I work 1 on 1 with clients for their health and fitness goals, and 1 on 1 with athletes for their sport performance goals. It’s safe to say I’ve been doing this for a while now, and time and again, I see the same trends in fitness come and go through what seems to be a revolving door.
This is year 7 .
That’s how many years in a row I’ve done this particular blog article, and I don’t plan to stop anytime soon. Not only is it a neat summation of the year, but it also helps me gather my thoughts and look back on the most important lessons that occurred to me over that time period. It also must count for something that in 7 years, there have been no repeats.
The industry I grew up developing a passion for was one that went hand in hand with my current hobbies – sports, exercise, fun, and a touch of competition, while looking good to boot. I wanted to work with sports athletes if I didn’t become one myself. Of course, in the early 2000’s, my perspective was a bit different.
The climate of one-upmanship and strength-in-numbers has dominated social media, and if you’re smart, you probably see it too.
For me, it took one addition – an Instagram account created about 8 weeks ago – to see just how crazy it’s gotten online, and ultimately strengthen my resolve to avoid resorting to the same methods for viewership and readership.
Time and again, the internet defends its spot atop the throne as the primary haven for misinformation, and a way for the insecure to find hubris located neatly behind a flip screen.
Beyond the reach it has for spreading good information, it also dictates the zeitgeist for 2018 – one, in my opinion, made up of a self-help shock culture that mistakes everyone for an expert.
I’ve spoken at length on the rampant extremism that exists within the fitness community. People take polarizing approaches suited to their personal preferences, and even apply that approach to their lives by making it their identity.
Worse yet, if they’re fitness professionals who get paid to coach people for a living, they apply such one-track-mindedness to their clientele, who may end up becoming the same way themselves.
