From Health to Harm: How Fitness Can Be Damaging
People working out at the Jack Doyle Recreation Centre on Feb. 18, 2026 (Photo: Robyn Lanktree).
For Isabela Arbache, going to the gym and being mindful of her nutrition weren’t always healthy goals.
Making it to the gym every day was an obligation for Arbache. It became a paranoia that if she missed a workout, she was going to gain weight and lose all of her progress. The guilt of not hitting her goals took a toll on her self-esteem to the point where she would mentally put herself down.
Arbache didn’t realize her obsession with the gym and counting her calories was unhealthy until she told her family about it.
“I would talk to my sister, and I would be like, ‘Oh my god, I got the flu, and I couldn’t go to the gym for four days. I feel awful. I feel like a disgusting person.’ She would be like ‘Calm down, you’re okay,’” Arbache said.
Arbache developed body dysmorphia, a fixation on parts of her appearance that most people wouldn’t notice, and found it difficult to cope with not seeing linear progress.
Most of her trauma with weight and fitness came from experiences with swimming and gymnastics coaches who would comment on her size in front of her teammates.
She recalled a time when she was using the trampoline during gymnastics practice, where her coach taunted her.
“I can see everything!”
Arbache endured humiliating comments from her coaches alongside regular weigh-ins, where her size and weight would be tracked in a sheet.
Most horrifying to Arbache was the time when her coach suggested throwing up after she ate, as other girls on her team would. Being a young teenager at the time, Arbache didn’t even understand what her coach was describing to her.
“Some of the girls go to the bathroom after they eat,” her coach told her. “To help get rid of their food.”
The graphic suggestions and tauntings made sports and fitness feel like a chore to Arbace, an activity where you have to fight against yourself.
However, she learned her methods weren’t sustainable.
“It’s not an obligation. It’s not a diet,” Arbache said. “It’s a lifestyle.”
Now, Arbache pursues fitness only in the ways that make her happy, not as punishment.
“It’s more about feeling good. I used to dread runs, and now I just do them. I don’t put a goal,” Arbache said. “I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna run for 15 minutes, and if I don’t do my best, at least I came to the gym today.’”
The same sentiment applies to gym-goer Anais Rwayitare, who works out three times a week.
She maintains the same routine of working her upper and lower body with weights after warming up on the treadmill.