If you type 'gym selfie' into a search engine, you'll immediately be inundated with article after article about the new worldwide phenomenon that has, quite frankly, taken the fitness world by storm. Everyone's doing it, Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian and Madonna to name but a few. You can't move on social media sites for images of thousands of gym goers, parading around in their latest lycra, showing off their newly toned abs or weight loss. But most of the time they look like they haven't even broken a sweat, never mind actually set foot on a treadmill! There's even step-by-step advice on how to take the perfect gym selfie - who'd have thought!
Let's be honest, we've all seen them and some of us have even taken a few ourselves; guilty as charged! So what's the obsession with us taking the perfect picture in the gym? Why are we so afraid of embracing the hot, sweaty mess that we all become (come on admit it) and sharing it with the world? Well some would argue that the perfect selfie promotes progress, shows off 'just how far we've come' with our body transformations and inspires others. After all, if you can see it - you can be it, right? However, others would disagree saying that it is narcissism - pure and simple. They may suggest that posed selfies have zero impact on our performance in the gym and can actually hinder it. Therefore, stopping us from working to our full potential. So which camp are you in?
If I'm totally honest, although I can't believe I'm about to say it out loud, for me it's the former. I work hard at the gym, enjoy having a leaner, fitter body and sometimes feel the need to show the world (not that anyone particularly wants to see it). Usually, I'm only going to upload a picture to Twitter or Instagram if I feel it's moderately flattering (so maybe there's a smidge of the narcissist me too). You're less likely to see a photograph of me at the end of a workout when I'm dripping with sweat and more likely to see me pre workout with my make up still intact.
But...are you ready for this, ladies? What if we could capture ourselves working at maximum output? If we could actually see the blood, sweat and tears during our workouts, would we like what we saw? Well, I was about to find out...
The gauntlet was thrown down in epic proportions when we were encouraged, during a high intensity workout, to ditch our shiny happy selfies and post pictures of ourselves in "our most depleted, raw and broken post workout state" ...er remind me again why I signed up!
We were put through our paces by the team, burpees, press-ups, biometric lunges, planks and encouraged to take a selfie during each stage of the workout. We also had lots of lovely cameras photographing us as we were put through our paces, capturing us working to our maximum output. There was quite frankly nowhere to hide!
By the end of the class I felt motivated, totally pumped and even though I looked a little broken to say the least, I was surprisingly quite happy to be photographed at my sweatiest. Even more surprisingly I found myself willing to share my post-workout selfie (apply named the anti selfie) to the world, who'd have thought?
Believe it or not, I'm converted! There's something quite refreshing about seeing images of myself being pushed to the extreme during and after a workout. And it's not just me, lots of likeminded fitness fanatics (celebrities included) have taken to instagram and twitter to share their post workout pics for us all to enjoy! Maybe, just maybe, we're all at our most beautiful when we're pushing ourselves beyond our limits...