Anything taken to the extremes is often a bad thing, and fitness, sadly, is the blue-eyed boy of this trend. The all or nothing approach is seen in each and every aspect of fitness. You are either on a diet or you are not. You either go all out in the gym or you do not.  You either f*ck up your joints or you don't. Oh wait, that is an extreme I would love everyone to be on the 'don't' side.  And to preach and push this extremist agenda, fitness posters and quotes are often glorified and hung up as murals on the gym walls or kept as wallpapers and looked up to.

The following are the most garbage ones in my opinion.

1. Cheat On Your Girlfriend. Not Your Workout.

© Reebok

This was a campaign promoted by Reebok through its brand Crossfit and no surprises for guessing, it did not last long. I am still surprised as to how was it even approved by their advertising or marketing department in the first place. Maybe the guy who did was going through a rough patch or was a serial cheater or whatever. But putting fitness in the same context of infidelity and rather promoting infidelity is absurd, to say the least.

Do not cheat on your workout? Probably a good idea.

Cheat on your girlfriend? What even???

2. Until You Puke, Faint Or Die, Keep Going

© YouTube

WHY?

Pushing yourself and giving yourself a little kick now and then to get out of your comfort zone is what fitness does. It inspires us to get out of our comfortable lives, push a little bit, get better at it. Once you get better, push a bit further and keep doing that.

But do that to the extent that your gym visit is followed up by a hospital visit immediately, you would be out of your mind. That is what this stupid quote implies, that you should keep pushing yourself until you biologically cannot.

100% stupidity.

3. You Can Feel Sore Tomorrow Or Sorry Tomorrow. Your Choice.

© YouTube

This is yet another example of obsession to the extent that a good thing becomes bad.

Exercise until the point that you are always sore the next day? Do you really need that?

While it is quite normal for beginners to experience this in the very beginning, this wears off very soon. And that is how it is supposed to be.

If you are an experienced lifter and you lift every session to the point of soreness every second day, it is not going to do you any good at all.

It may even, in fact, hurt your gains.  And the other thing that this ridiculous 'motivational' poster tells people is that they should hit the gym 7 days of the week and they are a failure if they do not do that.

You need to understand that your body needs to rest and recover for you to become better with time. And that fitness should enhance the quality of life by being an aspect of it. Not the other way round. 

Author Bio:

Pratik Thakkar is the co-founder and director of GetSetGo Fitness, an online fitness company. He is regarded as someone who will make it easy for you to understand the process by putting things in the right context and providing science-based recommendations for natural bodybuilding. You can reach out to him at pratik@getsetgo.fitness and follow him on Instagram.