Don’t be fooled..
Nowadays, it seems as though everyone has a qualification in fitness. So many people give advice on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube on how to lose fat and build muscle; they call themselves fitness influencers.
It’s not to say that all the advice is bad; you need to filter through it and see which advice is good, and which is bad. All of them are selling exercise programs they designed themselves. These programs might not be as effective as those designed by professionals.
They show exercises that have a higher risk of injury. They claim that if you do a specific workout programme with a particular diet, you will have a six-pack in three months, or “If you want to build muscle like me, just use these supplements and it will get you the results you want.”
In this article, I will give you my honest opinion about these fitness influencers.
Nutrition & Supplements
First things first. No amount of exercise will ever make up for a bad diet, and the same goes for supplements. No supplement will ever counteract a poor diet.
The professional to consult about your diet is a dietitian. However, some fitness influencers offer advice about nutrition too. The question that you need to ask is, “Are they qualified to give me this advice?”
As for supplements, you need to ask, “Are they being sponsored by a company?” I’m not suggesting all the advice they offer is bad but there are opinions that you should ignore. When you start a course of supplements, it’s recommended you improve your diet.
Make the necessary changes to a healthier diet and set up a solid workout routine. If you are just starting, you don’t necessarily need any supplements like creatine, monohydrate, whey protein or BCAA. What you do need are a decent diet and a good workout routine.
Exercise
I want to mention most exercises aren’t bad; it’s in the execution of the exercises where you might experience problems. Fitness influencers show exercises that are perfectly safe, and you can perform them with good technique. However, they also show exercises that can be harmful since some of them have an elevated risk of injury. Once again, we are asking if the fitness influencers are qualified enough to give us advice about the exercises we should do and how we should perform them.
The question to ask is, “Am I able to perform this exercise with the proper technique?” One of the things that contribute most to proper technique is your mobility, especially with lower body exercise. Take your mobility seriously, as this will help prevent injuries. One of the things you can do to improve this is static and dynamic stretching.
Between compound and isolation exercises, which is better? That depends on what your goal is. Compound exercises will help with muscular development and adding extra muscle mass. The same goes for isolation exercises.
Each one of them has advantages and disadvantages. For example, the advantage of isolation exercise is you can take it to failure. The risk of injury stays low because of the machines that will help with performing the exercise. This does not include all isolation exercises.
The advantage of a compound exercise is that it involves a greater amount of muscle recruitment. It’s considered classical athletic training. The argument has been made that compound exercises burn more calories because they involve more muscle recruitment, while isolation only focuses on one muscle. Increased stability is another advantage of performing compound exercises.
The difference between compound and isolation is shown below.
Barbell Back Squats
An example of a compound exercise is the barbell back squat. It involves more muscle recruitment and works more than one joint. The benefits of compound exercises are that they help increase your strength, especially if you are a beginner.
Machine Standing Calf Raise
An example of an isolation exercise is a mechanical calf raise. It targets one specific muscle group or joint. Isolation exercises are better for muscle hypertrophy and for taking to failure.
A good workout plan takes the following steps into consideration. The first step is the warm-up.
An excellent way to warm up is with cardiovascular exercise, done lightly, or dynamic stretching. The second step is the exercise execution order. Some fitness influencers say that there is no actual order that you need to follow with your workout except for the warm-up and cool-down.
However, there is a method which is more efficient in achieving your goals. This brings us to the exercise execution order that will aid you. Begin with your compound exercises and do your isolation exercises at the end. This will help you to perform the compound exercise better since it applies more technique and focus.
It’s better to do the compound exercise at the beginning because the isolation exercise doesn’t need the same amount of focus as the former. Another reason not to do an isolation exercise at the start is that it will tire you too much to perform the compound exercise with heavy weights or being able to execute it perfectly.
There are exercises out there that you should avoid because their risk ratio is too high. We often see these exercises on social media platforms like Instagram. Some of us perform these exercises without asking if they are beneficial to us.
These days, there are many exercises that seem to come out of nowhere, thanks to social media. Fitness influencers sometimes don’t ask the right questions either. Let’s start with the exercise that we see in the image.
Let’s ask the first question: what is the function of the external obliques? The external obliques help to rotate the trunk, but not so much to bend it. The second question to ask is if this is healthy for the spine. The answer is technically no because the spine is not meant to bend that way, especially when holding heavy weights in your hands. For example, when we are performing an exercise like the deadlift, we are recommended to keep a neutral spine.
