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
Why 87% of Online Fitness Gurus Shouldn't Be Giving You Advice
Welcome to the Fit, Healthy and Happy Podcast hosted by Josh and Kyle from Colossus...
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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. Good morning everybody. Good afternoon, good night. Whatever time you are listening to this. A lot of my listeners tell me they listen to this when they're working out or when they're driving to working out. That's pretty cool. I think that's good. I tend to like to listen to the podcasts. I listen to when I work out as well, sometimes when I drive, but I really seem to get the most focused when I'm working out, especially if I'm doing cardio. So that's cool, I like that. So again, whatever time you're listening, good day to you. I'm going to talk to you today about some health and fitness, as I always do.
Speaker 1:Today is Tuesday for me, tuesday morning, early part of September. It's amazing how fast the time is going here. It's starting to get a little bit cooler here slightly. I know people probably just shook their head in Central Florida when I said that. But a little cooler, I mean we're not seeing like what we saw in mid-July, which was brutal, but you know it's still warm. But I guess, because I know it's September, I know cooler temps are coming. Cooler, not cool yet, but to me it felt pretty good. Pool yet, but to me it felt pretty good. I ran on the treadmill this morning because it was a downpour of rain and then I did a little workout after that. That tends to be my morning routine a little cardio, a little strength, and I love it and it puts me in a better mood. It helps me do what I need to do. It's kind of like putting on my oxygen mask, so to say so I can be of good service. Working out absolutely changes my mindset.
Speaker 1:So, speaking of that kind of, I'm going to talk a little bit today. I'm going to try to get you guys to. You know, at least shake your head and go. Oh, that's true. You know whether you 100% agree with me or not. You know I want to talk about the importance of professionalism and the importance of listening to the experts.
Speaker 1:When it comes to at least my industry I would say all industries, but you know I'm mostly concerned with mine, which is health and fitness. So you know I want people to think about how. I mean, can't we all agree that there needs to be a baseline of professionalism in all the industries? Really? I mean, what industry would you not want that in? I mean you should be adequately trained, with certain education. That doesn't necessarily mean like college education or high school education, that's not what I mean but there does need to be a level of education in everything that an expert does and then a level of experience. So that's, you know how we get trained right, we get trained right. So wouldn't we all agree? We want that, no matter what you're going to do, what you're going in for your professional service or advice, I mean I do so, you know, and I mean in my industry it's too many times we have people that have been in the hobby of physical fitness like it worked for them, or they at least think it worked for them, meaning that they might have exceptional genetics and then worked out just a little bit and then took off because they just, you know, I mean I give them some credit for some work ethic, but they had great genes and so so they had like popping abs right away. They had. You know, if they're a female not trying to be gender biased here but you know certain muscle groups are, and the better legs, you know the men tend to want, the better chest, the better abs, the better biceps, things like that. I think both sexes agree, or both genders agree on abdominals maybe, but you know so maybe they take off a little and they get great glutes and then the next thing, you know, they're your glute expert online.
Speaker 1:You know that's not good enough, people. There has to be some form of education. That's why I call the podcast the Method to the Madness. That's why I call my first book the Method to the Madness, because there is a method to the madness, like it's not just about randomly doing things and then showing results. I mean, any activity is good, but when you're posing as an expert because you look good, you literally, literally are posing. You don't necessarily know what you're talking about. If you put the two together education, experience, yes, and then that's a great thing. So let me give you some statistics on that. All right, this is pretty crazy.
Speaker 1:So the people that are like given a lot of information on diet on the internet, like I see that all the time. I mean trying to think I can't think of, at least in this industry, the health and fitness industry a topic that gets more clicks? Anything, drink water, you know, I don't think we really can argue with that, but still that's another one we see all the time. Then we'll see don't eat carbs or don't eat sugar. So those are the biggies, but I'd have to say that the biggest one I see is eat more protein. That seems to be like what everybody says, and I'm not here to say that's wrong or right. I mean, it can be wrong and it can be right, Like it depends. I don't know how much you're eating, but that's not the point.
Speaker 1:The point is this 87% of those claims made on social media, the people that are stating them do not have the qualifications to state them. People that are stating them do not have the qualifications to state them 87%. So only 13% of the people that are making these claims should be making the claims. Yet what's the turnaround on return? How many people do you think are listening? I would say quite a bit. I mean I don't know for sure. I'd have to ask some of my you know statistic geeks out there maybe to go figure it out, but I would say at least 50%. To where it really made an impression, I would say that more than that went huh, okay, all right, but maybe over 50% did something with that information. That's pretty bad.
Speaker 1:So if only if 13% have the qualifications and 50% are listening and we're talking millions of people, then you're spreading misinformation because you don't know, I mean, or it could be that you do know and you're trying to make a buck. You know there's a lot of people out there peddling snake oil, as I talked about last time, so that could be true. But at the very worst you're just ignorant and you shouldn't be spreading that information before it's verified. And even more so than that, you probably, if you are in that camp of 87%, shouldn't be giving it the exposure at all, like it's not your job. You're not qualified to do that just because you might look good or you I don't know. And I mean even that is really subjective, isn't it? I mean, you talk about holy Photoshop these days, you know, I mean we all. Nobody really wants to talk about that and nobody really wants to say anything about that to their friends or acquaintances or people they just meet for the first time on social media.
Speaker 1:But how many times do you look at a profile picture and then meet the person in person and go, uh, where did you go? Like that is not you. I mean, nobody wants to say anything, nobody wants to. I mean, I get it, you know I do. But I would say, at least half the time I'm scrolling through social media I'll see a picture. It's usually a profile picture and sometimes it's just a regular posted picture, but oftentimes it is a profile picture and I'll go that's not them. I mean, that is not them, right? And I mean you might say, well, what's wrong with that?
Speaker 1:I think a lot of things. I think that I get why people do it. I think that if you are like you know, a salesperson and you know you're selling something, you work for somebody, you're trying to make an impression, but don't people realize, well, you're going to meet the and they're going to have these expectations. You know and look. I'm not saying everything is about appearance, but it is. If you're making it about that, I mean if you were just who you were and you meet somebody, I mean they don't care. But if you're going out of your way to look one way and then somebody meets you in person and you're not, I mean right away, I think it gives the person sort of a distrust feeling of, well, they're going to change this much. So you know, that's not what this is about, but it is kind of.
Speaker 1:The point is that when you see these pictures of these, you know men or women you know that look exceptionally fit. Don't always trust it, man. People modify these pictures all the time. They can modify videos. I mean so you don't know. I mean, first off, you shouldn't be following that Like. You should. As soon as you see information, you should go in and check their qualifications. You know, but like and and. But. Secondly, it's like don't even trust the picture anyway.
Speaker 1:I had a client and she's trained with me for a few years now, casey, and she's done a physique contest with me Like good client, right? I mean they're all good clients. I bring her up because I remember a couple months ago she saw somebody it was a fitness lady giving fitness advice for like shows, for what she did, like physique competitions, and the information was all wrong and first Casey made a comment and then sent it to me and the comment was you know what are your qualifications? And she was trying to ask her. I don't think the woman ever replied and I think Casey may have taken it down because she just realized it's not worth the you know, the argument with people and it's really not. It is so not, I don't do that. I just, you know, keep scrolling or I block or whatever. But anyway she sent it to me and I was happy about that because everything I've said through the years has made her go.
Speaker 1:Oh, you know, I need to make sure this person knows what they're talking about. You know, I, we, I said all the time we, we said all the time in the 80s when, when I was just a, you know, a teen and a early 20 guy, you know, working out, we'd say don't ask the racehorse how it got fast. You know, you don't know there's genetics involved. Just because somebody looks good or is good, there's a lot of genetics. I apologize for saying I heard myself on the podcast the other day and I realized how often I say that and that's not good enough. I need to up my game. So I apologize for that.
Speaker 1:Here's another statistic for you. There are people on there who pose as physicians online. Okay, we see it, we saw it during COVID. We saw a lot of people coming out, you know, and they oh God, I just did it and they were acting like epidemiologists. They're giving all this advice. They're telling people what they should and should not be doing. That's very risky people, what they should and should not be doing. That's very risky people.
Speaker 1:13% of the people that claim to be medical doctors on social media are 13%. I have friends who are physicians. I have clients who are physicians and you know what they are on social media. I see them. I'm friends with them on social media. I have three that come to the gym right now that I'm friends with on social media. I see them. I'm friends with them on social media. I have three that come to the gym right now that I'm friends with on social media. None of them give medical advice on social media. One of them will comment here or there on her friend's posts. Doesn't comment anything about herself comment anything about herself. The other one never comments, hardly ever does, and one of them will post something about sports because he is a sports nut like me. That's it. No medical advice given, no medical posts made. So I believe this 13%, because if I know physicians and I know more I mean I've got these are just the three that currently come to my gym. I've got a lot of friends and acquaintances that work for Halifax, work for Florida hospital.
Speaker 1:I mean, as soon as I said that, three other guys just came into my head that I'm, oh God, four or five and three or four gastroenterologists alone. They're not giving medical advice on Facebook. They're not doing it. They're not doing it on Twitter. They're not doing it. So they're smarter than that. They're like I'm not going to put this information out there, I'm not going to give false information about this. I don't know this patient and then God forbid, they go get hurt. They're not worried about lawsuits. I don't think you can get sued for making these kinds of comments online, unless it's pure slander or misinformation, that is, I don't. I don't even know. I don't even know if you could, for that. That's not why they don't do it. They don't do it because they're not stupid. There's no reason to do it. There's no gain to do it. They're not going to get patients from doing this. They're, if anything would lose patients right, so they're not doing it.
Speaker 1:So I absolutely believe that only 13% of the people posing as medical experts are qualified to do it. 60% of everybody you're going to encounter online regarding like strength and conditioning, have zero qualifications to do so. 60% like strength training people you know like. We see these people posting videos. You see those types of things. Look, is there anything wrong with going to the gym? I have students. Well, the students have qualifications, but maybe they're not working in the field and they got their original degree and they got certified, maybe. I mean, I've got a lot of students. I can think of some that are in that category. I can think of some that are in working categories. So they have the qualifications, but maybe you're out there posting a video of you doing squats. Is that bad? No, the problem is when you then start telling people what they're doing wrong and you don't know yourself. I shouldn't say even that is so demeaning to my field.
Speaker 1:Strength training is so critical. I mean, it is one of the top things you can do to improve your health outcomes and increase your longevity and quality of life? Absolutely. We know this. Statistics are bearing it out left and right. So learning how to do proper strength training matters so freaking much and we'll have people doing ridiculous kettlebell exercises out there and acting like they know exactly what they're talking about. Is a kettlebell bad? No, I'm not saying that. They're doing specific exercises. They're pushing as the be all get all of the only exercise you have to do, and they might look good and they might be trained with kettlebells. That does not make them a health and fitness expert. You might see guys working with kids in the gym, football players pushing up a lot of weight.
Speaker 1:I see it all the time because I follow a lot of the teams. I will say that the professional teams I'll just focus on football right now because it's football season. I will say that the professional teams I'll just focus on football right now because it's football season. I mean it's baseball season too, but I've been seeing a lot of videos come across my feed because the algorithm knows I like them and I do, and I'm seeing a lot of football videos come across my feed of the guys working out like in camp and stuff. And yeah, man, there are some incredibly strong people out there and at least half of it, if not more, have terrible form, with people cheering them on and pushing them, and I'm thinking, man, oh man, you know, we gotta be careful about this. We have to really be careful about what we're trying to tell people is the right thing to do.
Speaker 1:I see it with the young athletes all the time. It's just follow your old uncle who used to be big type of thing and next thing you know, you have a herniated disc or a torn rotator cuff and you're not going to throw from third base anymore and you're only 17. I mean, there are ways to do this stuff right, and so often we simply don't see it All right. So, to give you a statistic and I put this in my new which is only 22% are active enough to get benefits and what the solution is, which is qualified coaching in my opinion. So I'll give you a little stat I put in there. Really, if you want to look for the amount of people total online that have the credentials whether it be medical, physical fitness or nutrition you're looking at a number of around 20%. So 80% of the people out there just might as well be flapping their gums and they're talking out their neck. They don't really have the not really. They don't have the qualifications to talk about what they're talking about. They just don't.
Speaker 1:I used to make the joke a lot about the old Holiday Inn commercial where the guy would come out and he was going to save somebody's life and I said, are you a doctor? He says no, but I slept in a Holiday Inn last night. I mean it's pretty similar, right, and we don't think about that enough. That needs to be one of those things where you go. That's true. I mean, just because you do it, just because you got a good night's sleep, right, it doesn't make you the expert on anything. There has to be a level of education and a level of experience, and I talked about this a couple episodes ago and I'll just kind of rail on it a little bit again.
Speaker 1:We see like the national politicians on both sides of the aisle trying to be like the leaders in the physical fitness movement. They're not and they never will be. I don't care what side of the aisle you are on. Leave the physical fitness to the physical fitness people. I mean, if government wants to get involved in an initiative to get people moving and all that great. Hire the right people out to do it the two guys they had out there pushing the way with their pull-ups and push-up routine that they ended up brutalizing the form on that and basically making themselves look like idiots. It shouldn't be the former first lady of a couple presidents ago talking about school lunches and stuff. So I'm trying to make this fair and say it is both sides of the aisle that shouldn't be pushing this. We were joking today in a sort of a joking way, but not really. It's kind of like Nancy Reagan's thing in the 80s of just say no, it didn't work, they're not the right people to be out there giving this message. And too often we see it it's a political thing to try to get people sort of fired up and waving their swords. You know I've heard so many people lately say, oh, I think it's great that they're pushing physical fitness. Okay, of course you're not going to find a bigger fan than me. You got to get the right people to do it.
Speaker 1:I'm a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger. I like him. I don't think he's perfect, I don't think any of us are, but I like him. I think he's funny. I think he's done some really good things. I like a lot of his movies, I like his Netflix thing, I like his new podcast and he has hired out.
Speaker 1:Finally, because let me tell you I'm not taking health and fitness advice from Arnold Schwarzenegger. He's the epitome of somebody who had the great genetics and he also very much admits that he used a lot of drugs so he got huge. He doesn't know what he's talking about. He knew what he was talking about. For him. He didn't know what he's talking about. He knew what he was talking about for him. He didn't know what he's talking about giving health and fitness advice. He's hired two different professionals that work for him with his emails and his podcasts and they're good. And then he just reads it and then he agrees with it and he does do a good job of promoting healthy lifestyle, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And now, in his 70s, he admits he's not the expert on that. He's an expert on bodybuilding, of course. I mean, if I wanted a posing coach, somebody that helped me get up there and know how to pose better, he'd be my guy for sure, and I think he's smart. He's not a health and fitness expert. He's had the experience personally. He doesn't have the experience working with people, nor the education. So I say that because he was in that role under the Bush administration and he shouldn't have been. I mean, he's a great like, look for it because you're going to get the exposure, but he doesn't have the credentials to be talking about back then what he was even talking about.
Speaker 1:So a lot of this is popping up again, I think because of the political push and I think just because social media is growing even more, and I just wanted to share with you those statistics so you can see that you want to get the professionals to help you with whatever it is. If you need medical advice to help you with whatever it is, if you need medical advice, go to your doctor. If you need to know about pandemics and epidemics and stuff like that, trust real epidemiologists, not some rando on Facebook trying to talk about trends. If you want health and fitness advice, make sure that your trainer or your strength and conditioning coach, or whoever you see for that, or your wellness coach, has at least a bachelor's degree in health and fitness and is certified through one of the four accredited certifications the American College of Sports Medicine, the National Strength and Conditioning Association, the American Council on Exercise or the National Academy of Sports Medicine. Those are the only four.
Speaker 1:Other than that, don't listen, just keep scrolling, keep moving. All right, please remember to follow the show. That helps me and put automatic download. 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.
