Here’s the perfect daily health regimen, according to the internet.
Start your day by choking down a ludicrous amount of protein and/or fibre for breakfast. Work out obsessively several times a week and consider supplements and even steroids to maximise your gains. While not in the gym, chew on rock-hard gum or keep your tongue in a flat position against the roof of your mouth to work out your facial muscles. When you finally get to sleep, presumably exhausted by all this effort, make sure to tape your mouth shut and go to sleep in a cold room.
Sounds ridiculous, right? Welcome to the world of “maxxing”, where extreme wellness routines and tips are hawked by influencers on platforms like TikTok, all in the name of optimising your physical health and attractiveness.
The suffix can be attached to almost every human function. Getting a good night’s sleep becomes sleepmaxxing, getting protein or fibre becomes protein or fibre-maxxing, exercising more gets called gymmaxxing – you get the idea.
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The underlying rhetoric is simple; seductive, even. What if you could hit all the prosaic goals that most of us want to achieve – like, say, eating better or being healthier – but turn the dial up to 11? Little wonder these terms have taken over social media, where extreme content often attracts the most views.
Some tips, particularly the ones aimed at men, will seem banal and obvious, like remembering to moisturise or use hair conditioner. But at their most extreme, these routines recall American Psycho protagonist Patrick Bateman’s multi-step morning regimen – in fact, the fictional serial killer is actually seen as something of a hero to many so-called looksmaxxers.
That alone should tip you off about the roots of this trend – the idea of “maxxing” originated from online incel forums, where users obsess over how to become more desirable to women by maximising their physical traits. It’s inspired by the idea of building your own character in video games, where you can artificially ramp up your profile’s strength points, often at the expense of other attributes.
Over time, however, the admittedly-catchy term escaped the manosphere and was uncritically adopted by internet users. These days, you can “maxx” anything, from everyday habits that we would all probably would benefit from – like making sure to get a good night’s sleep – to the downright extreme and dangerous, like taking black market testosterone (T-maxxing) in order to build muscle faster.
I’m a little older than most of the target audience for this content, many of whom are teenage boys and young people. But I grew up in the noughties, where diet culture reigned supreme, so I recognise the toxic appeal of these so-called hacks, all of which are in service to a better, hotter self.
The only difference is millennial teens got lifestyle advice from magazines and mean girl TV hosts like Trinny and Susannah, while Gen Alpha and Gen Z are getting them from online content creators like Kareem Shami, a 24-year-old who goes by the name “syrianpsycho” and describes himself as the “godfather of looksmaxxing”.
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The content and method of delivery has changed, but the general principle remains the same: “You are never going to be enough, though don’t despair – with our help” – whether that’s purchasing a glossy magazine, signing up to exercise classes, or, in the case of Shami, buying a subscription to his online course and community Mogwarts – “you can turn the tide on being a hopelessly unattractive loser.”
The greatest irony about the “maxxing” trend is that some of the issues it claims to fix are actually legitimate health concerns. Nine out of 10 people don’t get enough fibre in their diets, according to the National Diet and Nutrition Survey. A YouGov poll last year found that only a quarter of Brits are getting eight or more hours of sleep, even though many of us wish we were able to get more shut-eye.
But as any expert will tell you, making small changes is key to forming long-lasting health habits. Extreme measures that claim to revolutionise your health may be adopted with enthusiasm at first, but then quickly jettisoned as the time and effort required become too overwhelming for the average person. What’s left is guilt and shame that you’ve failed at something that influencers tell you is the secret to changing your life.
You have to ask: What happened to good old-fashioned balanced living? Surely, at some point we have to accept that human beings aren’t playable video game characters with points that we must control through sheer force of will.
It won’t kill us if we have a bad night’s rest, and we should be able to allow ourselves a delicious low-protein chocolate croissant for breakfast or take a day off striving to lead the perfect life. I have an idea – maybe we can call it “balance-maxxing”.
Zing Tsjeng is a journalist, non-fiction author, and podcaster
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