of strength and youth), stereotypes about masculinity (strength, aggression, bravery, determination) and male bodies, the relevance of gender as a system that structures social relations and social value. Furthermore, it adds a key element of masculinities: male camaraderie.
Various sources and studies identify musculature or physical superiority with conservative ideology, the extreme right, or anti-feminism. Masculinity specialist Isaac Navarroiu that “aesthetics is another language. For political figures [such as Santiago Abascal] or YouTubers [such as Jordi Wild, with an anti-left discourse], aesthetics is a way of addressing people, it is linked to discourse, ideology, that they want to project”, he concludes.
