It’s the charlatan influencers who prey on the naives lack of desire to think critically.
“You want to sell people on something?
Sell them on self belief.
And then show them the way through simple, consistent repetition.
Pick them up when they start to drift.
Hold them accountable when it gets hard.
Clap for ‘em when they win.
Leave the snake oil out of it.”
-Ray Zingler on X
The Fitness Industry is loaded with bullshit.
I know this because I am in it.
It’s been this way for decades and it’s only going to get worse as the charlatan’s ease of delivery increases and our consumers critical thinking abilities decrease.
This is not a good recipe for the majority of folks who are buying into the ever-increasing concept of quick fixes (that don’t exist) and instant gratification (that doesn’t exist, either).
“Take this pill!”
“Try this <insert new technology-based work out machine/program that gets released every 6 months> and it will solve all your problems in a fraction of the time!”
Again, all bullshit. All of it. Every time.
The answer is so incredibly simple, but because simplicity doesn’t sell, we try to make it more complex than it really is.
At the end of the day, the key to improving your health and fitness boils down to 3 simple concepts:
1) Prioritizing your sleep.
2) Eating and drinking like a mature adult.
3) Strategically and consistently moving your limbs.
There are no secrets.
There are no hacks.
You can’t “get around” quality sleep, food, or exercise.
But people in the fitness industry are afraid to come out and tell you that because if it’s so easy, “they won’t need me or my services!”
Are you kidding me?
It has nothing to do with it being “easy”.
It has everything to do with people lacking not “information”, but accountability.
Everybody “knows” what to do, right?
But they aren’t going to do it on their own. (Note the obesity/systemic disease epidemics taking place in some of the most highly resourced/information rich places on earth.)
Selling people who don’t have the self-belief, accountability, or discipline to maintain their fitness on their own does not help them.
Of course you can fool them and sell them a cheap “90 day fix” that doesn’t sustainably work, but outside of getting you some short, stolen cash, what does that do for them?
The fitness industry needs a revamp.
We need to stop selling people our “secrets” and start selling them on their own self-belief.
We need to start selling them simple habits.
We need to sell them on the fact that we are accountability figures. Encouragers.
To hell with the snake oil.
