The Crisis of Masculinity in Fitness: A Middle-Aged Man’s Reflection

This is a truly difficult time for me. I feel that over the next few months, what I publish here will be more reflective, more philosophical. Not just about training, but about the life of a grown man. It’s time to look at how physical activity should actually function in the real world, not through the lens of stylized, filtered Instagram photos.

Training vs. Reality: Far from Filters and Fakery

Instagram and the whole “fitspiration” circus promote distorted ideals. Training becomes a form of self-promotion, not a genuine concern for health. The standards are exaggerated, often driven purely by financial motives. People create content because it sells — not because it reflects real life.

Lately, I’ve consciously started following more profiles of people who look normal. They train, they stay active, they’ve got years of work behind them, but they don’t look like Olympians. And that’s what’s real. That’s what I want to see more of.

Responsibility Over Enhancement

If you’re not on performance-enhancing drugs, if you’re not devoting your entire life to training, if you don’t own a supplement line or a gym chain — according to today’s “standards,” your voice doesn’t matter. And that needs to end.

True masculinity is about responsibility: for your family, your mental health, your integrity. It’s not about getting divorced in the name of progress. It’s not about failing at work because you had to squeeze in your cardio. We need to say this out loud.

Fitness Without Illusion: The Hatred of Normalcy

Showing up as a regular person online is an invitation for hate. Trainers who don’t look like bodybuilders get ridiculed by fans of physiques built on steroids.

Just because someone looks different doesn’t mean they don’t have knowledge. I’m a certified trainer. I’ve been training for over a decade. I’ve experimented with different methods. But I didn’t build a business around it — and that’s okay too.

Racing Your Past

We’re trying to chase dreams we should’ve fulfilled when we were young. But we grew up in 1980s and 90s Poland — that wasn’t a time for growth, it was a time for survival. We had no healthy role models, no access to real knowledge, no supplements, not even proper food.

The average lifespan of a man in Poland is about 74.7 years. A quarter of us don’t even make it to retirement. And nobody cares. We are drained by the system, by expectations, by life itself. And when we should finally be able to rest — there’s no room for that.

Health vs. Fitness: Two Different Things

Being healthy and being fit are not the same. And vice versa. You can look amazing and be a wreck. You can be in shape and mentally falling apart. If you don’t get that difference, you’re stuck in a trap.

You have to accept your limits. Understand that what you see online is a staged illusion. People only show the end result — often achieved with drugs and sacrifices you neither want nor need to make.

A New Chapter

For me, this is a new beginning. Something ended. Something else is starting. And I think I’m finally beginning to understand that maturity begins where the illusion ends.

Being a mature man means understanding your limits. Building your form not for the spotlight but in alignment with who you are. Developing endurance — not just physical, but mental. The kind you can’t hack. The kind you have to earn — over years, honestly, without shortcuts.