Seasoned and novice runners are lacing up their shoes for this year’s marathon season, with sights set out on races in Chicago, New York City, Seattle and everywhere in between. While group fitness sports like running and CrossFit have moved Americans miles in the fight against obesity, some are training and racing too far, putting their lives at risk. Several people told Straight Arrow it’s a growing societal problem.
A Hyrox athlete defecating over a race course. An Ironman competitor dying during a competition’s swimming portion. Countless people collapsing during strength workouts and the open admission of taking steroids or peptides to speed up results. The videos are all over social media, sometimes with athletes saying, “a win is a win.”
The mentality is dangerous, and Ryan “Fitness Babe” Lill-Washington told Straight Arrow it’s running rampant throughout the fitness industry.
“You’re pushing your body to the limits and then saying, ‘How much farther can I go than what this limit is supposed to be?’” he said. “So, we’re not hitting this glass ceiling, and I feel like things have gone a little too far, to be completely honest.”
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And trying to find that glass ceiling isn’t just harmful in a single instance. It can have lasting effects on a person’s body.
“Strenuous workouts may cause exertional rhabdomyolysis (muscle cell breakdown),” UCLA Health Nephrologist Dr. Niloofar Nobakht told Straight Arrow over email.
She added the condition can go underrecognized, presenting in some people as muscle soreness, cramps or dark urine after intense exercise. Nobakht encouraged people to request screenings to catch the condition earlier than later.
If the condition worsens or is treated, it could create problems for people in retirement.
“Rhabdomyolysis is a common condition in elderly and might be associated with falls,” Nobakht wrote.
Social media the blame for unhealthy standards
Millions of people are on social media and have seen videos of professional athletes completing personal feats or setting world records. It has inspired people to work harder, but Lill-Washington said those videos and others have a more sinister effect.
“There’s so much access to health and fitness, but it’s to these standards of starving yourself for a competition, or brutally taking steroids where you are so big that your body is not adaptable to having that much muscle on you where it’s unhealthy,” he said.
It’s nearly a callback to an old fitness trend where the thinner a person is, the more appealing they are, he added. The body positivity movement, where companies adapted more plus-sized clothing and designs to accommodate those with disabilities, has helped quash the trend, but the extremes are still shared wildly on social media.
He added that people who are seeing these competitors online hit their personal bests aren’t seeing the months — sometimes yearlong — training and nutritional habits a person had to adopt to compete safely. Instead, a post has a sped-up montage of a person’s training and them crossing the finish line.
“It does not have to be this end-all, be-all approach to everything,” Lill-Washington said. “You are allowed to enjoy your life.”
Michael Ulloa, a British personal trainer and nutrition coach, told Straight Arrow that he did just that after welcoming his second child with his wife. He’s competed in Ironmans, raced in marathons and is training for his next marathon race — his first in a long time. But for him, those competitions are a celebration of what his body can do.
Ulloa said social media feeds off of people’s successes and asserts that someone is “soft” if they aren’t putting in 100% every day.
His colleague Natasha Devin holds talks in schools in the United Kingdom. She once told Ulloa about children asking her about fitness and nutrition. He partly blamed social media for getting the message out to school-aged children and warping their realities.
“We still glorify people who are clearly taking steroids and putting them on the front of big fitness magazines, and we look at them like, ‘This is the epitome of health, fitness and knowledge and it’s going to bring me happiness,’” he said.
The harm in the “no pain, no gain” approach promotes unhealthy habits like eating disorders, body dysmorphia or drug use, Ulloa added. Lill-Washington said, for some people, it becomes an addiction that he said the industry doesn’t want to address.
“One of them visibly, outwardly to the world makes you look healthier, but there’s such a stigma for that,” he said.
Who’s responsible for eliminating this?
Ulloa and Lill-Washington disagreed on the responsibility society, fitness companies and athletes have in stopping the industry from going too far. Ulloa is cautiously optimistic that change is on the horizon, with influencers and trainers urging people to pace themselves, but sees a need for social media companies to better regulate harmful posts.
“Expecting people to navigate the kind of health, fitness, nutrition space right now on their own is a big ask,” Ulloa said.
Better problem-solving is likely to come from a person’s loved ones or doctors, Lill-Washington said. People can pull someone aside and express worry that they’re in too deep with fitness. However, he said the real effect comes after the industry drops competitions like Hyrox, where people are expected to complete a 1,000-meter ski, 1,000-meter row, 200-meter farmer’s carry, 100-meter weighted lunges, 100 wall ball squats, a 50-meter sled push then pull, 80-meter burpee broad jumps and an eight-kilometer run in a single race.
Not all races are formatted the same. Hyrox allows people to race in a relay or with a partner, according to the company.
“You’re putting all of that together in a high-stress environment,” Lill-Washington said. ”And you’re telling a 22-year-old, ‘you have to beat this to be the best.’ It’s dangerous all the way around.”
From a medical standpoint, Nobakht said that getting early, timely intravenous fluids after strenuous exercise or activity can help a person recover. She added that electrolytes with salt, potassium, phosphate and acid-base balance are optimal and that any further intervention should be managed by a person’s general doctor or a nephrologist.
Cedars-Sinai Neurologist Dr. Vernon Williams said on his website that getting help doesn’t always mean seeing a doctor. It could be people learning what’s pain and what’s soreness, respecting the recovery process and favoring quality over quantity.
“The ‘no pain, no gain’ philosophy is a relic of the past,” he wrote. “Modern sports science emphasizes a more holistic and individualized approach to training.”
Lill-Washington encouraged people to work hard to achieve their fitness goals, but to hold realistic goals and expectations. He hopes people know when their bodies are telling them to stop and listen to those cues.
“It’s excellent to push yourself, but not at the expense of your physical or mental wellness, or the wellness and physical well-being of anybody around you,” he said.
As for the Hyrox incident, Joanna Wietrzyk has since apologized and forfeited her win. She added the incident brought her to remember “there is more to life than racing and knowing when it is right to step away.”
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