Cosplay Fitness Is BAD For Body Image?! The reality of Looking 'Anime'

So last week I saw some talk on twitter that basically went

“People seem to expect male cosplayers to have visible abs now but they don’t know how unhealthy & unsustainable it is. They can only do that because they have personal trainers, dieticians, & 3+ hours a day to train. What actually goes into that look is dangerous for certain people"

I do appreciate the gist of the message; we shouldn’t be expecting anybody to look like anything, everyone of all shapes & sizes should be allowed to cosplay, & that you shouldn’t engage in unhealthy behaviours for the sake of aesthetics. I 100% agree with that.

What I want to clarify is that you can be lean & muscular year round without hours of training per day, a dietician, or a trainer. Being lean and muscular isn’t dangerous, in fact believe it or not, working out & eating well is good for you ;)

Having visible abs is usually healthy if not taken too far. 12% bodyfat for men has you at Jason Momoa levels of lean, less than 8% starts to cause health & adherence problems. The 8-12% body fat range is excellent body composition for men & the 16-20% range is great for women (generally the range I recommend people cut & bulk if they choose to do so).

I have never had a PT or a dietician & my knowledge of training & diet is self-taught. I am currently doing a lot more training than I used to but I got in fantastic shape off an hour a day's worth of working out and that's the case for most people.

Excellent health & an awesome physique doesn’t take much more than tracking calories/protein/fibre, lifting moderately heavy weights 3-5 times a week, walking on the other days, & getting 7-9 hours of sleep per night. That can be done in roughly 1 hour of exercise & 5 minutes to track your food per day and it certainly doesn't require personal trainers, dieticians, and 3+ hours a day to train. That's nothing but an ill-informed nonsense statement.

Cosplay is for everyone regardless of flabs or abs. But I will not get behind the mentality that training & eating well is bad for you. It’s one of the best things you can ever do for yourself long term and cosplay can be a fantastic motivation for it. Cosplay Fitness and anime workouts ftw!

Be inspired by your anime heroes or villains, get ripped like them. Be More Shonen!

Cosplay: Donquixote Doflamingo (One Piece) Photo: Nomes Cosplay