1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:04,520 Speaker 1: Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:08,920 --> 00:00:14,880 Speaker 1: I am Tom Holland, and this is Fitness Disrupted all right. 3 00:00:14,920 --> 00:00:18,760 Speaker 1: When I recorded my original promos for this show way 4 00:00:18,760 --> 00:00:22,320 Speaker 1: back when, they included this line, when your car breaks down, 5 00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:25,520 Speaker 1: do you take it to a trusted mechanic with years 6 00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:28,240 Speaker 1: of experience and education, or do you take it to 7 00:00:28,280 --> 00:00:33,840 Speaker 1: a celebrity? Then why are you doing that with your health? So, yes, 8 00:00:34,240 --> 00:00:37,360 Speaker 1: what I was referring to there were the so called 9 00:00:37,520 --> 00:00:45,400 Speaker 1: celebrity fitness experts as well as the fitness influencers. And yes, 10 00:00:45,560 --> 00:00:48,239 Speaker 1: I have been in this industry so long that when 11 00:00:48,280 --> 00:00:51,639 Speaker 1: I started in for many years after, there was no Internet. 12 00:00:52,120 --> 00:00:56,440 Speaker 1: There was no Instagram, there was no Twitter, there was 13 00:00:56,520 --> 00:01:01,200 Speaker 1: no YouTube, there was no social media, and there were 14 00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:05,400 Speaker 1: no fitness influencers. But times change. I am all for that. 15 00:01:05,800 --> 00:01:08,640 Speaker 1: We are living in the most incredible time when it 16 00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:13,039 Speaker 1: comes to fitness technology and the amount of content that 17 00:01:13,160 --> 00:01:16,120 Speaker 1: is available to you. And that is a good thing, 18 00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:20,360 Speaker 1: and that is a really bad thing. So we're gonna 19 00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:24,040 Speaker 1: talk about fitness influencers and listen, there are some good 20 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:29,360 Speaker 1: ones and there are for the most part, really really 21 00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:35,039 Speaker 1: bad ones. Because there is no education required. There is 22 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:38,760 Speaker 1: no experience required. What gets you a lot of followers 23 00:01:38,760 --> 00:01:42,480 Speaker 1: has cut right to the chase on Instagram. It's how 24 00:01:42,520 --> 00:01:44,959 Speaker 1: you look. And not only is it how you look, 25 00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:48,480 Speaker 1: it is the perfect picture. So so many of those 26 00:01:48,520 --> 00:01:51,440 Speaker 1: so called fitness influencers, if you were to meet them 27 00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:55,200 Speaker 1: in person, they don't exactly look like they look in 28 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:59,120 Speaker 1: those pictures, male and female alike. Listen, when I did 29 00:01:59,160 --> 00:02:00,960 Speaker 1: start in this industry many years ago, one of the 30 00:02:00,960 --> 00:02:03,440 Speaker 1: first jobs I had when it came to the media 31 00:02:03,560 --> 00:02:06,760 Speaker 1: was I would be on the photo shoots of UH 32 00:02:06,800 --> 00:02:09,440 Speaker 1: all the different fitness magazines to make sure that the 33 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:12,920 Speaker 1: fitness models did the exercises correctly, which is kind of 34 00:02:12,919 --> 00:02:16,200 Speaker 1: amazing to think about today because there are no people 35 00:02:16,680 --> 00:02:21,359 Speaker 1: with education and experience making sure that those fitness influencers 36 00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:24,320 Speaker 1: do the exercises correctly. But that wasn't even what I 37 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:27,760 Speaker 1: was going for. UH. Most often, or many times, I 38 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:31,280 Speaker 1: would position those models in such a way so they 39 00:02:31,320 --> 00:02:35,079 Speaker 1: look their best, right, twist this way, hold your stomach 40 00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:40,080 Speaker 1: in flex here, do that, so it's not even real world. 41 00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:45,560 Speaker 1: And at the end of the day, fitness influencers, they 42 00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:48,320 Speaker 1: don't need any education or experience. They just have to 43 00:02:48,320 --> 00:02:55,520 Speaker 1: look good. And that's a scary, scary thought. All right, Listen, 44 00:02:56,080 --> 00:02:59,079 Speaker 1: quite often, if we're being honest, so much of the 45 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:02,560 Speaker 1: fitness influence like softcore porn. Would you be following that 46 00:03:02,720 --> 00:03:07,120 Speaker 1: person if they weren't showing as much skin because you 47 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:10,720 Speaker 1: scroll through some of these accounts, these top accounts, and 48 00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:15,200 Speaker 1: why are we calling it fitness truthfully? And so many 49 00:03:15,240 --> 00:03:17,840 Speaker 1: of these people, especially when it comes to the celebrities, 50 00:03:17,960 --> 00:03:21,680 Speaker 1: but many of the fitness influencers as well. People they 51 00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:24,280 Speaker 1: were born that way. You know, we talked about with 52 00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:28,280 Speaker 1: if you want to be an incredible elite athlete, choose 53 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:32,600 Speaker 1: your parents. Well, doesn't mean you can't train, but by 54 00:03:32,639 --> 00:03:37,560 Speaker 1: and large, the vast majority of celebrity influencers when it 55 00:03:37,600 --> 00:03:40,920 Speaker 1: comes to fitness and fitness influencers in general, who then 56 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:44,200 Speaker 1: becomes celebrities, they were born that way. They did not 57 00:03:44,320 --> 00:03:48,320 Speaker 1: get the bodies they have by doing the workouts and 58 00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:51,960 Speaker 1: exercises they are pushing, which, by the way, so often 59 00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:56,280 Speaker 1: are targeted at that the body parts, the the uh, 60 00:03:57,320 --> 00:04:00,600 Speaker 1: the myth that you can spot reduce And I just 61 00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:02,760 Speaker 1: did a podcast on that. If you haven't listened to that, 62 00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:06,960 Speaker 1: real quick, bring that one up, because that is primarily 63 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:09,240 Speaker 1: what those people are pushing let me give you the 64 00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:12,040 Speaker 1: workout you know, to tone your your arms, to tone 65 00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:15,640 Speaker 1: your glutes. Now you can't spot reduce, Okay, But again, 66 00:04:15,720 --> 00:04:17,920 Speaker 1: if they didn't look great, would you follow them? Ask 67 00:04:17,960 --> 00:04:22,120 Speaker 1: yourself that question. They have good genetics, did they actually 68 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:24,680 Speaker 1: achieve their bodies by doing the workouts they're pushing to you? 69 00:04:25,640 --> 00:04:28,760 Speaker 1: And here's a great easy question to ask yourself. Would 70 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:32,359 Speaker 1: you go to a medical influencer? It's not overstating it, 71 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:37,360 Speaker 1: because you do exercises that are incorrect and I shudder 72 00:04:37,480 --> 00:04:40,000 Speaker 1: when I look at the videos that are being put 73 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:43,279 Speaker 1: out there and the form and what they're what they're doing, 74 00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:49,800 Speaker 1: the complexity and the bad technique is insane. So would 75 00:04:49,839 --> 00:04:52,960 Speaker 1: you go to a medical influencer you know, or you're 76 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:55,719 Speaker 1: looking for someone who actually has studied it, knows what 77 00:04:55,760 --> 00:04:58,440 Speaker 1: they're talking about, or is just doing these exercises because 78 00:04:58,480 --> 00:05:01,200 Speaker 1: they look great and and these people look great doing 79 00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:05,919 Speaker 1: them and they look exciting. Okay. So, unfortunately, in my experience, 80 00:05:07,040 --> 00:05:10,960 Speaker 1: the number of followers a fitness influencer has is for 81 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:16,200 Speaker 1: the most part inversely proportional to the expertise that that 82 00:05:16,279 --> 00:05:19,720 Speaker 1: influencer has. And I'll leave you with this my newest 83 00:05:19,800 --> 00:05:22,880 Speaker 1: revenue stream that I've been doing for years now. Ever 84 00:05:22,960 --> 00:05:26,800 Speaker 1: since this exploded, the fitness influencer world exploded is being 85 00:05:26,839 --> 00:05:30,320 Speaker 1: a fitness expert in lawsuits. I'm involved in two of 86 00:05:30,360 --> 00:05:34,000 Speaker 1: them as we speak. And it is all connected to 87 00:05:34,160 --> 00:05:38,840 Speaker 1: this world of fitness influencers and people doing workouts that 88 00:05:38,880 --> 00:05:41,760 Speaker 1: they shouldn't be doing because the person telling them to 89 00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:45,680 Speaker 1: do them quite often has zero expertise. And now it's 90 00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:48,040 Speaker 1: all about how you look and how you sound. And 91 00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:49,919 Speaker 1: I get that that's a part of what I do. 92 00:05:50,120 --> 00:05:53,920 Speaker 1: I get that it's all connected. But when I started 93 00:05:53,920 --> 00:05:56,840 Speaker 1: in this industry, I said, yes, I'm gonna look the part, 94 00:05:57,320 --> 00:05:59,719 Speaker 1: but I'm also going to know when I'm talking about 95 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:03,280 Speaker 1: I'm gonna get as much education as possible because at 96 00:06:03,279 --> 00:06:06,080 Speaker 1: the end of the day, to keep abusing that phrase, 97 00:06:06,920 --> 00:06:09,839 Speaker 1: do no harm and know what you're doing. And I 98 00:06:10,960 --> 00:06:15,240 Speaker 1: one influencer I just was watching do an insane exercise 99 00:06:15,400 --> 00:06:19,800 Speaker 1: totally incorrectly as far as exercise science is concerned. This 100 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:22,760 Speaker 1: person said, don't judge my form, and if you can 101 00:06:22,760 --> 00:06:25,400 Speaker 1: do an exercise like I am doing like this without pain, 102 00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:31,119 Speaker 1: then do it. Holy cow, guess what. You don't feel 103 00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:34,920 Speaker 1: the pain? Right away. In many of these exercises done incorrectly, 104 00:06:36,080 --> 00:06:40,160 Speaker 1: it takes months, sometimes a year, and then when it's 105 00:06:40,520 --> 00:06:45,240 Speaker 1: an injury, the damage is done. So I'll leave you 106 00:06:45,279 --> 00:06:48,640 Speaker 1: with this. When you're looking at a fitness influencer, I'm 107 00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:54,440 Speaker 1: totally fine. Inspiration, motivation, those are the two reasons you 108 00:06:54,520 --> 00:06:59,480 Speaker 1: should use those fitness influencers. And then if you want 109 00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:02,279 Speaker 1: to you is the exercises. Do your due diligence, just 110 00:07:02,440 --> 00:07:05,880 Speaker 1: as you would a personal trainer. What is your education, 111 00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:08,840 Speaker 1: what is your experience? Just look at their bio because 112 00:07:08,880 --> 00:07:12,080 Speaker 1: it's your body. And when you get hurt, it's too late. 113 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:15,360 Speaker 1: And I don't want to be involved in a lawsuit 114 00:07:15,480 --> 00:07:20,680 Speaker 1: with you being hurt from someone who influenced you to 115 00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:26,280 Speaker 1: do something that they had no business pushing. I feel 116 00:07:26,280 --> 00:07:31,680 Speaker 1: better now. If you haven't rated the show, please do so. 117 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:36,000 Speaker 1: If you want to leave a comment, I love reading them. 118 00:07:36,320 --> 00:07:39,960 Speaker 1: Questions leave them as well wherever you're listening to this 119 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:43,119 Speaker 1: podcast and I will answer it in a future show. 120 00:07:43,200 --> 00:07:45,480 Speaker 1: If you want to email me directly the right to 121 00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:49,360 Speaker 1: Fitness Disrupted dot com. I hope you're enjoying these shorter shows. 122 00:07:49,360 --> 00:07:52,720 Speaker 1: Going to have both longer and shorter I am Tom Holland. 123 00:07:53,440 --> 00:08:04,000 Speaker 1: This is Fitness Disrupted. Believe in yourself. Yeah. Fitness Disrupted 124 00:08:04,080 --> 00:08:07,440 Speaker 1: is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts 125 00:08:07,440 --> 00:08:10,160 Speaker 1: from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, 126 00:08:10,360 --> 00:08:13,800 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.