You could scratch the proverbial paint off the internet wall and easily find some pretty bad fitness advice. Social media doesn’t help either. From “influencers” to self-proclaimed experts, it feels like we are drowning in a sea of marketing, advertising, and promises.
How do we fix this? Can we do it on our own? Who can we trust?
The unfortunate victim in all this are the valid, qualified, and experienced trainers, nutritionists, and health experts who get lost in this forest fire. From the view on the inside it’s an easy map to navigate, but if you’re on the outside looking in it can be a dizzying and frustrating maze to figure out.
How to make fitness work for you
Whether it’s losing body fat, gaining muscle and strength, or just trying to get healthier there are a few universal principles to keep in mind. Maybe after putting a few of these things into action you can start to calm the voices in your head and finally be on a peaceful road to realistic progress.
Quiet the noise. Our first priority should be to stop drinking from the fire hose of information. Consciously cut out the unimportant media flow of fitness advice. This includes “fitfluencers,” entertainers, and other to-good-to-be-true clever marketers disguised as experts.
Use common sense. We don’t give ourselves enough credit. When we apply everyday common sense to health/fitness advice we can surprise ourselves. Fitness isn’t immune to this. We know fruits and vegetables are good for us, diets excluding a single food are suspect, and the more complex the training program the less effective it’ll be. We have this power no matter what is advertised to us.
Stick with a plan. After applying common sense it’s time to choose a plan. Don’t get bogged down in the details. If it sounds realistic, is aligned with your goals, and doesn’t require a physics degree then go for it. The trick here is to stick with the plan and avoid hoping to the next shiny thing.
Track, adjust, repeat. We need to be aware of our progress or lack of. We should take ownership of our plan and put in honest hard work. After some time we can adjust when given enough time to see a trend in the plan worth fixing. Once we’ve adjusted appropriately simply repeat the process.
Find sincere support. Finally, support is one of the most important factors we can summon. We must surround ourselves with positive people. People who understand our struggles, are there for our missteps, and celebrate our victories. This is our biggest advantage.
Fitness isn’t rocket science. Sure, there are countless research studies detailing the optimum practices in training and nutrition, but we’ll lose our heads if we go down that rabbit hole.
Adopt a big picture perspective, use common sense, and trust yourself.
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What is your opinion on the massive fitness media monster? How do you find the right answers?
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Brad Borland 