Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock recently posted this picture of his results after 18 weeks of intense dieting/training for his new Fast and Furious Movie on Instagram and it became a topic of conversation amongst several of my colleagues.

18 Week Progress Picture for Fast and Furious Movie

As one of my colleagues so accurately pointed out, it is The Rock’s JOB to be in shape.
People pay him MILLIONS OF DOLLARS to take his clothes off so that the audience will enjoy his movies.

In his post he also shared that he had an entire TEAM to help him achieve these results.

This picture is promoted to the average person as the standard of fitness.  When people think of the word “fitness”, they think of pictures like those above where people are unnaturally lean.

I say unnatural because even he doesn’t normally look like that. it took him 18 weeks to get to this point.

Unrealistic Expectations

As someone who has gone through the process of getting unnaturally lean, I can tell you that getting there is not realistic for the majority of people for several reasons.

  • They don’t have the genetics to be that lean
  • It’s expensive to hire a team to monitor you around the clock
  • They have jobs
  • They have families
  • They have lives

To get unnaturally lean  for a fitness contest, photo shoot, or movie is like a full time job.  When I was doing it, most of my time and money went to food preparation, coaching, and it was all I thought about from morning until night. It came at a very big cost and it was Definitely not worth it.

As a fitness professional for over ten years, I have come to learn that  “fitness” is not just about being a size 4 or having a six pack.  As a matter of fact, just because you’re really lean does not mean you’re healthy or fit.  Often people pay a price later on down the line with metabolic/hormonal issues, eating disorders, and/or injuries from overtraining.

As my colleague pointed out, people think that this is a normal and realistic outcome from fitness programs because that’s what marketed to us on social media.

We’re told that if we had just that diet, supplement, workout program, or whatever that getting super lean will be our outcome but it won’t and it isn’t sustainable.

So Unless  you’re being paid to take your clothes off, get rid of the unrealistic expectations of what “fitness” should look like in your life AND stop believing that you’ve somehow failed because you don’t look like a fitness model.