The ‘Great Lock-In’ is here. Are you ready to commit ruthlessly to your fitness goals? | Emma Beddington

The latest super-earnest trend demands we concentrate all our willpower on exercise and healthy eating this winter. It is not the kind of lock-in I was hoping for

Sometimes, online, a phrase appears at the very outside edge of your consciousness, then begins to burrow its way inwards in the manner of some horrifying, probably fatal parasite until it’s everywhere and you can’t remember life before it. This has happened in recent weeks with the expression “lock in”.

First, I started seeing people in gym clothes on TikTok attributing their looks (python in a pop sock for the women; slab of meaty bronzed flesh worthy of Barbecue Showdown for the men) to being “locked in”, a synonym for “focused” or “disciplined” (or, some might argue, “tediously self-obsessed”).