When healthy living becomes repression

Shortly after the start of the year, actor Álex González uploaded a video to his social media accounts with an invitation: “Beers today? I can’t, I have plans.” He then made it clear that his plans were none other than working out, eating healthy food, and soaking in bathtubs filled with ice cubes. “Discipline is the greatest act of self-love. YOU ONLY HAVE ONE BODY,” he added. At 45, the Spanish actor maintains an athletic and youthful physique—the kind that many people show their personal trainers and say “I want to look like that.” His social media presence includes a succession of recordings of all kinds of workouts. He recently posted a video with Jorge Darek, a content creator and trainer, who, during a conversation with the actor, asserted that he prefers eating and exercising to having sex.

In April, Darek is organizing the second edition of a seven-day retreat in Bali that, he warns, is not your standard tourist retreat. “There are no processed food buffets or filler activities. There’s butter from grass-fed cows, training under the Balinese sun, and an environment designed to elevate your standards.” Also in Bali is Bali Time Chamber, a training camp for men only. “You can’t drink, smoke, or eat junk food. The only things you can do there are train hard, reconnect with nature, eat premium meat, go to the sauna, talk with other like-minded men, take time to reflect, take an ice bath, learn new skills, focus on your goals, and work on your business,” they explain on the camp’s Instagram profile. In fact, in the new season of the Netflix series Machos Alfa (Alpha Males), the protagonists attend a masculinity camp where they eat enormous cuts of raw meat and train like true soldiers.

Retreats and life changes

Xabier Sánchez, a trainer and expert in breathing, posture, and movement, shares his opinion on these camps. “These types of retreats encourage men to identify with a specific masculine profile, and that weakens the relationship between men and women,” he says. “Many people have a biased and polarized view of health. Each person has to figure out what works for them and what doesn’t. My experience tells me that authoritarian or radical positions are not effective in the long run.”

All of this is happening within a context of self-improvement: more and more people are embracing a healthy lifestyle, or at least trying to. Mariano Urraco, a sociologist at the Complutense University of Madrid, explains that for Generation Z, which advocates for increasingly healthy habits and showcases its workouts on social media, “the new god is the body.” This is why more public figures are gaining popularity by sharing how their new habits have transformed their lives. Such is the case of coach Tyler McManus, who, after making a healthy change in his own life, now helps his clients do the same. “I went from partying most weekends and drifting away from my potential to completely locking in on my habits, training, and mindset,” he explained on his Instagram profile. “By cutting out distractions, building discipline, and committing to consistency, I transformed not just my fitness but my life.”

The addiction to healthy living

Improvement ceases to be improvement when it becomes obsessive. Luis Miguel Real, author of La Mentira de la Fuerza de Voluntad (The Lie of Willpower), talks about people who have given up alcohol, tobacco, ultra-processed food and any substance that minimally alters their natural state. “These are people who eat perfectly (if such a thing exists), train every day, sleep their eight hours as if it were a commandment, and know by heart the list of forbidden ingredients in any product. But they don’t just do it, they preach it. And they preach it loudly. They don’t drink a single glass of wine, they look down on anyone who asks for a slice of cake, and they never miss a gym session. On the surface, they are the epitome of willpower, discipline, and self-care. But in practice, they often behave like addicts who have simply substituted one set of addictions for another. And be careful, because behind all that health, there may be a problem,” he says.

Can you be addicted to healthy living? He believes so. “If your day revolves around your exercise and eating routines to the point that you can’t afford to skip them without anxiety, there’s a problem. In a society like ours, where many traditional models of masculinity are in crisis, the cult of the body has become a new way to validate personal worth. You’re no longer the alpha male because you have money or power. Now you’re better if you have well-defined abs, if you wake up at 4:30 am to train, and if you don’t eat carbs.” Real emphasizes that, far from being lived in silence, this lifestyle is displayed, uploaded to social media, and becomes content, which almost makes it performative.

Javier Menéndez, trainer and CEO of the exercise app Entrena Virtual, points out that the key is not to prohibit or demonize, but to understand the impact of certain habits when repeated over time and to make more conscious choices. “The problem arises when the discourse becomes extreme or moralistic. Health shouldn’t be experienced through fear or guilt. You can go out, eat something less healthy, or have a drink now and then, and absolutely nothing will happen if your foundation is well-maintained. For me, a healthy lifestyle is a conscious, flexible, and sustainable choice. It’s not about showing off on social media or being perfect, but about taking care of yourself most of the time so you can allow yourself to live without obsession,” he says.

He points out that a key stage begins between the ages of 30 and 40: the body no longer forgives excesses in the same way, and that’s when training and eating with long-term health in mind, not just immediate performance, becomes crucial. “I recommend focusing on real, regular food, without obsessing over perfection. The key is to establish sustainable habits that can be maintained for years. And I would add something fundamental: rest and stress management. Sleeping well, slowing down when necessary, and listening to your body are all part of training, even if it’s not visible on social media. Ultimately, taking care of your health isn’t about doing everything perfectly, but about understanding that what you do repeatedly has an impact. If you take care of your body most of the time, you can allow yourself exceptions without a problem. That’s also part of health,” he affirms.

Finally, Luis Miguel Real wants to point out that, in many cases, what lies behind these demanding routines and a lifestyle that leaves no room for certain indulgences beyond the extreme is not a love of health but a fear of losing control, of others’ judgment, and of feeling inadequate if they don’t meet their own standards. “It’s what we call cognitive rigidity in psychology: a black-and-white, all-or-nothing way of thinking, in which any deviation is experienced as a personal failure. We also have to talk about false moral superiority. Many of these people see themselves as superior because they have managed to control their impulses. Because they don’t give in to laziness, hunger, desire, or temptation. But what they don’t see is that they have built their identity on constant repression. They are not freer, but quite the opposite.”

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