There Is A Method to the Madness
This is a podcast where I will be discussing all aspects of physical fitness. I am an exercise physiologist and personal trainer and owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs for the last 25 years. My passion is health and fitness and I am excited to share my views, some stories, interviews and much more with you.
There Is A Method to the Madness
The 28%: Why Most Americans Aren't Exercising
Welcome to there is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell and I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I am the owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs and I've been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works and, most importantly, why things work. Hence the name there is a Method to the Madness. Before I get started today, let me thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilden of the Gilden Group Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales. Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your home is worth? 386-451-2412.
Speaker 1:All right, so we are going to talk about some of the problems that I've been noticing and you know, most importantly, some of the solutions. As I've been talking about, one of the big problems is that people are not taking advantage of that wonderful medicine that they can take every day and that is to exercise and get enough physical activity. You know we can go back to a very famous Dutch physician by the name of Stephen Blackheart and he said quote exercise is the most powerful and prevalent thing to do to preserve our health. That was way back in 1702. I mean, I've talked before a lot to clients, to friends and probably on this podcast about Hippocrates. I mean, this is not a new thing, da Vinci. We've been talking, they've been talking exercise for so long. So what is the problem? The problem is again that people are not doing it. 28% of Americans meet the physical activity guidelines 28%. If we do the math and of course I have for you, the amount of physical activity you need to get benefits is only 2% of your day. But we're not doing it. We're not doing. 150 minutes, minimal a week of cardiorespiratory exercise and two days per week of strength training and two days per week of mobility training. That's the minimum to get some pretty darn good benefits, but only 28% of Americans are doing it. That's pretty sad, all right. Now the world is not quite. The rest of the world is not quite as bad as us, but they're pretty darn close, all right. So 28%, let's focus on that. But you know what? Let's really focus on what we can do to improve it.
Speaker 1:Now, in my new book coming up, I'm going to talk about the many problems as to why people aren't doing it. I guess we can% of the people polled knew they should exercise and remotely knew how, but they're not doing it. So the problem isn't how it's, why aren't we doing it? Today I'm going to talk about one of the issues that comes up and it's legitimate and it is on my end really, it is on my end of things as to why people aren't doing it. This reason, anyway, and that is because people are confused about the right thing to do. People are confused about what they're supposed to do and they basically get into, as I've talked about, decision fatigue. They're not really sure what to do, so they don't do anything. Now, that is in part a problem of my industry, but it's also in part a problem of society. A part of a problem of society, not in part, thank you, and excuse me for my grammatical mistakes here. At least you can tell it's live.
Speaker 1:So one of the issues we have and I kind of rail on it all the time, but I think it deserves it is social media and influencers. Well, I've been doing some research on this and 49% of our population state that they rely on influencers to help them make their decisions as to what they're going to purchase. 49% claim that influencers were their number one reasons why they purchased a certain product. Over 80% of the people polled stated that they bought something due to an influencer's influence. At least 80% in the past year have purchased at least one purchase based on the influencer making a convincing case. So one of the issues that I really got to hammer home and this isn't just a problem that people aren't coming into the gym, this is also a problem that people that do come to the gym are confused because they're seeing what influencers are saying.
Speaker 1:I think everybody knows what influencers are, but basically there are people that have I'm an influencer, I mean anybody that has like any form of an audience. I mean, we're all influencers, right in our own right, but there are some that just influence far more people than others. I mean, you know there are influencers that influence people how to vote, what kind of foods to eat, you know whether they should be going to a different kind of physician than, say, a normal physician. So there are people that have great influence over society. I mean I go back to the famous physician, I go back to Hippocrates, I go back to Da Vinci. I'm sure that they had massive influence over the people that were listening to them, right? So influencing isn't a problem.
Speaker 1:The problem is nowadays anybody can basically megaphone out their opinion anywhere, and people need to be far more astute to buyer beware. They really have to. We really have to do our homework. As to how credible you know, growing up and I'm sure, why do I say that? I have no idea. I don't have a great idea anyway, as to the range of ages of people that listen to this, but I gotta believe that there's a lot of Generation Xers, some Baby Boomers, some Millennials and maybe even a few Gen Zs like my daughter's age, some millennials, maybe even a few Gen Zs like my daughter's age, but the majority, I would say, are probably millennials and Gen X. That would be my guess. Well, if you're Gen X or baby boomer, you know that when we grew up listening to the radio in the car, it was the radio. Not everybody could get on the radio. I mean you had to have a syndicated show, you had to be produced. You just couldn't, like make a podcast, you just couldn't go live on TikTok or Facebook or whatever you wanted to do, like I mean. I mean that's great that the little guy can now, you know, get his product out there, get his voice out there, get his talent out there.
Speaker 1:If it's music without the middleman, without the gatekeeper keeping them out. Yeah, that's fine. You know there's pros and cons to everything. I don't. I'm not opposed to that. The problem is because there isn't really a gatekeeper at all as far as regulations and all that. You know, testing the message. People just have to be smarter and I'm just not so sure that they are when it comes to this Like, and I mean anything. You know, almost every day a client will come in and they'll say hey, did you see so-and-so said this or did you see so-and-so said that? And I'll say I don't know. You know, like we have to really look things up for ourself to see what's going on, and I just don't think everybody wants to do that. But I'll get off my soapbox about the general state of affairs on that and I'll keep it right at home into my window here of health and fitness. So a problem with people making 80% of their decisions from a social media influencer in the past year, or 49% in general, is when it comes to health and fitness. Get this only 20% of fitness influencers have any credentials to talk about fitness. So people are being majorly influenced by people who don't have their credentials to influence.
Speaker 1:You need to think about that. It's not that hard to find. I mean, I don't know what to think of AI, yet All I know is what I use it for. It's pretty darn hard to find. I mean, I don't know what to think of AI, yet All I know is what I use it for. It's pretty darn cool. So these statistics are really easy to find. You have to kind of have an idea what you're looking for and I sit down at my computer and I run numbers and I just check things and AI looks at all the data and it gives me the most reputable answers. And actually that came up three times under different AI.
Speaker 1:20% of fitness influencers are known to have some level of certifications, degrees or knowledge. I mean, how do they rate that? I don't know. I know that, like in most cases, we look at if they have a degree in health and fitness and at the very least a accredited certification, which there are only four of them. So somehow, some way they must have passed that test. But still that's a very low number.
Speaker 1:And what's kind of funny is that I follow the good ones out there. I don't really follow any of the quote bad ones and I'm not going to sit here and say who they are, but you know the ones that tend to go with the bro science, so to say, and you know some of that. They're not really the ones that know what's going on. Now, unfortunately, they have the biggest mouse and they have the most amount of followers. I mean, that's just the way that it is.
Speaker 1:But I follow a guy by the name of Steve Magnus a lot, and when I say a lot I mean I check in on him, you know, to see what's going on. He's an accredited guy. He's got a degree. He's written a couple of books that I really enjoy. He's a very smart man. He worked for Nike for a long time in their exercise physiology department. He's pretty well known. I mean, he gets his books published. They're on the New York Times bestseller list, so he's pretty good. And there will be people arguing with him saying, oh, you don't know this man, you don't know this, you're drinking the Kool-Aid, you know like he's just this kind of soft guy because he's just giving people the common sense science that they don't want to hear. But it's amazing the fights that will go on from people who don't have the knowledge, who don't have the certifications, arguing with people that do, but that's going to go on in all worlds.
Speaker 1:But what's important is for you, for me, is how do you learn who to listen to? Because I do think one of the reasons why only 20, not a big reason I'm going to keep giving you the reasons but a reason why only 28% of our nation is going to the gyms frequently enough or doing their physical activity, meeting their physical activity guidelines only 28%. That is a reason why. A reason, not the reason, a reason why they're confused because they're getting bombarded with different parts of information from different parts of perspectives and people just don't know what to do. And what do we do about that? Well, if you understand the statistics and I believe in that, I think once we see the data, it's easier for us to make a decision. I mean, how can you not hear those numbers and go? Well, I'm going to really make sure. If my guy's in that 20% or my gal is in that 20%, who I follow, how can you not see those numbers and not think that's a problem? That 49% of people are swayed by influencers, but yet only 20% of fitness influencers have their credentials? Doesn't that make you wake up a little bit and go okay. So if they're pushing this vitamin for this, it may not be true, you know. Let me go to the CDC and check this out. Let me go to the American College of Sports Medicine's web page and check this out. Let me go to if it's regarding, say, health and diet, let me go to the Mayo Clinic and check this out. Like there are reputable sources we can follow for this stuff. We don't have to get stuck with the loudest mouse and people that are trying to sell things. We can make adult decisions on this. So that is my goal for you All. Right, now I'll just give you a couple more pieces of information.
Speaker 1:Regarding the legitimacy of the industry, I've been fighting since I basically got out of college and got out of graduate school, I should say, and got my master's degree in exercise physiology, got in the personal training, got my master's degree in exercise physiology, got into personal training. Like I've been fighting for legitimacy in personal training since I came out. I mean, it's always been a big push by me. You know there is only one state in the nation that has licensing for exercise physiologists. So 49 states do, not Only one state does, the state of Louisiana. I don't know why we've always shaken our heads and going Louisiana, like you just wouldn't think. You think, oh, maybe New York, you know, maybe California, I mean I don't know, texas, I don't know. But Louisiana, I don't know why, but God bless them. That's pretty awesome. Only one state has it.
Speaker 1:There's not really any licensure for personal trainers anywhere, so you kind of have to go the exercise physiology route or you have to trust the accredited certifications, which are NASM, nasm, the NSCA, american College of Sports Medicine, acsm, cpt and ACE, american Council on Exercise. Those are the four accredited and that's it. And only 64% of trainers have any form of college education behind them. Do you have to have it? No, do I think you should have it? I do. I do think there should be some dedication and passion to want to really become the best at what you can be. I don't think it's a necessity, but I do think it's important and I think it shows somebody who is really chasing after trying to be the best version of themselves they can be as a personal trainer. But you definitely have to have the accredited certifications and, in my opinion, at least five years experience. Accredited certifications and, in my opinion, at least five years experience.
Speaker 1:So if I can get all of my followers out there to basically start pushing everybody they know, if they're in the fitness industry, to get legitimate, you know, if they love it and they like it and they're doing it part-time or whatever you know, go get some more education of sorts. Get it through again the different certifying bodies. Maybe get it through college, but get the certifications, because every time I see disinformation out there regarding health and fitness and I go check out the influencer's bio, if I can find it, every time they don't have any scientific background. They just are either good looking or they're fit, or they're good looking and fit and that's how they influence people and look. It works. I mean, if you look at the statistics and I do one of the number one traits of a good salesperson is their looks, and that's just the way. It is right. People are swayed. I get it.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to today's show. I ask you to please follow this show on wherever you get your podcasts and also please hit automatic downloads. It really helps me and it helps the show. Now I want to thank Overhead Door of Daytona Beach, the premier garage door company in Volusia County, with the best product with the best service. I can vouch for Jeff and Zach Hawk, the owners. They are great people. If you need any help with your garage doors, give them a shout 386-222-3165.
