Fitness influencers are full of shit

Marketers love that. So the platform has attracted people with marketing-oriented brains. So now we have this whole trend of influencers going on there, and basically just being marketers for one product or another, and making careers and businesses out of it. And IG is so good for that, that most of what you come across nowadays is turning out to be sponsored commercial content.

That's what I got from the article, and it's a great point, as multiple influencers actually say in the article, it's a great place to make posts that have commercial intent, but they don't even use social media, or consume Instagram, they just post their advertisements.

IG is basically becoming cable TV, one-way, minimal interactivity, people constantly pushing advertisements at you. All that's changed is some guy in a suit now assigns $X of his annual marketing budget to some roided up IG influencer and then gets on with his work day.

I'd love it if there was some platform where spending money actually reduces your reach, that's a platform I would use, specifically because it'd be a terrible tool for marketers.

The whole time, I thought it was going to say that they're not really fit at all, and are all mostly plastic surgery, implants and steroids, but not a single mention of that beyond the title and its accompanying illustration.

I also find #2 interesting. For fitness, unless your fake (which I thought the article was gonna discuss somewhat, but didn't), your creds are the photos and videos of your body and what you can do with it. That's mostly what people follow them for anyways.

I have been lifting hard and consistently for about twelve years. I'm pretty strong and I have plenty of muscle, but to most people I just look "fit". That's fine and all, but these people grossly underestimate what it takes to get "big".

I once had an Uber driver party with us after a night out. The guy was thin, but told me he had begun lifting and wanted to get big I asked him what his goals were and he told me "a bit bigger than you". Later that night he was in my garage and saw that I regularly train with a 250lb sandbag (not huge I know, but I'm 185lbs and I throw it on my shoulder for reps.) He was shocked because he thought I was just a casual. He understood at that point that his expectations needed to be tempered.

Agree with most of what you're saying here, but I disagree with the phrasing "believe you go to the gym."

I believe there's a noticeable difference between men and women who lift even a little bit, and people who don't at all. I don't think you have to look shredded to have a noticeably improved aesthetic (in the majority Western concept of physical attractiveness).

When my partner started doing a dead simple lifting plan 1 hour 2 days a week, she was getting comments from friends and co-workers she hadn't mentioned she was lifting to within a month. Basically, I don't want people to be demotivated by hulk like steroid users - you can look good naturally, and there's lots of other reasons to lift anyway (dopamine hit, posture, higher strength, etc).

Compare the bodies of body builders (who are trying to bulk up as much as they possibly can) with those of athletes who actually need to _use_ the muscles — anything from gymnasts to team sports players to strong man competitions. Look at people who achieve insane feats like Alex Honnold. Those are not gym bunny bodies, because they simply can’t afford to have useless bulk

But between a few of them giving me “I get to live vicariously through you now” vibes, the societal pressure to follow them back even if I don’t find their feeds interesting, and the ads, it felt like the whole thing was a net-negative for me and people close to me.

I’ve gone back to just sharing my travel photos in-person.

I'd like to believe that you can become popular on social media, and have influence, but actually have skills, experience, knowledge and actionable advice. You can even do this without being paid for it!

Anecdotally, I follow lots of woodworkers on Instagram. Most of them work hard and have skills, experience, etc. Most of them are capable of adding to my knowledge. But many of them accept sponsorship when it comes their way.

Personally, once I start to see more than (made-up number) 10% of posts flashing (and hash-tagging) products, it's time for me to unfollow. It's subtle and insidious. Suddenly I find myself thinking "I really think DeWalt is the best brand of power tools" without having a good reason to believe that. "And if I need clamps, Bessey is the only way to roll!"

There's also a lot of power yoga poses where you do the equivalent of weightless exercises.

When I first came out of college, I had incredible knee pain when sitting for longer period. I couldn't go to class without taking motrin or something stronger depending on the day. I worked out, played sports etc, was very active, and felt no pain when doing those activities but something in my body was out of whack/alignment. I saw a few specialists, did an MRI and they couldn't find an obvious cause. My only option that route was getting cut open and maybe finding something that wasn't being picked up (which knee surgery is a miserable recovery). I started doing PT where I was told my hamstrings were like old rubberbands. So I started stretching but it wasn't progressing. I ended up seeing a rolfing masseuse once a month. Things progressed slowly. I got to a point where seeing a trainer was a good option. Eventually the kneed pain vanished but was in my back. More work and direction and the pain was gone. It took two+ years of dedication but it was worth every penny.

I'm sharing this because I understand how desperate people can feel with pain management and how confusing everything can be. My point is plenty of the information is total bullshit, but if you put the energy and money in, you can find the right team and try a few different things, you can get better. I would have never believe in the actual effects of rolfing if I never tried it. You don't have to live with the pain, try to keep working and don't ever give up on it.

https://annals.org/aim/article-abstract/2633222/yoga-physica...

I think what it did was to reset my hypersensitive pain threshold back to normal, but I don't have any science to back that up. It was intensely uncomfortable (bringing me close to tears after a couple minutes) at first but then I adjusted to it.

Have you ever noticed all these buff dudes at the gym who look like goblins ? Well, that's because they don't stretch and focus on pecs / shoulders / arms, combine that with an office job and you'll do more harm than good

When I asked what the most common thing people came to him with, he immediately said, "Yoga. I started out in a clinic down in the West Village across the street from a yoga studio, most of my clients were men who hurt their backs or their necks doing yoga positions."