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
Unmasking the Modern Snake Oil Scams
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.
Speaker 1:Before I get to today's show, I want to thank Jonathan and Lynn Gildan of the Gildan Group at 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. What's happening everybody? Rob, here I'm going to talk about some health and fitness and some fun stuff.
Speaker 1:I think you're going to enjoy today's podcast. I think it's going to resonate with each and every one of you. To resonate with each and every one of you. I think we have all sort of maybe fallen for some stuff through the years or maybe see other people do it, but we can absolutely relate unless we've been living life under a rock, right? So I'm going to talk about the old snake oil scam today, right, and not literally just snake oil, although I will get into that a little bit, because there is an interesting history of where that name came from and why all these kind of like Charlton scams have kind of come out of that term. So you know, hang on, let's see what we got going on, let's see who I can maybe potentially offend today. And that's OK as long as it makes you think and go out and do your own research, then hey, I'm all good with that.
Speaker 1:So snake oil, of course I shouldn't say of course maybe you don't know that, but it's a term we use when somebody's trying to sell you a product. Mostly, I could argue it could be a, a device or even a way of thinking, training or whatever, but it's basically just kind of a scam. It's something that, uh, you know, gets people into buying something that they think is going to genuinely help them. Or maybe they partly think it's going to help them and they buy it because they just honestly don't want to do the work, they don't want to do what it takes to get better or to get the results that it's going to take, or they don't want to sacrifice, but we buy something looking for shortcuts, all right. So the term snake oil actually goes back to the mid 19th century. All right, so that's a long time ago. Let's just put a date on it, that would be say like 1850.
Speaker 1:So where it came from is and for God's sakes, don't start like blaming other cultures of people just because you learn a little bit of history, all right, what it came from was the Chinese laborers who came over to help build the Transcontinental Railroad actually brought literal snake oil with them to the United States because they used it as part of their culture. They believed that it helped with joint pain and other ailments, potentially stomach aches or whatever. And snake oil is composed of omega-3rees, which I'm sure fatty, omega-3 fatty acids, which I'm sure that they had no concept of what was in the snake oil, but that's what's in there. So it makes a little bit of sense that it would help with some of those things. So you know they brought it with them as part of their culture, something that they'll use. And then you know they brought it with them as part of their culture, something that they'll use. And then you know, just like everything in life, you start intermixing with groups of people and again, don't blame the freaking Chinese for like this term. It's just simply this is where it came from, because it is something that was deep within their culture. All right, so and I'm just giving you a little history on this, and this is like not even the very important part I'm trying to like educate you so you can see, like, where this stuff sort of originates and what we do with it now and, for God's sakes, how we stay away from it. So they start intermixing with the American workers in you know, good old USA capitalistic country.
Speaker 1:Somebody gets an idea that if these people really believe this works, and they're given this literal snake oil to, you know, their fellow workmates on this building this railroad, and you know, giving it to American people and whoever else you know, and you know they're claiming oh this is, you know, this stuff's really helping me. And then people take it and of course there's going to be a placebo effect At least I believe there is. So maybe people feel a little bit better and they're just giving it to them. So what does it really hurt? I mean, I don't know, it doesn't sound overly safe to take snake oil, but whatever. I suppose that it was in the way that they were doing it.
Speaker 1:But a gentleman and an American by the name of Clark Stanley. God, I would hate to like be part of infamous history. You know where people can go back and look and go. Oh wow, you know that's the jerk that started this. I could talk to you about journalism, because I love that, and where that all changed. But you know that's not why you at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and he would kill a rattlesnake and then get its liniment out for oil. So Clark Stanley would then claim for decades that it would cure everything from rheumatism, which is rheumatoid arthritis, and sprains and everything else. So that's where the term came from right.
Speaker 1:So a culture thinks it works. They bring it over, they use it. It's just part of their culture. We've all got them. You know there's probably some placebo effect as far as the benefits they think they're getting from it. They start talking and then it just takes one person to go. You know I really don't believe in this crap, but I'm going to bottle it up and I'm going to go door to door and I'm going to sell this crap to anybody that'll buy it.
Speaker 1:Now for me, the first time I ever really heard this term, I was a little kid and we were watching the old Walton's television show probably Gen X or Boomers remember that show and I remember there was a woman I think she used to would go door to door and sell different forms of alcohol to the unsuspecting citizens of wherever they lived. I remember they stopped at the Walton's house one day and they're trying to sell this, you know, basically liquor as a cure all for everything. And I remember I think it was probably the father, I don't remember who, maybe the mother, but you know is explaining. You know this is just snake oil or whatever, or I don't know if they termed it that in the program, but that's kind of what it was about was these people were selling liquor, which a lot of people did, by the way. Liquor was a biggie that went door to door selling people that a little not a little, but yeah a little product that is going to make them feel better. And of course it did, you know, of course it helped with the flu and everything, because people just got hammered and passed out and forgot they had the flu. But anyway, that's, you know, was very common then in the early 1900s. So that's when I first heard about it and maybe one of my parents said, oh, that's, you know this is basically the ripping on the old, you know snake oil thing. So I started learning about that Now, working in the health and fitness industry for years.
Speaker 1:I mean we use this term left and right and I remember just being a gym rat, you know, working out, and other people would be talking about it like so-and-so would be selling something down at the gym out of his gym bag, some kind of cure-all supplement, and we'd be like, oh man, a snake oil. But there's always that guy in the gym, gal in the gym and usually more than one who just sees it and goes, oh, I'm going to start taking that and that's just. It's stupid people. I mean it really really is Follow the science on this kind of stuff. Get a little more educated. You don't want to put something in your body that is going to hurt in and get involved. And they started watching some of this stuff a little bit and you know they started finding out that some of this stuff had mineral beef fat, red pepper, turpentine it's not good and you know, no actual snake oil at the time. So like they came in and they started saying you know, we got to start watching this stuff In the early 1900s there was very little regulation and so basically, you can sell what you want to people.
Speaker 1:And you know I get it. Like you know, sometimes every organization screws up a little bit, like the FDA or whatever, occasionally. You know they're going to say this is okay, that's not okay, like the red dye controversy that's going on right now. I get it, but do you really want to live in a society where they don't exist? No, sorry, I want somebody, a third party, to look over stuff to say this is okay, this is not okay. Because if you're just relying upon the marketing person's goodwill, their ethics, their morals, I don't know man, I don't think that's very smart. I think when it comes to people trying to make a buck, they will cut every corner that they know how to do. People will say buyer, beware. And it's like I'd rather have an organization looking over stuff Again. I know they're not perfect, I know there's mistakes, but I would rather deal with them 99.9% of the time than to deal with somebody just telling me everything in their product is safe, with somebody just telling me everything in their product is safe. So that's kind of the history behind it where it all came from.
Speaker 1:This comes up because you know it doesn't have to just be products. It could be ideas, it could be programs. You know it could be gym equipment. You know, remember the old Tony Little I think his name was selling that ridiculous ab thing. You know that was going to give you perfect abdominal muscles if you just did that. You know I mean no, no, tony. It comes down to losing weight, losing fat. You know, doing your cardio, being on a caloric-restricted diet and, of course, exercise. But your abs are going to show because you're losing body fat. You know that better than anybody. But you're on here with your goofy little ponytail. You know selling everybody on this stuff a little harsh, yeah, because I think it's stupid. I think that people shouldn't be allowed to do that, because I also agree, people need to be smarter and not buy these products. But there does need to be some ethics and you know somebody come around and say, eh, I don't want you selling that because it's really not true. Could you sell it as a decent way to do crunches? Of course, that'd be fine. But selling it as something other than it's not, in my opinion, is very unethical with that. So it's not just products. It could be pieces of exercise equipment or programs.
Speaker 1:A client this morning was telling me how he had a physician and man it's like I wouldn't say the physician's name, but it's like, come on, man, what are you doing? And he told him to go to this guy who was going to do this miraculous machine knee stretch thing. And he told him that's all it's gonna take. You know that his arthritis isn't bad enough, even though it's bonk, like, to require any medical intervention. Look, I'm conservative when it comes to this stuff, like I think surgery should be a last resort. But I also know that when it's done it usually works and people feel a ton of relief. I wish people didn't get to the point where they needed it, whether it be self abuse or just you know, genetics or you know, not even abuse, but just wear and tear through the years. I mean I'd rather see people not have to ever go through it, but I know that when they've gotten to that point that they need it and they've gotten medical intervention with that, with knee replacements or whatever, it's worked, it's helped.
Speaker 1:So it's like why this guy is then going out of his scope, essentially, and saying go to this guy. And that's exactly what I said to him I said, dude, that sounds like snake oil. I'm like, are you serious? I mean, come on, you're going to put this thing on and do this like stretch thing. It's going to pull your knee and going to do all this stuff. I mean, might you get some relief? Yeah, maybe. And he's telling me you know, don't strength train, don't do any of this, just do this.
Speaker 1:I'm like this is a chiropractor, I mean and no offense to them, because there's a lot of good ones out there but I had a hard time believing this was an MD telling them to go do this. It's like I mean, great, he's not pushing it surgery. But at the same time there comes a point when you've been going to him for three years for the same condition and it's bone on bone. I mean I don't know. I mean sometimes you got to do what you got to do. But like that is an example of snake oil, like these things that people tell you to do. You know and you know, and no offense, you know if you get offended if you're buying some of this stuff. But you know, I was pretty hard on him because sometimes you got to be. It's called tough love. People don't tell people what they want to hear.
Speaker 1:I said what are you going to do now? Next, buy magnets. You're going to put magnets on your body next and it's going to center your body over with. You've been putting this off. Why won't you just go in? You've had three doctors tell you you need a replacement.
Speaker 1:You went to this guy because he didn't tell you that, and now he's trying to send you down here to do this and waste more of your time. So I get it. I get it. It's scary, it's something you maybe don't want to do. But I'm like what is your holdup?
Speaker 1:And he said I don't want to be out of commission for two months. So well, you're not going to be out of commission, but even if you are, to an extent, you're gaining all this time back. It's like an investment, right? Say oh, I don't want to like do this. You know, for two months I can't do this, this or this. Ok, well, you know, that's how, like a undisciplined kid thinks when it comes to money. For two months I'm going to spend all of this inheritance I just got and then, you know, after that, the rest of my life I'm going to be regretting I did it. Well, it's the same thing. Like for two months I'm just going to continue the play and do what I want to do and then after that go. Man, I wish I would have done it.
Speaker 1:It's discipline, like sometimes you have to do what's uncomfortable at the moment to make the future better. I talked about that with discipline. He's a financial guy, so I think that kind of resonated with him. I think he kind of a light went on and went huh, okay, I see the analogy there, but it's the truth. Like people get into snake oil because of something that's that they think they have to do, that they don't want to do, you know. And I told them. I said, if anything, you need more strength training. You're training once a week. That's not enough, you know, and sometimes that's not going to take care of it. Like there are many things we always have to do. But when somebody comes along and tells us there's a solution, even if it's going to cost us money, a lot of people jump on it.
Speaker 1:All right, I'm going to tell you right now, I'm going to be straight with you there is no substitution for a proper diet, exercise and taking care of yourself. There's just no other way. There's no magnets you could buy. There's no omega-3 fish oils you can buy. That's going to replace a good diet and exercise. There's no supplement out there. There's no supplement protein that's going to jump on top of it if you're not eating enough adequate protein. You can't just load up on protein and say you know that's it, I'm not going to strength train, I got my protein. You can't just load up on protein and say you know that's it, I'm not going to strength train, I got my protein. Like no, it's going to have to cost you some elbow work, some elbow grease. You're going to have to put in the work to get what you want. There are no shortcuts.
Speaker 1:I mean, unfortunately, these days you can walk into some of these health food stores not going to name names, some are better than others and some will just be perfectly honest with you and you know, get you a product that you think you're looking for or a healthier version of food that you might be looking for. Like, maybe you really want to get the bread that's got the least amount of additives in it. So you to get the bread that's got the least amount of additives in it. So you go okay, that's all great stuff. But then there's other times, man, they'll walk you up and down the aisle oh, you need L-carnitine, or you need this to help you sleep, or you need this. And it's like, okay, so I can continue to drink caffeine up until five o'clock, I can burn the candle at both ends and, you know, get really, really stressed out. And then all I have to do is pop a CBD tablet and I'll go right to sleep as long as I like chase it with melatonin. It's like, yeah, okay, brilliant, now it's not going to help you like, it's going to take you doing what you need to do, and you're going to have to eventually take responsibility.
Speaker 1:If you're buying into any snake oil whether it be programs and, trust me, diets can be snake oil you know the Atkins diet or any of the low carb diets are essentially snake oil they're selling you a program that kind of like gets you to eat way less. That's all they're doing, right, because if you're eating low carbs, you're down to like fat and protein and you're like so you're hardly eating and so you lose weight temporarily until you can't take it anymore. Then you binge. So no, that's not going to cut it. You're going to have to learn to eat moderately. You're going to have to learn that there's really no evil or bad foods, that you're going to have to learn to have discipline and eat just enough. You're going to have to eat a variety of foods. So these crash diets are nothing but snake oil too, you know. So it's not just supplements, you know, it's diets. It's sometimes it's exercise programs, like, if you just do hit Tabata intervals I remember that one, that wacky guy out there, dr Tabata actually, and he, he came up with the interval system of a four minute Tabata and that's fine.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'll use it sometimes for, like, an interval for abs or something like, or something that's going to keep people on a timer, but it's not magic. But he literally would say that if you just did four minutes of this Tabata exercise a day, that's all you need, okay. So American College of Sports Medicine you know who's been studying this stuff since 1956, 1954, you know says you need 150 minutes at a minimum of cardio exercise plus your strength training. But no, you're telling me I can just do four minutes a day of this Tabata interval and I've got all my exercise. Who buys that? I mean, seriously, is it you? Are you that dumb? Have you really really bought into that.
Speaker 1:Say no, I do that for, like my bicep routine, okay great, tabata is a cool interval. You know what is it? I don't even remember now. Oh, 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, cool, you know. Repeat it eight times Okay, cool, great interval. Enough exercise for the day.
Speaker 1:Come on people, you're smarter than that, right? I would hope so. So I want you to understand that a lot of things can come up as snake oil and you have to be smarter and not fall for it. You're not going to change capitalism. It is going to continue to sell, sell, sell. Trust the experts, trust the science, trust the process, put in the work and you'll be absolutely fine. Thank you for listening to today's program. I ask you to please follow the show wherever you get your podcasts, and please select automatic download, because that really helps the show. Now I want to thank Overhead Door of Daytona Beach, the area's premier garage door company. They have the best product. They have the best service. I personally vouch for Jeff and Zach Hawk, the owners. They are great people with a great company. If you have any garage door needs, please give them a shout at 386-222-3165.
