Influencer Calls Gyms “Churches,” Never Went to One

Fat activism influencer Amanda Martinez Beck condemns exercise; she compares gyms to churches; she believes the fitness community is a cult.

Funny thing, though, she’s never set foot inside a gym. How do I know? I follow her.

Why do I follow her? I’ve extracted quite a few article ideas from her content: a platform that promotes obesity and brands anyone who uses a gym as “fatphobic.”

Recently I saw an obese woman at the gym I attend. She was killing it. This is to be applauded, not condemned or labeled as fatphobic.

Yet Amanda Martinez Beck, and many similar influencers, would label her as a victim of diet culture, as suffering from lack of body confidence, as caving to societal pressure to be thin.

What I saw, however, was an entirely different picture. I saw a young woman with significant excess weight who was empowering herself with a tough workout.

I saw someone at this “church” who was proud of what she had trained her body to do.

I observed a woman with more than body confidence; she had body performance.

Amanda Martinez Beck, who calls herself a size dignity coach, believes that body confidence comes from a decision to reject structured exercise and eat all the junk food you feel like and wear tight clothes.

And she calls gyms churches — her way of likening the fitness community to some kind of religious cult.

As a lifelong fitness enthusiast and former personal trainer, I will tell you hands-down that body confidence is steeped in what your body CAN DO.

Amanda Martinez Beck will never know the joy of hiking with her kids, and of doing so many other things with them – even a simple game of tag in the park – because she suffers from mobility impairment due to a combination of morbid obesity and total avoidance of strength training and aerobic workouts. Not even yoga. Not even water exercise. She doesn’t even walk her dog.

She combats the idea of dedicated movement every chance she gets. And it’s already come with a price: mobility impairment and very poor stamina.

If you’ve always “struggled” with your weight (I use quotes because the actual struggle is eating habits), do NOT, under any circumstances, allow yourself to be guided by an influencer who tells fat women to stay fat – without any consideration of their medical histories and what their doctor wants them to do.

The Origin of Body Confidence

We’ve been taught to think that confidence comes from fitting into certain jeans or seeing a certain number on the scale, but that kind of confidence is fragile.

Real strength comes when you start appreciating your body for its abilities.

When you focus on what your body can do — how far it can walk, how strong it feels, how efficiently it heals, how much energy you still have after spending all day helping a friend move — you start to build a more grounded kind of pride.

Influencers who celebrate obesity tend to be younger, and there’s a reason for this.

But don’t be fooled; even the younger ones can’t possibly be without pain that’s associated with their weight.

Being able to climb stairs without losing breath, dash across a parking lot in the rain, stretch deeper than before, eliminate chronic low back pain via strength workouts, or simply feel more energy throughout the day — that’s the stuff that counts — even if you have to attend “church” to acquire these abilities.

You can’t get these abilities by imagining them. You must work for them instead of falling prey to ridiculous dictums by influencers who struggle to get up from the floor and who declare that gyms are central headquarters for a cult.

Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness, where she was also a group fitness instructor, she trained clients of all ages and abilities for fat loss and maintaining it, muscle and strength building, fitness, and improved cardiovascular and overall health.