Fitness, powerlifting, social media, and more

 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...