A friend recently asked for my advice on getting fitter. Over coffee, he recounted a harrowing Elizabeth Line journey back from a 5-a-side football game in deep East London wallowing in feelings of embarrassment and shame. A superstar box-to-box midfielder in his teenage years, he’d found himself feeling way off the pace of the other 30 somethings. Alien feelings of being slow, incapable and unfit were creeping in.
As a busy 35 year old Dad of two young kids he now felt himself at a crossroads - get fitter or stop showing up to the games he’d been enjoying as an opportunity to hang out with friends every few months for the last decade or so. We’ve known each other for years and he’d seen my journey broadly in the opposite direction from waddling overweight teenager to pretty active mid thirties Dad and wondered if I could help point him in the right direction.
The most important thing to getting fit: adherence
I believe adherence to regular physical activity is the most important thing to focus on to get and stay fit. It’s far more effective to optimise for actually doing some rigorous movement regularly than trying to make each session the perfectly optimal workout.
The advice I gave in the moment was to find some physical activity - football, cycling, weightlifting, walking, anything - that he actually enjoyed, and to try and do that activity on at least two to three times a week for the next month. Build momentum first, worry about optimising later.
Sound advice, I thought. Find something fun, do it regularly, success will follow. But having had a few weeks to mull this over, I’ve realized I was only half right. Enjoyment is crucial for adherence. But I’d overlooked something important about what makes physical activity genuinely enjoyable enough to stick with long-term.
Thinking about my own journey and those of my friends who had fallen in love with exercising and stuck with it for years, I realised we’re rarely ever on solo pursuits. Most of the people I know who have made exercise a habit haven’t gone it alone, especially in the early days.
Over and above finding something they enjoy, those that stick with exercising tend to find something that matches and shapes their identity. They engage in an activity that comes hand in hand with social reinforcement, structure and norms.
The runner joins parkrun. The BJJ’r rolls with a familiar crew 3 times a week. The yogi practices at the same spot every Tuesday and Thursday morning. The surrounding purpose, rituals, community and spaces are just as important to enjoyment and adherence as the activities themselves.
So I’m taking my advice one step further: the easiest way to get and stay fit is to find and join a cult.
What are fitness cults?
We’ve all seen friends get obsessed with fitness cults. We’ve seen the selfies from the F45 mirror, heard the midweek chat about Saturday morning’s run club, spotted the lycra and cycling caps pile up in wardrobes, been ambushed by shadowboxing in public places, listened to the CrossFit enthusiast drone on about beating PBs or learning new skills.
It’s easy to turn our noses up at these cults and their followers. I definitely have done in the past. But there’s two things we’re missing when we dismiss them.
Firstly, if someone gets to the point where some kind of physical activity is becoming a major part of their personality, it’s doing good things for them. Their joy can sound like zealotry to outsiders. The one liner previously reserved for vegans is rolled out for those that share the gospel of their fitness cult; ‘how do you know someone does Crossfit? They’ll tell you.’ But what if their enthusiasm is absolutely genuine, rather than boastful? They’re full of endorphins from feeling betterand they’re excited about that feeling
Secondly, strip away the darker elements of cults - the dogma, the isolation, the coercion - and what remains is a remarkably effective structure for sustaining fitness. A shared activity and purpose driven by a supportive community of invested people, backed up by cult-like features to drive enjoyment and adherence.
Rituals and events provide opportunities for the community to come together and celebrate, deepen ties and grow. The buzz on the Parkrun start line at 8:55 on Saturday morning, the pride at a martial arts belt grading, the camaraderie at the Hyrox finish line.
The cults are held together by Community Glue - buzzing WhatsApp groups, post-training pub visits and specialist online communities like Strava, Zwift and Whoop to share progress and seek inspiration. Most have major community presence on social media too, with followers sharing advice, milestones and questions.
Identity language is learned and used by cult members, solidifying that they’re a part of something as their knowledge grows - CrossFit’s WODs, AMRAPs and EMOMs, boxing’s combinations, F45 pods, LionHeart and Hollywood, running splits, yoga asanas
Every cult has its uniforms and symbols, its robes and relics to show yourself and others that you’re a part of it. In fitness they come in Lycra, gis, milestone tees, sweat-darkened boxing wraps, event patches and worn climbing chalk bags. All welcome knowing looks from fellow cult-members and cement to the holder that they belong.
All of this comes together to create an environment that is often scoffed at from the outside, but creates enjoyment, belonging and long-term adherence for those on the inside.
What we’re witnessing as we see our friend become a modern runner and don their wraparound sunglasses, research hydration vests and get addicted to Strava are rounds and rounds of identity reinforcement loops. Research has found that as people go deeper into these fitness cults, they adopt the group norms as part of their identity as someone who belongs to that group.
Psychologists call this an identity reinforcement loop: behaviour strengthens identity, which strengthens behaviour. Crucially, one of the main group norms is to regularly undertake the physical activity itself. They are now a runner, and runners run. Adherence from identity.
Finding your cult
To start benefitting from fitness cult membership, you need to find one that feels right for you. Some will give you ‘the ick’ before you’ve stepped into the studio, and that’s okay. With a little research, you should be able to find at least a few from that don’t repel you. That’s your starting point.
These cults may feel daunting to approach, but they tend to be very welcoming to potential new members. Every proud, fit cult member walked through those doors for the first time as a naïve newbie just like you. Most fitness cults have structured onboarding to get you up to speed and try-before-you-commit in an open-armed environment.
Each cult will have its initiation rituals - stepping through the ropes into the first body sparring session, the first non-wobbly warrior three, the first badge on Peloton. Initiations can feel awkward - the first ‘OM’, high-five or attempt at using the in-language might fall flat. Stick with it.
Trial and error is part of the process. The on-beat pedalling of a spin studio might seem like a fit from the comfort of your own home, but the reality of the perma-enthusiastic instructor may not work in reality. The idea of lifting heavy weights might be more attractive than the reality of callouses on your hands. Push on regardless - you’ve just not found your cult yet.
Finding a fitness cult is no different from finding your tribe in other walks of life. You’re testing languages, rituals and uniforms on for size. Some will feel right, others won’t.
Soon you will find one that works. The uniform fits, the language starts to come naturally, the journey home is one of excitement and pride rather than shame and embarrassment. Your identity starts to shift. You’ve found your cult.