Is Pursuing Fitness Narcissistic?

Passing Ski-lift while hiking in Schwarzwald in Germany

This morning, while engaged in my Wednesday Strength session, I watched myself exercise in the master bath mirror in my usual shorts and t-shirt. About half way through the 16 sessions, it dawned on me that I couldn't see what was happening with the t-shirt on so I pulled it off during one of the tabata rest sessions.

As I continued my strength session sans t-shirt, I found myself fascinated to watch what muscle groups were moving around as I performed the exercises. There was a lot of shoulder activity I wasn't aware of during Kettlebell swings. Shoulder presses naturally hit the shoulders and arms but also activated upper chest muscles too. I was less than impressed with any visible muscle activity while doing curls, but my biceps and triceps communicated enough pain and strain to tell me that's where the action was and I just couldn't see it. From a mindfulness standpoint, watching the various muscle groups helps one understand what's being affected by each of the exercises executed.

So, I exercised, shaved, showered, got dressed, and for a minute or two admired myself in the mirror before heading out to work. It was then the topic of this blog entry popped into my mind. I googled narcissism and by its very definition, my exercise this morning and the past few weeks, and my admiring how I looked before departing is narcissistic. Darn! By definition, my pursuit of and my writing about fitness describes a narcissist and so I ask, is that a bad thing?

One way to look at is is re-framed the way one asks if one is alcoholic - does the consumption of alcohol negatively impact one's life and relationships? If so, it's time to seek treatment. So, does the level of narcissism reached in my pursuit of and writing about fitness negatively impact my life and relationships?

I would say that, overall, this fitness obsession currently positively affects my life. I am achieving better physical conditioning, thus, hopefully increasing the length and quality of my life. I don't think I'm negatively impacting any personal relationships in this fitness kick. The only negative thing I can think of is that writing this blog takes a bit of time, but one principle reason for writing about my pursuit of fitness is to serve as inspiration to keep going. I also have the rather vain (and narcissistic) hope that publicly sharing my thoughts and feelings about getting fit could serve to inspire others in their pursuit of fitness.