Personal trainer Emmet Rushe warns how the current state of the fitness industry online is confusing and frightening.

Type fitness or nutrition into google and you will get 1,750,000,000 results for Fitness and 531,000,000 for Nutrition.

These searches will be a combination of websites, blogs, You Tube Channels, Instagram feeds, Facebook pages and any other type of online platform that google can find in a search engine.

When we are looking for information on anything relating to fitness and nutrition, The top 4 ways we will find this information is;

  • Google
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • You Tube

The reason that we are finding out our information through these channels is because we believe information that has social proof behind it.

What I mean by that is, if enough people has liked, shared and commented on a video, article, meme or blog post, we automatically believe that it is true by default.
After all, hundreds, or thousands of people can’t be wrong, right?

Not so.

Donald Trump may talk a lot of nonsense, but his phrase ‘Fake News’ is very apt these days.
Over the past year, the amount of misinformation that is flooding my news-feed is mind boggling.

It seems that if you are good with editing, graphics, memes and are in shape, it does not matter whether the information you are giving out is true or false.

Here is some of the things that I have come across from ‘fitness professionals’ and ‘nutritionists’.

  • Carbs makes you fat
  • Keto is the best diet
  • Eat high protein
  • Eat low protein because meat will cause diabetes
  • Your body doesn’t store fat as fat, it stores sugar and carbs as fat.
  • Calories don’t count
  • Chemicals make you fat
  • Squats are bad for your knees
  • Women shouldn’t lift heavy weights
  • Women should only use high reps when training.
  • Women should only do cardio to lose weight
  • You need to ‘crush’ every workout
  • If you want a booty you have to do a load of ‘Jane Fonda’ type of exercises with a band around your knees or ankles to get it.

This would be a usual day of ‘information’ that I see when scrolling through any 3 of the social media channels mentioned above, and all of it contradicts the other.

If the people in the industry can’t agree on what is correct and what is not, how are the general public supposed to know what is correct and what to follow?

From what I’ve seen, they can’t.

What I can guarantee with certainty however, is that the people who have the biggest following on social media will be giving out the worst information.

This is the unfortunate downside to the fitness industry.

  • They will have their marketing on point.
  • They will have their social feeds looking slick and professional.
  • They will have products and plans for you to buy.
  • But they haven’t up-skilled since whatever 6 week course they originally did (if they are qualified at all) and the information they will be passing along can be harmful to their clients.

I’m going to get back on track here, as I don’t want this to come across as a rant or to sound like I’m bitching, because I’m not, but the state of the fitness industry at the moment, especially online, is frightening.

When it comes to fitness and getting in shape, it isn’t difficult.
At the beginning, anything you do will help you to improve and small changes to your diet will help also.

But that isn’t what we do.

We look for the extremes.

What will give us the best results in the shortest amount of time?

You already know the answer to this, because you have been here before, many, many times.
But I can guarantee that the answer has been different each time, because each time you looked for ‘the answer’ there has been a different ‘solution’ to your ‘problem’.

  • Paleo
  • keto
  • low carb
  • low fat
  • cabbage soup
  • weight loss pills
  • weight loss shakes
  • Boot Camps
  • Crossfit
  • Powerlifting
  • body building
  • spinning
  • zumba
  • circuit training
  • running
  • jogging

The list is endless.

Which one from the list above is the best? (We’ll remove the pills, shakes and cabbage soup)

It is the one that you can successfully stick to for an extended period of time in order to get sustainable results.

Read that again.

You must be able to successfully stick to it for an extended period of time in order to get sustainable results.

If you start a training program or nutrition program and your initial thoughts are
“I can’t wait to get to the end of this, so I can go back to normal”
Either the plan is too extreme, or you are on the wrong plan.

What’s the best diet?
The one you can stick to so it becomes how you eat.

What’s the best training program?
The one you can stick to so it becomes what you do in your weekly routine.

Both of these should also be in line with your goal.

If you are suspicious about information you have read online, a simple google search will confirm whether it is true or not.

As things progress, good information is coming through and is becoming more readily available.
It’s sad that I have to even say that.

If you are struggling with the maze that is the fitness and nutrition industry and you don’t know where to start, drop me a message and I’ll help you to find the right people to follow to help you with your goals.

I regularly share these people on my social media feeds and they are both informative and entertaining and they will help you immensely.

#TrainSmart