Buff Guys Give Wholesome Encouragement When You're Sad

A supportive conversation between internet users about coping with feeling down

This is a 4-panel vertical meme where each left panel shows an increasingly muscular man using a computer, while the right panel holds text for a conversation. The first panel's young skinny man opens by saying he feels down and asks what others do to cope. The following three increasingly muscular men respond with gentle, supportive, wholesome advice: they note that having a healthy relationship with yourself is hard, that failure brings you closer to success, and that progress at any speed is fine as long as you don't stop. The meme subverts the common increasingly muscular man meme format which is usually used for aggressive or confrontational jokes, instead leaning into positive, supportive energy.

This meme originates from the WholesomeMeme community on X.com (formerly Twitter). It is a remix of the popular "increasingly muscular man at computer" meme template, repurposed to share positive mental health encouragement instead of the format's typical aggressive tone.