When it comes to grabbing the attention of the Gen Z demographic, there is often one thing that appeals to them more than anything else: internet memes.

Whether it be through tiktok, youtube, or instagram, there is nothing that teenagers and young adults love more than a good meme that makes them laugh and brighten their day just a little bit more. When it comes to gym and lifting culture, there has been an emergence of what is considered “fitness memes” where people are starting to poke fun at the industry and show humanity in the once fabled “gym bros” that are seen as almost untouchable in society.

A prominent leader in this shift of making fun of the gym influencer industry is a content creator by the name of “Back Guy”, who has amassed over 400,000 subscribers on youtube. The description of his youtube channel is to “Spread positivity and information one meme at a time,” and he has been incredibly successful by gaining more than 150 million views on his content.

With a widespread audience, Back Guy allows gym culture to be more approachable to viewers through videos that people can relate to by making his audience laugh. The humor allows him to connect to his viewers in a way that makes the gym seem not as scary as it might be viewed as prior to watching his videos.

A good example of this is in one of his short videos where he shows himself being relatable, but he is incredibly muscular and posing in a way to try to make his audience laugh. His mannerisms in this short 20 second video show that the people who lift and turn into these “muscle monsters” are not much different from those who decide to lift as a hobby, or even those who don’t lift at all. Back Guy shows humanity in his videos by portraying a character that is relatable to human nature, and he brings him, his audience, and the people he jokes about in his videos all on a common ground through the medium of humor. 

I have always felt like the stereotype for the gym is super “hardcore” and has always had a “get tough” attitude that can be alarming to newcomers who are going to the gym for the first time. Seeing people on the bench press next to you benching four plates for reps can be incredibly intimidating, and can ultimately deter those who want to go to the gym to get stronger to come back the next day and work out again.

So through humor, I feel like making fun of the “hardcore” stereotype that surrounds the gym is a great way to help introduce newcomers to the gym, and hopefully encourage them to “achieve greatness” in meeting their healthy lifestyle goals. Along with being in the gym, I feel like this mentality can also be associated with people who are incredibly successful in the workforce.

There is always this constant belief that those who are incredibly high up in their professions, whether it be CEOs, lawyers, doctors, or even professors and teachers, are these perfect people that are disciplined and, in a way, untouchable. However, one thing that is often forgotten by society is that those who are high up and successful are people too, just like those in the gym who have gone every day in order to become as strong as possible. In closing, through humor and making jokes, sometimes stupid videos on the internet is all that is needed in order to motivate those in order to become the best version of themselves. Whether it be going to the gym, or applying to a job with people that seem “serious”, I hope to show that at one point those same people were sitting in the exact same position that you, me, and thousands of other college students are doing right this second. At the end of the day, we’re all human, and as humans we can push each other to become motivated to do the things that we are passionate about in life.