Russian-born bodybuilder and fitness model Vladislava Galagan has been dubbed ‘Kendal Jenner on steroids’ and ‘real life She Hulk’ because of her pretty face and incredibly muscular body.

Old sayings like ‘seeing is believing’ or ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’ perfectly expressed the belief that one had to see something before believing it to be true. It used to be like that, anyway, before advanced digital tools made us not trust our eyes anymore. In an era of life-like AI-powered news anchors and men posing as beautiful women with the help of phone apps, it’s hard to believe anything you see these days, especially when it looks too good to be true. Case in point, Vladislava Galagan, a 27-year-old fitness model who rose to prominence on social media thanks to the ‘perfect mix’ of an attractive, feminine face, and an impressively muscular body. While boasting hundreds of thousands of fans, Galagan also has plenty of doubters who accuse her of digitally altering her photos for attention, or using AI-powered tools to ‘beautify’ herself.

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Cauzinho Neto, a muscular 12-year-old boy from Brazil, has become famous both for his impressive physique and his grueling training regimen, which apparently puts most adults to shame.

Carlos Augusto Pitanga Neto, aka ‘Cauzinho’, only started hitting the gym 2 years ago, under the watchful eye of his father, himself a fitness enthusiast, but he is already seen as a CrossFit prodigy able to deadlift more than twice his own body weight and do 700 ab crunches a day. Most 12-year-olds struggle to get out of bed for school on weekdays, but Cauzinho gets up at 5:30 am every day for a 5km (3.1-mile) run and a few dozen situps. After breakfast, he goes to school, and after finishing his homework he puts in two and a half hours of work in the gym, including deadlifts, squats, bench presses, and bicep curls.

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Helmut Strebl is an Austrian bodybuilder and fitness model who is widely regarded as the most shredded man in the world because of his incredibly well-defined muscles.

If you’re unfamiliar with fitness and bodybuilding, the name Helmut Strebl probably doesn’t ring a bell, but among fitness enthusiasts, he is famous as “the most shredded man in the world”. It’s an unofficial title, but looking at photos of his amazing human specimen, it’s hard to imagine anyone successfully challenging him for it. The guy is a walking anatomy model, with muscles so well-defined that you can practically see every fiber contracting under his skin.

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Researchers at Tokyo Medical and Dental University claim to have identified a drug that replicates the benefits of exercise on muscles and bones.

Many of us may not want to admit it, but modern life in developed countries is easier and more comfortable than it’s ever been. Gone are the days when humans had to rely on heavy labor to sustain themselves and their families, but this particular part of our evolution has had some unwanted health-related consequences – the vast majority of people aren’t getting enough exercise and that is taking a toll on their bones, muscles and overall health. The problem is that many of us don’t want to put in the physical work to keep our bodies in good shape, even though we know we should, but the good news is that we may not have to…

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A 60-year-old grandfather from Leeds, in the UK, has become an inspiration for people less than half his age after going from ‘dad bod’ to ‘ripped’ in just one year.

Looking at Steve Ramsden today, it’s hard to believe that only a year ago he was an overweight borderline diabetic struggling with high cholesterol. But it just goes to show you what hard work and dedication, corroborated with a balanced diet and proper exercise plan can do for a person. Ramsden, a paramedic for Yorkshire Ambulance Service, weighed 221 pounds (100 kilograms) last Christmas and was taking pills to manage his high cholesterol. Today, he weighs 159 pounds (72 kg) and looks like he has been hitting the gym every day for at least a few decades.

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Thousands of people in China are taking up “crocodile crawling” classes, a weird type of back relief exercise inspired by the movement of a crocodile.

Multiple news outlets in China have been reporting on a new health trend with dozens of people joining large groups and moving around on all fours. Viral videos shot in large cities like Xiangshan and Changsha show long lines of people all dressed the same and wearing industrial gloves to protect their hands as they slowly move around on their hands and feet. The movement is supposed to strengthen back muscles and relieve back pain if practiced regularly, for a long enough period of time.

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A young Japanese office worker has allegedly been doing ab wheel exercises every day for the last year in order to attain the muscular body of his favorite anime character, Inosuke Hashibira.

On March 1st, 2021, the 33-year-old office worker, known only by his Twitter handle (@InosukeWorkout) posted photos of his body on the microblogging social network, announcing that he was going to start doing ab wheel exercises in order to achieve the toned physique of Inosuke Hashibira, one of the main protagonists of the Demon Slayer: Kimenu no Yaiba manga/anime. Sporting the character’s iconic wild boar mask, the mysterious man then started daily videos of himself doing ab wheel exercises, and documenting his progress through photos.

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Muscle Girls is a Tokyo-based women’s gym that doubles as a fitness-themed bar staffed by a group of young, muscular women.

Japan is famous for its plethora of themed bars and cafes, from black cat cafes to cafes dedicated to women’s thighs, but Muscle Girls is the country’s first and only bar dedicated to female weightlifting. Founded by a young fitness enthusiast who goes by the name of Eri Muscle, Muscle Girls started out as a women’s gym, but recently transitioned into the entertainment industry, opening its own unique bar as well as a popular YouTube channel. Photos and videos of the venue started going viral earlier this year, mainly because of its staff, which is made up exclusively of muscular, fitness-loving girls.

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Most 90-year-olds can barely walk, let alone exercise, but 90-year-old Takishima Mika not only conducts daily fitness regimens religiously, but she actually works as a fitness instructor at a gym.

For most of us, “age is just a number” is just a tired cliché, but people like Takishima Mika, aka “Takimika”, are proof that it doesn’t have to be. The sprightly pensioner, who turned 90 on on January 15, is more active than most 20-year-olds and probably fitter too. She is Japan’s oldest fitness instructor and has become somewhat of a minor celebrity in the Asian country, both because of her excellent physical shape, and her positive attitude and infectious smile. But Takimika wasn’t always like that. In fact, her transformation began late in life, when she was already in her 60s.

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Hanging by the neck is considered dangerous, some would even call it deadly, but pensioners in China are increasingly turning to it as a form of exercise to treat back pain.

A bizarre exercising trend has become very popular among elderly fitness enthusiasts in China’s Liaoning Province over the last couple of years. Photos and videos show pensioners hanging by the neck on a special harness and either dangling in the air or swinging their bodies back and forth, and in a circular pattern. They attach these special neck hanging harnesses to trees in parks, or to metal bars at outdoor exercising venues, and they swear that the unusual exercises do wonders for their back problems.

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A Japanese self-described “nerd” has been playing Nintendo’s Ring Fit Adventure for the Switch for over six months, and he claims it helped him go from overweight to impressively chiseled.

“This is the result of a nerd doing Ring Fit for half a year,” Japanese Twitter user ‘kzm’ posted, along with a picture of his toned torso. The post got a lot of attention back in late July, getting almost 24,000 retweets and nearly 400 comments, mostly from people congratulating him on his resolve. Apparently, kzm has been playing Ring Fit Adventure every day since November of last year, and relied on it to keep himself in shape during the Covid-19 lockdown. Only it helped him do much more than that, as a photo of him from November 2019 shows him looking overweight, at least compared to his new sculpted physique.

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A 50-year-old man from China has been exercising by moving around on all fours and climbing trees like a monkey every day for the past three decades.

Chen Haigang, a fitness enthusiast from China’s Shanxi province, attracts attention whenever he exercises in public, due to the bizarre routine he has been practicing for about 30 years. Instead of the popular tai-chi practiced by many of his countrymen, jogging or simple stretching, Chen acts like a monkey, walking on all fours, crouching his back and dangling his arms, and even imitating the primates’ tree-climbing techniques. He has been doing it for three decades now, ever since he was inspired by a monkey at the zoo, and claims that it’s been keeping him in perfect health ever since.

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A video of 7-year-old fitness sensation Brodie Bowen dead-lifting a 43kg barbell with impressive determination has sparked a heated debate on social media, with some praising her dedication and other expressing worries about her health.

Brodie, who is the daughter of fitness instructor and Instagram influencer Jes Bowen, has been following in her mother’s footsteps from a very young age, and has been showing remarkable progress lately. In of the recent videos her mother posted on social media, Brodie can be seen dead-lifting a 94-pound (43kg) barbell under the watchful eye of her father, Jordan. The impressive video was picked up by the popular House of Highlights Instagram page which shared it with its 17.7 million followers, causing it to go viral. While some declared their admiration for the young fitness enthusiast, others expressed concern for her health.

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Lyza Brooks Mosier, a 10-year-old girl from Georgia, has been getting a lot of attention for toned physique, especially her chiseled six-pack abs.

Having started gymnastic training when she was just 4-years-old, Lyza Brooks Mosier has always been in great physical shape, but she managed to tone up her physique to an impressive level over the past year, after falling in love with strength workouts last summer. She has been waking up at 5:30 to train ever since, and works out for about 30 hours a week, five days a week.

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A Japanese man who goes by the online handle “Hiiragi Sensei” (Teacher Hiiragi), has been getting a lot of attention on Asian social media for his dramatic physical transformation which he claims was possible with just 4 minutes of high-intensity training per day.

The intriguing story of Hiiragi Sensei began back in March, when he posted a photo of himself and his unflattering pot belly on Twitter, along with the promise to completely change his look by losing fat and gaining muscle mass. Five months later, he posted another photo alongside the old one to showcase just how dramatically his body had changed. His flabby pot belly was replaced by a clearly-defined six-pack, his arms were visibly more muscular, as was his chest. And it was all thanks to the Tabata regimen – a 4-minute high-intensity workout that he repeated every day over the course of five months.

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