by Tanner Shuck
Social Media, Fitness, and Bad Info
Social media is both a blessing and a curse, especially when it comes to fitness influencers. Here's what to watch out for.
Fitness Influencers: Educate or Entertain
I have a love/hate relationship with fitness influencers and social media. I love social media because it’s an incredibly powerful tool to spread positive information and knowledge. But it’s also a potent tool for spreading useless info and terrible advice.
Social media is rampant with “fitness influencers” performing bogus exercises, useless training circuits, and party tricks. The sad truth? This nonsense is what gets the most likes and views. They put out content purely for entertainment: content without substance, depth, or any actionable takeaways.
Every day you see these trainers – with thousands or even millions of followers – perform flying push-ups on stacked-up dumbbells, climbing two ropes with a med ball between their feet, or doing a standing ab wheel rollout on a barbell. The majority of their content is just “Hey, look at me and look what I can do!” It’s narcissistic and egotistical.
Here’s my issue. What are these party-trick videos teaching people about exercise? Absolutely nothing. How is watching some IG clown doing a backflip burpee with battle ropes helping the average guy who struggles to perform five push-ups? It’s not.
It’s teaching the average person nothing about proper exercise, mastering the fundamentals, or training in general. Not only that, but often it only makes them feel worse about themselves and their current physical condition.
Most fitness on social media is nonsense. These people don’t care about you. These “influencers” are much more concerned about getting more likes and followers than helping you achieve your goals.
Want to lose weight? Eat less. Walk more. Want to get lean and build muscle? Lift weights and eat more protein. See what I’m saying? No one wants to hear the unsexy truth.
Effective training can be boring. Getting good results requires a ton of fairly mundane and repetitive workouts done day after day, year after year. You rinse and repeat the same 20-30 movement patterns over a lifetime. A lean, muscular, and strong physique is the product of consistent hard work prioritizing basic movements for years.
Any trainer that truly wants to help you isn’t going to entertain you; they’re going to educate you. A good trainer won’t tell you what you want to hear but rather what you need to hear. They may not always give you the advice you want, but they will give you the advice you need.
Consume social media intentionally. Know the difference between a good trainer and an “influencer.” Don’t be entertained. Be educated.
