Is Social Media Making it Harder?

Why social media is making it harder for people to get fit and healthy.

Although I’m not the biggest user or advocate of social media outside of a business and or work perspective even I have had to admit that it’s simply part of life as we now know it and it’s here to stay.

In a way it’s done wonders for the fitness industry both from a business and participation perspective. 

There’s never been as many people training, going to the gym and generally trying to achieve a specific body goal.

However, despite this increase people as a whole are fatter than ever and twice as miserable. Whilst there’s many other reasons for this I believe is one of the reasons people seem more aware of.

The first reason social media is making it harder to achieve your goals is because there’s too much information. This might seem daft surly the more information available to people the more chance they’ll have of progressing?

Think again, here’s a scenario 20 year ago somebody walks into a gym and starts training with a personal trainer. They listen to what the trainer they pay for tells them, then they do that.

Then a few month down the line they’ll probably start seeing results and besides maybe the odd magazine article they won’t have any other interference apart from that trainer.

I’m not saying all PT’s give the best advise and that there isn’t bad examples out there but most things will work if you stick at them.

Fast forward to 2018 and before they have even entered a gym they are being specifically target 24/7 on social media with suggested content and adverts just because they googled the word gym.

Then as soon as they are told to do something a certain way by their coach they’ll see something online telling them to do it differently and they’ll worry that they are doing it wrong.

Then when after 4 weeks they don’t look like the airbrushed model on Instagram they’ll want to change the approach because it must be wrong.

The constant flow of conflicting information combined with adverts promising them world often proves too much in the way of temptation and people cave.

The old adage of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing definitely applies here. The average beginner trainee simply isn’t savvy enough to pick through the shit and find the useful information hidden amongst it.

They just believe everything because it’s on Facebook and hey presto they end up flip flopping between opinions never getting anywhere.

The second reason why social media is a bad idea is it creates unrealistic expectations. Most the people you see on there are massively edited.

Again go back 20 years and apart from the odd page three girl the only body’s you seen regularly was your own, your partners and people sunbathing when you go on holiday once a year.

It’s now in your face every time you look at your phone, laptop or TV screen and it’s giving you a warped perspective of reality and what people actually look like.

These people are models; the whole premise of being a model is that they are more attractive than the average person… don’t let it bother you.

Its ok that you’re not a model just like it’s ok not to be a genius or any other ‘gift’ that only a tiny minority of people are born with.

The reason it’s ok is because 99% of people also fit into the same category you do. If your focusing your goals on a massively edited picture of an already above average attractive person, then your always going to feel shit about yourself.

If it helps they probably feel exactly the same way about themselves, it’s called perspective and it’s something I’ll talk about another day.

If you’re really serious about getting in good shape then ditch the Facebook advise and the Instagram motivation and invest in a coach who you believe in and bloody well listen to what they tell you and you might stand half a chance of getting somewhere.

Dan