Fitness, powerlifting, social media, and more

 Have you ever seen someone on Instagram, TikTok, or even a fitness magazine make absurd claims like "this one thing will change your life" or "this routine will make you look like (insert your favorite roided up or plastic surgery obsessed influencer here)"? Of course you have, because even back in the 2000s when all there were were health magazines and reality talk show hosts like Dr. Oz, this has been the selling pitch for claims that are usually too good to be true. The truth is that many times, buying a product or changing your daily routine with some radical intervention that has little to no scientific basis won't change anything for you. All it's going to do is waste your time and money. The truth is that real change for your health, appearance, and even how you feel daily, comes gradually over time from making positive changes such as working out 3-4 times per week, getting in 3 to 4 cardio sessions where your intensity might be low but the step cou...

 The term digital divide refers to the availability to access information through the internet, and I think at this point there are people in impoverished countries and rural areas that don't have access to the internet, but I think the bigger issue that I see is that a lot of the quality health and fitness related information is paywalled behind specific journals. Currently, the bigger issue in the field of health and fitness is disinformation or misrepresentation of fitness information. Many fitness influencers make claims about research studies supporting their opinion, but because the research is paywalled (costs anywhere from 20 to 80 dollars in order to access the article without academic access/subscription, and even in those cases, some articles are STILL paywalled) the viewers/consumers can't actually read the original research themselves in order to assess the validity of the claim.  The other problem is that oftentimes social media influencers or magazines make clai...

There is a surprising amount of information on how to properly perform many weight lifting exercises, but many people are not even aware of that. Many people who would benefit from lifting weights don't start because they feel like they don't know what they're doing, and that feeling is intimidating. In addition to this, many people who currently work out perform exercises with improper form, which usually results in not getting the full benefit of the exercise, or can even result in getting injured. What many people don't know is that despite the amount of bad information on social media that gives people poor advice in an attempt to get clicks and ad revenue, there is a huge amount of good information that can give you a solid foundation to help you start training or improve your training. When you're looking at fitness claims on social media, you need to know how to decide what information seems reliable and what information is likely used to exploit people for f...

 The goal of this week's blog is to examine social media's effect on the business side of the fitness industry. From personal experience, I can say social media has had a huge impact on the fitness industry. Before social media, there used to be fitness magazines that showcased high level bodybuilders and other athletes, training programs, and health supplements such as protein powders were advertised there. Once social media took hold in the early 2010s, all of that changed, especially once Instagram became popular. Now, some influencers such as Simeon Panda make millions from creating content (Hevycoach.com, while others make money providing coaching services (some professional bodybuilding coaches, such as Joe Bennett from Hypertrophy Coach, have customers use their app for training programs and advice). The earnings that social media influencers in the fitness industry make are going to vary heavily based on the amount of followers they have (reach) and the quality of conte...

The "Make America Healthy Again Movement", largely started by failed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr, has now become one of the items on the Trump administration's agenda. Unfortunately, the Make America Healthy Again movement largely fails to identify the actual causes of America's health problems and demonizes things like vaccines and seed oils which haven't been shown to be linked to the health outcomes RFK Jr. claims they have been. RFK has said he is "not anti-vaccine", but has made multiple statements encouraging vaccine skepticism and has clashed with the top US vaccine official, Peter Marks, to the extent that Mark's resigned and stated "“It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies." The White House's "Make America Healthy Again" commission repeatedly references increased rates of autism and ...

 The topic I'd like to go over this week is why I believe that Powerlifting, Bodybuilding, and potentially sports such as Strongman (which includes more than just men, but based on the name not everyone might know that) and Crossfit should be recognized as Olympic Sports. Recently added sports include things like 3 on 3 half court basketball, which is similar to what we consider "recreational park basketball" and doesn't even have an official league, break dancing (which is more of an art than a sport, although it does require significant physical abilities), flag football (again a sport that does not even have an official league), and squash. I do not mean to degrade any of those activities, but the Olympics were supposed to be a major celebration of sport every 4 years, with sport implying physical activity. Currently, the only strength-related sport in the Olympics is Olympic Weightlifting, which is significantly different than other strength sports because athlete...