The fitness marketplace is saturated with gadgets of all kinds. But most of the information it feeds back to us may be largely irrelevant.Robert Galbraith/Reuters
I do my best to maintain a positive disposition, but every once in a while I get irked. One of the biggest sources of my frustration in the health and fitness world comes from those who mislead the public with harmful lies and gimmicks.
Achieving your fitness goals takes time, effort and persistence. It’s a lifelong endeavour, and anyone who says otherwise is full of it. In that spirit, I’m calling out these offending trends of 2022 – and hoping we don’t see them again in the year ahead.
Influencer culture
I have a theory that TikTok – the wildly popular video-sharing app owned in part by the Chinese government – is in fact a psychological weapon of mass destruction. Its sole purpose is to turn users into vapid dancing clowns who crave attention above all else, thus leading to the cultural, intellectual and economical collapse of modern society.
Of course I’m kidding around … but only partially. How else can you explain the rise in popularity of so-called influencers? Why is it that nowadays a fitness pro’s social media following carries more clout than their actual knowledge and experience? When did we in the fitness industry collectively decide that participating in viral challenges is more important than actually working with people in the gym? Who is benefiting from all of this idiotic content?
Earlier in the year, I reached out to a literary agency with an idea for a book about fitness. I was told straight up that I need to first build a more sizable social-media following or else no publisher will even consider my pitch. This is the sorry state of the world we’ve created – expertise is now irrelevant, image and algorithms are everything. Unfortunately, it’s those who need help the most that pay the price; rather than finding quality coaching, well-meaning people are being duped into following the advice of misguided hacks, most of whom are barely old enough to vote.
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