Recent social media trends involve healthy habits such as eating high protein meals like steak and eggs with guacamole on a wooden board or staying away from artificial ingredients like red 40 or high fructose syrup, maintaining good health is becoming a priority for more teenagers. Fitness influencers curate this content and with their platforms, have helped teenagers improve their mindset.
Many fitness influencers document their journeys to include their nutritional and dietary values to their progress of gaining mass. Others who regularly watch these videos, such as junior Noe Vargas, do the same.
“When I see his videos and physique, I wanna be like him (Nik You),” Vargas said.
Their fitness suggestions vary, as some viewers see progress with the guidance, while others think the advice varies and isn’t as effective.
For example, The Tren Twins, two of the most popular creators within the fitness industry, indirectly promote the use of anabolics and illegal performance enhancers by openly discussing their use of steroids. However, there are creators who are natural or “natty” like Shizzy who promote unadulterated fitness. Many of these creators push for long term health instead of temporary gain and provide insight to the science based aspect of health and fitness.
Brendan Ruh or “Santa Cruz”, the owner of Santa Cruz Paleo also known as @santacruzmedicinalss across social media platforms, is mostly known for his electrolytes and “Locked in” challenges where he has fans compete against one another in maintaining healthy habits for the chance to be flown to a facility of his where they continue healthy practices. Along with this he also offers $100 at fast food chains to get people to quit negative habits. He has a degree in human anthropology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Despite Brendan’s different style of content creation regarding health, he has managed to gain a following of 1 million on Tik Tok and 650,000 on Instagram, with most of his followers being younger viewers.
Junior Anthony Cristofaro described that watching Santa Cruz influenced him to make changes in his everyday life.
“Ever since I started fixing everything, my diet, my nutrition, my sleep and exercise,” Cristofaro said. 
People have been motivated to obtain a healthier lifestyle through social media. Whether it be a person, sport, or even just chatting with others online, many fitness influencers have given teenagers a source of confidence and better mindset. Despite their varying opinions on the influence of gym social media influencers, most followers believe their content has benefitted them and their fitness journey.
