The moment you decide to step foot into the online men’s fitness space, you’ll be bombarded with messages that you’re not good enough. If you can’t lift a certain amount of weight or see visible abs after a certain amount of time in the gym, you’ll be accused by influencers and gurus of being lazy or not taking the journey seriously enough.
Falling short of the standards set by the trendsetters is seen as a colossal failure not only of your discipline and work ethic, but of your manliness.
One man is pushing back against unrealistic physique standards
Sander Jennings, an influencer in his own right with over 300k followers on Instagram, takes his fitness seriously. He says that he runs, including competitive races like half marathons, lifts weights several times per week, plays sports with friends, and stays active each and every day.
He also says he eats a “balanced diet.”
And he wants people to know that you can be fit, active, and healthy without looking like an Abercrombie model or professional bodybuilder.
In a recent viral Reel, he wrote “This is the body of someone who ran multiple half marathons, lifts 4x a week, plays sports almost every day, and eats a balanced diet.”
(In another, similar video he estimates his workload at about five workouts per week for eight straight years, at the time of filming.)
He shows himself in a natural pose, slouched in a chair at the beach. No special lighting or angles. He’s fit and strong, but looks, for lack of a better term, normal.
Jennings elaborated in the caption:
“Whether it’s lifting weights, walking or any type of movement, I move my body almost every day. I take care of what I eat and I enjoy my life. I’m strong, consistent, and energized — and I also have body fat. That doesn’t cancel out my health. … I don’t have shredded abs, and that’s okay. Health isn’t about chasing one specific look — it’s about feeling good in your body and showing up for it with love, not punishment.
“So if you’ve ever looked in the mirror and felt like you weren’t ‘fit enough’ — I see you. And I promise, your progress is still valid.”
It’s not the first time Jennings has posted similar content. He knows it gets a rise out of people, and that’s exactly the point.
One fitness influencer called Jennings ‘pathetic.’ Jennings had the perfect response.
Trainer, influencer with over 100k followers, and track and field athlete Jack Flood took personal exception to one of Jennings’ videos. Flood said that Jennings was likely pandering to “a certain audience,” which was “embarrassing,” and “pathetic.”
“If you’re gonna invest that much time, 5 days a week, for 8 years straight, you better get some results from that,” Flood said.
But it wasn’t just Flood. Jennings’ posts draw a ton of backlash from commenters as well:
“These kinds of posts are for girls bro,” wrote a sports physiologist and consultant.
“Do you drink a lot of beer or something?” another person wrote.
“Either there is something wrong , or you’re doing something wrong. That’s it,” a commenter added.
“You’re better than this bro” said another.
Jennings didn’t shy away from the criticism. In a response video, he challenged the pushback head on:
“Hey, it’s me, the pathetic and embarrassing guy who has worked out eight straight years and completely wasted his time. You know what, Jack Flood, you’d be right if I wanted to look like you. But guess what, a lot of people work out for different reasons. It’s not all about aesthetics. I work out for my mental health, to be around friends and family, to just stay active and move my body.
“We should not be putting people down just because they are not in the 99th percentile of perfect physique or because they don’t… eat perfectly healthy every day. … We all need to continue to be proud of our own progress.”
Men’s spaces have a severe lack of body acceptance
Whatever term you prefer—body positivity, acceptance, or neutrality—representation of different body types in media has improved quite a bit over time. We’ve come a long way since the hyper-skinny beauty standards of the early 2000s.
But it’s difficult to see any of that greater acceptance and empathy when you start actively looking for fitness tips and workout routines. That’s when the judgment comes in, and the response to Jennings’ posts proves how brutal it can be.
Jennings is courageous to take all the heat and criticism that he does, because someone has to say it: There’s not one way to do fitness.
Not everyone who steps foot in the gym has the desire to have bulging biceps and shredded abs. Those things are often played up on social media with the use of specific camera angles, lighting, filters, editing, and even performance enhancing drugs.
It’s apparently mind-boggling to many that a young, fit guy would be OK with having a little fat around his belly; that he’d work out primarily for his mental health, overall health, and longevity instead of to become as lean as possible. But that’s exactly the message that Jennings is trying to spread. Progress looks different for everyone, and that’s OK.
