[jscott0918]

As I start to work with more genz folks, it is extremely pervasive that gym culture and health consciousness are much more core to their common zeitgeist than millennials. I imagine the same conditions core to their childhood and adolescence is also driving change in their parents and the rest of society.

Growing up natively with social media seems like a very reasonable correlation for me. Your life and habits are always under a lens, self consciousness or conscientiousness make sense.

[gruez]

Even if this is true, surely this wouldn't show up in the statistics until decades later? Going to the gym has little effect of whether you make it to 40 or 50, but it might make a difference between 80 and 90, but if all the gym going population are in their 20s today, that's not going to cause the statistics to shift.

[jscott0918]

If the 20-somethings today are substantially healthier than the 20-somethings 10 years ago, then quality statistics _should_ capture the effect.

[eitally]

This is absolutely true on both counts. For as much as social media is decried for negative effects on mental health and IRL socialization, healthy lifestyle & fitness inspos are absolutely having an impact. The nice thing about this is that it translates in obvious ways to IRL lifestyle mods, which when they show positive effects (better sleep, better skin, improved fitness, etc) become self-reinforcing habits. Among other things, alcohol consumption is way lower in young people than older generations, and although other recreational drug use is still "a thing", overall knowledge about the effects & impacts of recreational drugs is far more pervasive than in the past (as a young Gen-Xer myself, the prevailing mentality in the late80s-early90s was "drugs make fun times more fun" and that was about it).

I expect lots of formal study of these phenomena in coming years. As a parent of kids 7, 13, and 16 who spends a fair bit of time around school campuses & youth sports teams, for all the whining and complaining adults do about young people, my experience is that today's youth are by far the most empathetic, compassionate and best adjusted yet. They're going to be ok (provided we can afford to educate them and then hire them into the working world).

[mway]

Genuine question: in your experience, does this increased focus on image create proportionate negativity in the form of e.g. increased peer comparison, superlatives (i.e. "I am/am not better/smarter/better looking than my peers") than your generation?

[jsbisviewtiful]

Gen Z also views alcohol very differently, apparently. Without looking at collected data it's hard to say which generation is leading this charge (I suspect Gen Z and Gen Alpha), but I feel like an *alcohol* sober lifestyle is much more common these days.

I'm not on TikTok and generally try to avoid a lot of social media, so the uptick in gym rat lifestyle is not something I've been aware of. Certainly a good thing though and it's nice to see a whole generation not submitting themselves to permanently being on weightloss hormones or chronically obese. I'm in my mid-30s and folks in my social circle are either fit with quality fitness interlaced into their weeks or above average in weight. There's rarely an outlier from those two groups.

[duxup]

The fitness phenomenon is interesting to watch. My neighbor's older high school age children will be looking for something to do and they go to the gym.

When I was in high school ... nobody went to the gym. There weren't many gyms around, now there are a lot.

I do worry though that it might be cost prohibitive or even just limited to some social groups.

[michaelt]

> I do worry though that it might be cost prohibitive

Modern gyms can be surprisingly cheap.

Gone are the days of the 1980s when the only option was $$$ for a 'health club' with squash courts and swimming pools, stuck in a year-long contract whether you went or not.

There has been a rise in 'low cost gyms' which are less of a glamorous club, and more of a warehouse with a load of free weights, treadmills and stationary bikes. Often there's barely an employee in sight. In a lot of places $25/month can get you 24-hour access - with no joining fees, and you can cancel whenever you like.

Of course it's still not as cheap as sports like running. But just because someone goes to the gym, doesn't mean they're paying $250/month.

[short_sells_poo]

This is so true. I noticed only last year how many young kids go to my gym. They aren't skimping on it either. They do all the core exercises, they don't skip leg day, they help each other push more on the bench, etc. I think it'll build a certain form of discipline and character: there are certain things in life which don't have shortcuts. A gym is a great equalizer in many aspects, because you need little to no money for a good gym with good equipment. The most important equipment is a bunch of free weights, and rich or poor, results will need more or less the same amount of work. It's a place which welcomes everyone, and where hard and consistent work is rewarded.

[elijaht]

Reminds me of this (slightly melodramatic) article: https://www.oldtimestrongman.com/articles/the-iron-by-henry-...

Lifting has definitely played a changing role in my life. As a kid it definitely did instill the idea of working for results. It was extremely rewarding to see that when I worked out consistently and with a plan, I was stronger than my friends who went inconsistently or with poorly planned workouts. As an adult now it's more therapeutic - so much of my day is ambiguous, out of my control, or searching for how to apply my leverage instead of actually just applying my leverage. So it's very nice to have an hour of my day where I decide what I am working towards, and be able to hit clear goals largely by putting in blind effort.

[ghaff]

On the other hand, a lot of people played pickup basketball, went running, got exercise in countless other ways, etc. Even if gyms are more popular, I would need to be convinced that those (and fitness trackers, etc.) actually correlate to better fitness and health levels overall.

[EPWN3D]

High schools have gyms. Hell even my high school had a pretty decent weight room. Also don't forget that parents bought a ton of at-home exercise equipment during Covid, so the teenagers probably tried it out too.