Last week, \u201cSecretary of War\u201d Pete Hegseth called America\u2019s troops fat. Every \u201cwarrior,\u201d he said, will now be required to train every duty day and pass fitness tests twice a year. \u201cFrankly, it\u2019s tiring to look out at combat formations \u2026 and see fat troops. Likewise it\u2019s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Equating physical appearance with battle-ready fortitude has become a consistent talking point for Hegseth and other Republicans in his orbit. In August, Hegseth and US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launched the \u201cPete and Bobby Challenge\u201d across their social media feeds, completing a workout of 100 pushups and 50 pull-ups, with the goal of finishing in under five minutes. (Within hours of its publication, left-wing accounts<\/a> began making fun of Kennedy’s pull-up form<\/a> and questioning his decision to wear denim while exercising.)<\/p>\n After the young male vote flipped<\/a> toward Trump by almost 30 points in the last election, the fight for their attention has taken center stage in the US political culture war. Both parties are vying for the male half of the most fitness-obsessed generation in recent memory<\/a>.<\/p>\n Though there is nothing inherently right-wing about lifting weights, fitness influencers have been at the forefront of the rightward shift of young men in recent years; exercise content represents a key bloc of the so-called manosphere. However, a small but rapidly growing subset of progressive gym bros are moving into the online fitness space, and influential figures on the left are taking notice.<\/p>\n Colin Davis, a 24-year-old from North Carolina, is one of those men. In a series of videos shared to TikTok and Instagram, Davis flexes under dim lighting that accentuates his massive biceps and showcases dumbbell bench presses to heavy metal music. He also posts about his leftist beliefs.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t need a side hustle, you need a union,\u201d Davis captions one video<\/a> that has almost 60,000 likes. In a TikTok post that has been liked over 187,000 times<\/a>, he discusses the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and the value of political protest, while leaning on a squat rack<\/p>\n \u201cYou are not a warrior, you are not a protector, you are not defending your homeland. You are a guy that lifts weights.”<\/p>\n Colin Davis, leftist fitness influencer<\/p>\n Davis first went viral in April when he published a video of himself<\/a> seated in a lawn chair in the middle of the woods, ridiculing the \u201cwarrior\u201d culture that has grown to dominate much of the male-oriented fitness space. \u201cYou are not a warrior, you are not a protector, you are not defending your homeland. You are a guy that lifts weights a couple times a week and maybe goes for a run,\u201d he says, staring into the camera deadpan.<\/p>\n Though the aesthetic similarities can be undeniable, Davis\u2019 content is a stark departure from the deluge of \u201ctrad\u201d fitness that inundates many young men\u2019s Instagram and TikTok feeds. Those often include compilation videos<\/a> of men flexing their muscles, cut between clips that ridicule partying women, body-positivity influencers, and gay men. \u201cEmbrace Masculinity,\u201d one such video emblazons across the center of the screen.<\/p>\n