Study Says Men Feel Shamed Into Going to the Gym

A new study shows that men who work out on a whim may do so because they’re worried about their body fat and are likely to be motivated by shame and guilt. (Photo: Getty Images)

Women aren’t the only ones with body image issues.

A recent study published in the September issue of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that men who go through periods of working out on a whim may be doing so because of hidden fears about body fat.

Psychology investigators from the United Kingdom and Australia asked 100 men to complete two exams — with one being an automatic assessment designed to evaluate their nonconscious (implicit) motivations for heading to the gym. Each of the male volunteers had a slightly elevated BMI (body mass index) and reportedly exercised for roughly hourlong sessions two to three times a week.

As a result, the authors discovered that the guys who worried about their perceptions of body fat were more likely to become spontaneous gym rats. Plus, these unplanned, impulsive visits to a fitness center are more likely to be motivated by feelings of guilt, shame, or pressure, as opposed to a desire to build muscle and improve overall health.

“Anyone can be affected by what they see online, the social cues images can give, and the popular conceptions of an ‘ideal body image,’” says study co-author David Keatley from the U.K.’s University of Lincoln, in a press release. “With the recent growth of ‘selfies’ and the return of musclebound Hollywood icons such as Vin Diesel and Hugh Jackman, there’s a real risk that males may be more influenced to attend the gym more regularly and work out to a point where it becomes dangerous or detracts from their well-being.”

“This study doesn’t surprise me at all,” Robi Ludwig, a psychotherapist and author of Your Best Age Is Now, tells Yahoo Beauty. “Men are also affected by the visual images they are exposed to and surrounded by.”

Ludwig adds that it’s imperative to understand that men are also diagnosed with eating disorders and body dysmorphia (also known as body dysmorphic disorder).

In fact, the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) states that 10 million men will suffer from a clinically significant eating disorder at some point in their lives, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, or OSFED (other specified feeding or eating disorder). NEDA also reports that men with eating disorders often suffer from co-morbid conditions, such as depression, excessive exercise, substance disorders, and anxiety.

And then there’s muscle dysmorphia — which NEDA refers to as “an emerging condition”— a disorder in which men obsess about what they perceive as inadequate muscle tone and feed this compulsion by spending many hours in the gym, squandering excessive amounts of money on supplements, or engaging in abnormal eating patterns.

“We tend to not think about men as being affected by these types of issues, but they are,” states Ludwig. “And the numbers are increasing.”

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