Fitness, social media and etiquette
Every day, social networks are becoming more popular. Anything can go viral, at any time. In the blink of an eye, we have our latest instant celebrity. The same applies to fitness. Some fitness pages have become extremely popular. Many fitness professionals and fitness enthusiasts alike use social media. You can show your workouts, your skill set, your body, or anything you can take a photo of. You can even fill your profile with a new selfie every three hours if you wish. In these social networks you will find an overwhelming number of fitness pages, with images, videos and information. Some pages provide accurate information, informed opinions, and proper exercise techniques. Others simply demonstrate how little knowledge people have about fitness.
The advantage of uploading videos and images is that you can gain exposure, the disadvantage is that you open the doors to criticism. Personally, I do not hit anyone for exercising or any other personal trainer who is dedicated to his trade. I offer help to anyone who seeks it. As a professional, I am trained to critique form, posture, and movement patterns. So when I see an exercise done incorrectly, my eyesight instantly hurts. It’s a shame I see a lot of it. The problem is that the shape is not corrected, it will further alter movement patterns and lead to a host of other problems. The other problem is that even if you exercise with poor mechanics, you will notice results. Your body expends more energy and is still activating muscles that you weren’t using before exercising. Now that they are seeing results and other people are noticing, that automatically turns them into professionals. They never took the time to correct their own form, yet they are willing to offer advice to others.
Most of us are self-taught, which means we didn’t have any guides or anyone to show us the right way to do things. I have made a lot of mistakes throughout my journey and have suffered some injuries as a result. That is why safety should be highly valued. There are some videos and images that I have seen that embarrass me. Daring is one thing, dangerous in another entirely. The injury is not something you want to find. Even if it looks cool or fun at the time, it’s not worth it.
Another growing problem I see is someone watching a video, the person in the video makes an exercise look easy. The person watching the video is inspired and wants to try it out and post a video. The problem is that it is not so easy for you. Your body is not ready to try it and you are at a higher risk of injury trying. Everyone is looking to move forward to make all these great videos, but they are not doing the hard work necessary to get there. Take the video that was seen and the video that was made. If you can’t see how much worse the movement looks, then you really need to work on the basics.
Personal trainers are also open to bad publicity. If a video is uploaded with a customer performing an exercise incorrectly, it will hurt their credentials. Even in the gym, I have seen trainers not correcting poor body mechanics. Anyone who knows anything about fitness can see it too. That is not a good way to win clients or network with other coaches. Personally, those are the coaches I do my best to avoid.
I understand that fitness is a newfound passion and that progress has been made since the search began. That is a great achievement. Don’t let your new adjusting attitude affect the content of your images and videos. Let me give you a little etiquette on social media. Do not criticize others who are not exercising, you were one of those people at some point in your life. Don’t flood your page with selfies, they are just annoying. If you are trying an exercise that you saw someone else do, make sure you can perform the movement correctly. They may be doing advanced training that you just aren’t ready for. If you’re going to post videos in bad form, at least be humble and ask how your form is. Don’t be upset when someone tells you it’s terrible. Don’t think you can be a trainer because you gained some muscle or lost some weight. It is not as easy as you think.
These are all topics that I have seen and comments that I have read on social media. There is no need for all the negativity. I look for inspiration on social media and hope to be an inspiration to others on my own pages. Let’s make fitness fun, safe and practical.