When fitness influencers make extravagant claims and it backfires

 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 count and duration is high, and changing your diet to consist more of whole foods, high protein, and fiber. Unfortunately, that truth is inconvenient for a population that wants the quick fix or the magic pill, and it also doesn't sell well for people whose careers are appearance-based and need money quickly. Today, we're going to examine another example of this, the morning routine of Ashton Hall. A youtube link to his morning routine can be found below:

Ashton Hall morning routine (ORIGINAL VIDEO)

The morning routine that he says will "change your life" like it supposedly "changed his" involves sleeping with tape over your mouth, waking up at around 4 AM to take the tape off and then walking out onto a balcony to do pushups while drinking a fancy bottle of water, giving himself a facial ice bath before 6 AM, going to the gym shortly after to do sprints and then swim in the pool, before taking what appears to be a 10 minute bath in the hot tub and then a shower at the gym, giving himself another facial ice bath while rubbing his face with a banana peel, and then performing routine office work on his laptop in a likely overpriced suit while his assistant brings him bacon, eggs, and avocado toast. There are a few things here that probably would make most people's lives healthier and better such as the morning run, swim, and healthy breakfast that his assistant brings him (ironically he spent a lot of time doing things that have questionable or negligible benefits such as plunging his face into water full of ice cubes, but he's lucky enough to have an assistant who brings him healthy meals!". Those things, along with constant resistance training, will probably improve your health and sense of well-being, but waking up at 3:50 AM to do push-ups followed by drinking overpriced water are not going to be beneficial. If anything, most people would be better off getting extra sleep, as waking up at 3:50 AM would require you to go to bed at 8 PM to even come close to the recommended 8 hours of sleep. Using overpriced fancy water and mixing it with ice-cubes to essentially water board yourself 2-3 times in the morning is not only a waste of your time that would be better spent on sleep, it's also a waste of your money that would be better spent on foods like the ones his assistant prepares for him. If you have time, feel free to hit the gym for a morning run or swim, but understand that lifestyle changes such as consistent walking and lifting weights 3-4 times per week will probably be more beneficial to your body composition, appearance, and metabolic health. 

I'm not trying to hate on the guy or trash him at all; he definitely looks like he puts in the work, and some of his health advice is likely good. Based on this article ( Fitness Influencer's Morning Routine Sparks Viral Backlash - Observer Voice), he has already received his fair share of backlash for essentially overpromising on something that has no chance of delivering on. If you want an even more critical take on what he claimed, you can watch this video by bodybuilder and exercise scientist Mike Israetel (warning: Mike's content is not always family-friendly!) (413) Exercise Scientist Critiques The VIRAL Morning Routine (Ashton Hall) - YouTube.  He has gotten very popular (over 15 million followers on his Instagram) and influential, and when you attract that much attention, you're either going to be rewarded for delivering good advice or you're going to be ridiculed for making baseless claims that sound absurd. I just want to highlight that this is a recurring theme in the fitness social media circle, and when you're evaluating claims made by influencers, you need to be thinking critically. Upon further inspection of his Instagram, it doesn't look like he ever acknowledged the fact that people called him out for either 1. making up ridiculous stuff that he doesn't actually do in order to sell people on his training programs, or 2. actually wasting that much time doing things that aren't beneficial and just happening to be lucky enough that his success allows him to get away with being time inefficient and performing frivolous performative activities. Instead, he has doubled down on attempting (and sometimes failing) impressive tasks like outrunning a police dog as well as outrunning a horse. To be honest, he'd probably be better off in the long term if he said he took the claims too far and revealed healthy habits he actually performs, because he would seem more authentic and relatable. For now, he's getting by on clickbait and showmanship, but in a world where everyone's attention is on the newest person doing the most ridiculous things, that won't last forever. What does last is giving quality advice, being real and authentic with how you portray yourself, and providing reliable content that actually works, so people learn that you are trustworthy.