fitness trends
We all want to be physically fit, but there’s no such thing as a universal definition of “fitness.” To some people, fitness is simply a healthy BMI (even though there’s plenty of evidence that BMI is flawed). To others, it’s a toned, slim, beach-ready body. For some people, fitness means touching your elbows together in front of your bellybutton.
Wait, what? Each year brings new fitness trends, and some of those trends are healthy — there’s nothing wrong with Pilates, for instance, and we’re not going to mock anyone for picking up a few yoga classes. However, some fitness trends are downright dangerous.
Cracked Abs
Meet the ab crack, which is essentially the thigh gap for your abs. It’s basically just a line that runs down the middle of your abdomen, and it’s a byproduct of having a low percentage of body fat. As you might have guessed, it isn’t healthy.
To have clearly defined abdominal muscles, most people need to sit around 6 percent body fat. While we’d never say that anyone with a six pack is unhealthy — after all, you can still nourish yourself well and be really lean — you’ll have to go even further beyond this to get an ab crack. You’d also have to lose some muscle.
“If the ab muscles are underdeveloped, then the crack becomes much more prominent when the person is lean,” Li says. “If you look at bodybuilders who are in competition, they are extremely lean, often dropping to 4 percent body fat, but they don’t have a bizarre crack in their abdominal midline because they strength train to develop bulk in their abdominal muscles.”
Li says that the “ab crack” can be a sign of a condition called diastasis recti, which often affects people who have lifted heavy items without building up adequate core strength. The medical editor of Health, Roshini Rajapaksa, MD, notes that “getting an ab crack is probably not a realistic or healthy goal for the average person.” Most people will never be able to attain the look with even a clean diet and an intense workout regimen.
Waist Training
This trend was started in large part due to the Kardashian family, who frequently post pictures of themselves in Victorian-like corsets. The idea is that the waist trainers will gradually reduce your waistline, but Li says that contracting your waist within such a small frame can be dangerous.
“There is no way to squish your fat, muscles, organs, and ribs together without hindering how well your body functions,” states Harpers Bazaar. “The human body evolved to be of a certain shape and proportion, and aside from exercise and diet, there is no other healthy way to modify the body.” When worn for too long, waist trainers essentially push all of your internal organs together, resulting in some strange side effects.
“Every single thing you do to your body affects your biomechanics, from sitting at your workstation to wearing pointy-toed high heels,” Li says. “Think about how important it is to take a deep belly breath. If everything around your waist is regularly squished tighter together, you will have a much harder time getting a deep breath. Short, shallow breaths can cause anxiety, make sleeping difficult, and even cause dizziness and fainting.”
Protruding Ribs
Recently, social media users have started discussing “rib cage bragging,” which is exactly what it sounds like. People post photos to social media that show their rib cage visibly sticking out, with each and every bone clearly defined under the skin.
You can guess by now where we’re going with this one — while some people’s rib cages may stick out more than others, having one so clearly defined can only be attained with an extremely low level of body fat.
“This is entirely genetic,” Hopkins Medicine notes. “Some people just have ribs that stick out while others do not. I hover around 18-23 percent body fat, but even at my highest, around 25 percent, all I have to do is raise my arms to stretch and my ribs will pop out.”
Li says that your standing posture might affect whether or not your ribs protrude, but otherwise, it’s not something to strive for. “This is an absolute nonsensical trend,” Li says. Thankfully, this is one trend that seems to be on its way out, with many social media users publicly stating they’re not buying into the hype. As one Twitter user wrote, “‘Ribcage bragging’ is apparently a new trend? Only ribs you’ll see of mine are the BBQ ribs on my plate.” Skip the intense dieting and stick to nutritious foods that contain vitamins, minerals, and omega-3s.
Sunburn Tattoos
Don’t have the money for a tattoo? You could always use sunlight to burn a stencil right onto your skin. Of course, that’s an insanely unhealthy idea, but the #sunburntattoo hashtag took off in 2016, drawing an outcry from dermatologists everywhere.
By some estimates, UV light exposure causes approximately 90 percent of all melanomas (the most dangerous form of skin cancer). Sunburns increase your chances of melanomas substantially; according to the Skin Cancer Foundation, on average, a person’s risk of developing a melanoma doubles if he or she has had more than five sunburns.
Alien Yoga
Also known as “nauli,” alien yoga is a yoga move that is said to strengthen your core and detoxify your digestive system. To perform the move, you start by exhaling fully, pushing your stomach outwards. Then, while holding your breath, you pull your abdominal muscles up towards your chest, then move them from left to right.
So, does it work? Well, sort of — it contracts your core, but the “detoxification” benefits are dubious at best (detoxification doesn’t really exist, apart from the natural processes of your liver and kidneys).
Though the move should always be done in the presence of an instructor, it’s fairly safe. Yoga website DoYouYoga doesn’t recommend nauli for women who are pregnant or for people who suffer from ulcers, hernias, or heart conditions.
Thigh Gaps
This is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: You’re thin enough that there’s a clear gap between your thighs when you stand up. As cool as some people may think it looks, unless your body is naturally built to have a gap, it’s almost impossible to create one while maintaining your overall health.
The biggest factor in determining whether you have a thigh gap is how your thighs sit in relation to each other. That’s largely determined by your bone structure — you can burn all the fat you want, but you can’t magically change the positioning of your hips. If you don’t have the body type for a thigh gap, achieving one can be dangerous, since you’d need to bring your body fat down to a dangerously low level while decreasing your muscle mass.
“If you look at all the strongest people in the world, powerlifters, Olympic weightlifters, and strongmen competitors, they all have thick thighs that have no space whatsoever,” Li explains.
Those athletes don’t have thigh gaps — and that’s completely fine. “In fact, many strength athletes complain about their inner thighs rubbing together and causing skin irritation and deterioration of their pants,” Li says, proving that some of the strongest people in the world aren’t aiming for a gap.
