Fitness, powerlifting, social media, and more

 This week's blog topic is about how social media allows users to post content that reaches a wide group of people online, and how it has been a double-edged sword. In the health and fitness space specifically, there are extremes on both ends of the spectrum. For my specific sport (powerlifting), as well as closely related subjects (orthopedic injuries and rehabilitation/health, general health and wellness, nutrition), it has allowed evidenced-based practitioners (coaches, athletes, therapists, dietitians, and enthusiasts) to exchange ideas and debate which methods of training, nutrition, and recovery are best and the specific context in which those methods apply/fit. On the other hand, social media has allowed grifters to take advantage of gullible people and conspiracy theorists, which has resulted in people wasting money and becoming ill or injured due to implementing interventions that have no scientific backing and detrimental health effects.  As an example of this, I'd l...

 Hi, I'm Alex Young and I'm pursuing a Master's Degree in the Kinesiology department at CSU, Chico. My undergraduate degree was a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Physiology, and I have research, coaching, and personal training experience. I also have 2 years of experience as an amateur powerlifter and am planning to return to competition this spring. I began much of my fitness journey by learning from what I had seen on social media, and over time learned that many of the practices we were seeing on social media were not reflective of the evidence-based information I was learning in school. During the 2010s (2010-2019), there was a large burst of information across the internet that helped provide information about weight lifting, sports science, and health practices to people across the world. Some of this information originated on forums such as t-nation and the old bodybuilding.com forums, and then those forums basically died as Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube grew. Unfo...