Swimsuit Season Anxiety: A Survey

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Summer’s not over quite yet, but as we wind down the break and students go back to classes, the team at GGR wanted to take some time to look at summer fitness—not the usual summer fitness goals and beach workouts, though. Instead, we wanted to examine the emotions and challenges some Americans can face while achieving those fitness goals during swimsuit season.

We are generally our own worst critics, focusing less on a body-positive mentality and instead working on fitting into our latest greatest swimwear; even then, we stress out about how we look in it, trying to achieve the “perfect” body. In this article, we’ll explore motivations, struggles, and activities that have shaped summer fitness and the so-called bikini season thus far.

For this study, we talked to a diverse group of Americans, varied by age, gender, and fitness. We also talked with GGR Expert Contributor Nadia Murdock, a mindset and movement coach, on worries and fears in fitness, and gained some insight on how to overcome them. Let’s get into all we discovered.

Key Findings:

To gather this data, we surveyed over 2,000 Americans across the country at various fitness levels. Participants were over the age of 18 and from the following generations: Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z. We kept our survey diverse, as we wanted to understand how specific factors like age, gender, and physical activity levels impacted people’s emotions, challenges, and favorite activities during the summer months. Here are some key findings:

“Anxious” was the word that 1 in 4 Americans used to describe how they feel about swimsuit season.
Of those surveyed, 72% of Gen Zers cared about getting a “summer body” this year, while only 44% of Baby Boomers said the same.
Women said they were “anxious” three times more than men about swimsuit season. They also used the word “scared” four times more than men.
53% of Americans said a lack of motivation was their biggest obstacle to achieving their summer fitness goals this summer.
Paddle boarding was the most popular outdoor activity this summer.

What Emotion Does “Swimsuit Season” Make You Feel?

When someone says swimsuit or bikini season is approaching, some people may just think about going to the beach or pool. However, it can mean much more to a lot of people. Our data indicates that 1 in 4 Americans claim to be “anxious” about swimsuit season; only 6% of people are excited for it.

A lot of this anxiety comes from people thinking that they “should” or “need to” look a certain way in their bathing suit, lounging by the beach or poolside. Whether it’s a one-piece swimsuit or a two-piece bikini, people are worried to show cellulite, or just to appear unflattering in their summer wear. (We’ll hear Nadia’s input on how to combat this in a bit.)

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Here’s a look at how different factors—age, gender, and physical activity—can impact these feelings amongst people:

Age and generations can impact your feelings toward the summer season, with 31% of the younger Gen Zers using the words “anxious” or “scared” to describe their feelings about swimsuit season. On the other hand, 64% of Baby Boomers surveyed were “indifferent” to the season.
Approximately one in every three women (34%) and about one in every 10 men (11%) have anxiety about swimsuit season.
The upcoming swimsuit season makes men more driven than women. We had 22% of men say they were motivated by the summer, but only 15% of women felt a sense of motivation and drive.
People’s level of activity seemed to be a driving factor to their response to summer and beach season. Physically active people were four times more likely to be motivated than inactive people.
Still, 24% of active people still got anxious about swimsuit season, which isn’t far off the 27% of inactive people who claimed to get anxious, too.

Our Expert Breaks Down How To Overcome the Nerves

I’m an Olympian; I’ve trained to have my body at its strongest to hoist massive weights over my head. Even having accomplished all of that, I rarely take my shirt off by the pool. Partly it’s because I’m a modest guy, but we all have insecurities about our bodies that bubble up at one time or another—swimsuit season being one of those times.

With many people feeling anxious and worried about swimsuit season, we spoke with mindset and movement coach Nadia Murdock to get insight on why we can get certain emotions from stressors—and how to overcome them.

According to Nadia, a large part of it comes from the media and society trying to tell you what the perfect body is or is not. “When it comes to swimsuit season, feeling like you need to fit a particular mold is driven by diet culture,” she says. “Societal standards and media deems what is beautiful and not.”

She mentions that the use of the word “should” is a cognitive distortion, since we’re not truly obligated to look or feel any certain way when it comes to our bodies. She asks, “Are you giving away your joy, or allowing others to dictate how you see yourself—even at moments that you’re feeling good?”

Here are some questions Nadia says to ask ourselves about our perceptions of ourselves. You can ask yourself these questions, but they can also be great journal prompts, too.

How do I feel about my internal characteristics?
What makes me feel my best, inside and out?
Do I have a supportive community?

“Asking yourself these questions when you’re feeling challenged can help you have a better understanding of what’s triggering unsupportive thoughts as you work on empowering yourself,” Nadia explains.

Another suggestion is to develop mantras to recite daily. I recite mantras while lifting to remind myself of certain technical cues, or just to build confidence before a maximal lift. Nadia also says it can help train and steer your thoughts toward a more positive mindset. Here are a few she suggests, particularly on body image:

I am more than my body.
I have a lot of beautiful characteristics, both inside and out.
I feel strong.
I appreciate what my body can do.

How Much Did You Care About Getting a “Summer Body?”

Heading into spring, we constantly hear about prepping for our “summer body,” trying to shed a few pounds to fit into our latest swimwear. In our survey, we learned that 63% of Americans cared about achieving their summer body this season.

Again, factors like age and gender affected how our respondents felt about their summer body:

Younger people were more concerned about getting “summer ready,” with 72% of Gen Z respondents and 69% of Millennials saying they cared. On the contrary, Baby Boomers cared less, with only 44% saying they had any concern for their summer body.
Women were more focused on their summer bodies than men. Of the women surveyed, 67% said they cared, while only 58% of men cared.
A sedentary lifestyle seems to be linked to a lack of interest in summer body goals. We had 59% of inactive people say they didn’t care about achieving a summer body, while only a third (34%) of active people felt the same way.

What are the Biggest Obstacles for Fitness Goals in the Summer?

Life happens; no matter what time of year, we’ll always be faced with challenges and stressors that will distract us from our goals in life and fitness. We wanted to find out what was holding people back the most from hitting their fitness goals during the summer in particular.

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To do so, we asked in our survey and found that the biggest obstacle that 53% of Americans faced this summer was a lack of motivation. The second biggest obstacle was work—44% of people surveyed responded with this answer.

This chart breaks down the biggest obstacles Americans faced in achieving their fitness goals this summer, in order of greatest to least:

The responses varied from a lack of motivation, work schedule, weather, and travel—with 6% of people even saying that barbecues detracted them from their summer fitness goals. Here’s some other interesting insights we discovered in our data, particularly dealing with age:

Millennials are the only generation where work was the biggest obstacle, with 56% of them citing work as their greatest challenge; all other generations we surveyed had a lack of motivation as their biggest detractor.
Only 21% of Baby Boomers cited work as their biggest challenge.
Gen Zers struggled most with a lack of motivation, with 63% of them saying a lack of drive held them back from achieving their summer fitness goals.

Of the 2,000 people surveyed, 52% of men cited work as a barrier to summer fitness goals, while 58% of women said they struggled with motivation. Let’s take a deeper look at the other differences in challenges between genders, using the following graph.

From the graph, we can see that the obstacles of weather, schedule changes, and kids were fairly even between men and women (with women having slightly higher percentages in weather and kids as obstacles). The biggest differences were with work and a lack of motivation. While both were the largest obstacles for men and women, work was the largest distraction for men, while the majority of women claimed a lack of motivation as their biggest obstacle.

How To Get Past the Lack of Motivation

As we’re learning, a lack of motivation is a big obstacle people face when accomplishing their goals—and it probably goes beyond just the summer season. We asked our expert, Nadia Murdock, about motivation and she said a lack of motivation can be multifaceted.

Nadia says a lack of motivation can be attributed to a multitude of mental factors—a lack of enjoyment or restfulness, or a lack of passion or excitement over a workout or fitness goal.

“Most importantly are your values,” Nadia adds. “Why do you want to exercise or achieve your goals? When you are tied into something meaningful, you’re more likely to stick to it, even on days when you aren’t feeling it.”

As a competitive weightlifter and coach, I often ask myself and other athletes to find their “why,” or the reason they enjoy competing and training. Not every training day is fun or even good, but remembering the reason we enjoy training helps us get through mentally tough sessions.

Which Outdoor Summer Activities Are You Most Interested In?

Summer usually goes hand in hand with being outside in the warm weather—swimming, running, or playing other recreational sports and activities.

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In our survey, we also asked respondents for their favorite activities during this summer. Let’s check out what activities and sports popped off this summer. According to our data and the chart below, paddle boarding came in as the most popular activity, followed by rock climbing, disc golf, obstacle course racing, and finally, hiking.

Here are some interesting stats from the data we pulled:

Paddle boarding gets approval from all ages, with 27% of Gen Zers approving the activity and 29% of Baby Boomers, showing its appeal across all ages.
That said, Gen Z was the only generation surveyed that favored something over paddle boarding: 37% of the age group preferred rock climbing over paddle boarding.
By comparison, only 2% of Baby Boomers chose to rock climb over the summer.
The top activity men chose in our survey was rock climbing (24%), while 26% of women preferred paddle boarding.
The two activities were still popular to both men and women, with 18% of women choosing rock climbing and 21% of men choosing paddle boarding.

Conclusion

How our summer was spent this year, last year, and every year varies differently from person to person, with factors like age, gender, and fitness levels affecting how we felt about motivation, activities, and achieving a “summer body.”

As temperatures cool and summer approaches its end, let’s make sure to continue to remain active and achieve our fitness goals—and make sure it’s for the right reasons. Instead of leaning on societal pressures to fit a certain standard, make sure to stay intrinsically motivated, training and working toward your goals for reasons important to you. In moments of doubt, rely on your reason “why,” as well as reciting mantras to reinforce positive thinking.

Fair Use Statement

If you have any questions about the information mentioned above, or are interested in an interview, please feel free to get in touch with Jonathan Weissberg (jonathan@email.garagegymreviews.com), the Fitness Research Director at Garage Gym Reviews. You are welcome to use any of the findings, data, and graphs from this report, but we do ask that you please provide a link back to our study to cite the original data source.

Caine Wilkes, OLY, CNC, USAW-L1

Caine Wilkes is an Olympian, placing 9th in weightlifting at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. A former gym owner, he also has more than 15 years of experience coaching other athletes in weightlifting, CrossFit, and functional fitness.