In the last four months, “depression slideshows” have been circulating throughout TikTok. These posts are slideshows of various images intended to make the viewer feel hopeless, featuring images that discuss feelings of inadequacy and feelings of immense pressure. These slideshows are often set to sad music, such as “Call Me” by Gigi Mansin and “Can You Feel My Heart” by Bring Me The Horizon. Feelings of insanity and forced conformity are also common themes in these posts. After seeing these posts, the viewers are then encouraged to head to the gym to deal with these feelings.
“The old meme is, ‘what do we do with our feelings? We hide them in our muscles,’” boys weightlifting coach Isiah Cabal said. “It’s cool to say, I go to the gym on a regular basis. It’s not as cool to say ‘I go to therapy or I talk to someone about my mental health, my spiritual health, my emotional health.’”
With 106.6 billion views under the hashtag Gymtok, the popularity of this type of content is evident. However, for those who do lift, it’s not purely physical.
“[It’s] a good way to get your not [necessarily] anger out, but just kind of get your energy, any energy that you have [out], and it feels good,” junior Brady Thomas said.
“I [work out] from 5 to 6 a.m.,” Cabal said. “I get it all done. There’s something to be said about feeling like, I’ve done more in this last hour and a half than most people have done all day, and then it just kind of sets the tone for the rest of your day.” There’s scientific basis to support these claims. Many studies have shown regular physical activity significantly reduces the symptoms of anxiety. The slideshows, however, don’t appear to have much of an influence on Thomas’ routine.
“I feel like they’re a joke. And some of them aren’t serious, but some of them are. But it’s just like, you get them and you laugh at how absurd they are.” Thomas said.
Thomas instead suggests that social media is not a major concern for his personal exercise motivation. “I don’t weight lift to look like everyone on Instagram.” Thomas said. “I just would like to improve myself. And I think it’s a good thing to work on self-improvement.” While the encouragement of exercise and self-improvement appears to be the main goal of this movement, the instantaneous nature of social media can sometimes interfere with this mission.
According to Cabal, When you post about your goals, people typically offer words of encouragement. This gives your brain the positive response it wants, and thus the motivation for exercise diminishes, Cabal explained.
Bodybuilding during adolescent development is something that has piqued the interest of the scientific community, recent data seems to indicate that increased exercise during adolescence increases bone strength. Ultimately Thomas’ philosophy is quite simple:
“I mean, I feel like you should go to the gym if you want to go to the gym, but if it’s not something you enjoy you shouldn’t feel like you’re compelled to go. You should just do it if it makes you happy.” Thomas said.
