BRAINS AND BRAWN
Rise of bodybuilder influencers as gym goliaths flood social media…but it takes more than bulging muscles to make it big
GONE are the days when a career in fitness meant earning a modest salary as a trainer at your local gym.
The onset of social media transformed the industry into one of the most lucrative available to driven and health-minded individuals - but it can also prove deadly.
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Fitness guru Meggan Grubb managed to turn her passion into a wildly successful career with a savvy approach to social media.
The has 1.3 million followers on Instagram, 517,000 subscribers on YouTube, and 434,200 followers on TikTok.
Her extreme online popularity has helped her launch multiple businesses, all related to the fitness industry, including wellness app Beyond and activewear and swimwear brand Bluee.
Users of her app pay a yearly £79.99 fee to access a range of fitness guides, yoga classes, and recipes, as well as a daily mood journal, weekly planner, and "self-care audio library".
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She her own fitness journey began when she was studying at a London university and "just fancied trying out the gym".
Meggan said she enjoyed the clarity it gave her and she "wanted to try and help people", "especially women, because it's not just a man thing to lift weights".
She undertook a personal training course but quickly realised the market was oversaturated in the city.
So, she worked on building an online client base.
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Meggan said: "I started posting workout videos online and I think I was in the right place at the right time because they seemed to get a lot of attraction.
"I think it was because it wasn't that common in the female industry yet to lift weights and enjoy it."
A analysis found it takes more than just a pretty face and rock-hard abs to build a life, and a business, using social media.
Content creators must be strategic about the images and words they share to attract new sponsors and keep their followers engaged.
Photos and videos highlighting gym junkies' physiques and ability to perform exercises, as well as 'before and after' photos, were crucial to fitness influencers' success as they reinforced their competence, Fortune reports.
Other fitness influencers making their mark in the health and wellness space, as well as the business world, include Australian megastar Kayla Itsines with 16 million Instagram followers, Love Island's Gabby Allen with 1 million Instagram followers, and reality television personality Michael Griffiths also with 1 million Instagram followers.
All of them, and many other successful fitness content creators, have one thing in common: they are multihyphenate.
Visit virtually any of their Instagram pages and you will likely see a blue link, just above the follow button, redirecting you to a site which lists their businesses and the companies they are affiliated with.
Some, like Love Island Season Five's Michael Griffiths, remove the middle man and feature their many hats front and centre in their bio.
Griffiths, 31, describes himself on his page as a fitness trainer, "transformation coach", presenter, ambassador, and business founder.
But while these savvy gym rats are raking in the cash, providing inspiration, tips, and entertainment to their masses of impressionable fans, there is a dark side to the industry.
Some have criticised the role of fitness influencers, concerned chiefly with their credibility as product promoters, industry spokespeople, and spreaders of information.
Journalist Symeon Brown, for one, has described social media as "the most exploitative frontier of late-stage capitalism".
He Get Rich Or Lie Trying that "millions of children, teenagers, and adults are trying to go viral and capture our attention in a dogfight for followers, fame and, ultimately, fortune."
“The addictive rewards of accruing followers by any means necessary are warping human behaviour, both on- and offline.
"For influencers, deception is lucrative and becoming increasingly extreme.”
Sceptics often speak of the lengths some fitness influencers go to to enhance their physiques, including by way of Photoshop and steroids.
Former Love Island star Tom Powell he believed that if he wanted to make it as a fitness influencer he would have to get on the gear.
He said: "I was like, 'Shit!' If I want to compete in this industry ... if I really want to be a fitness influencer, I've got to take it, too."
Now an online coach, Powell recently had to undergo an operation for enlarged male breast tissue - a side effect of his steroid use.
Pursuing an Instagrammable body can even be deadly.
In July, German bodybuilder Jo Lindner died at the age of 30 just weeks after he said he feared over-training would give him a heart attack due to his rare muscular condition.
He died in his girlfriend's arms suddenly from a suspected aneurysm after suffering from mystery neck pain.
Jo suffered from rippling muscle disease, where muscles are unusually sensitive to movement or pressure.
He previously told YouTuber Bradley Martyn: "The heart is also a muscle, that’s my biggest concern that what if I get such a bad cramp that my heart gets a cramp."
Meanwhile, Bali-based bodybuilder, personal trainer, and influencer Justyn Vicky died this year while doing a back squat in a freak accident at the gym.
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According to reports, the 33-year-old was attempting to squat 460lbs when the stacked barbell came crashing down on the back of his neck.
His fans have since flooded his Instagram page with tributes, promising he "will always be remembered".
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