I’ve always done a fairly good job of compartmentalizing my social medias with my Twitter dedicated to the sports teams I love and follow, my Instagram is used as a training log (what better way to track than having actual videos of your bar speed…) and Facebook for personal stuff. You see almost nothing on my Facebook…

Recently I’ve started following a bunch of S&C related accounts on Twitter as a way to explore who else may be out there that I can learn from. While a few random accounts have been informative and seem legit, wow is there a lot of junk on Twitter!

Earlier this week I had one of these “10 Hacks I’ve Learned in my Fitness Journey” type of posts and just said “screw it” and decided to read through it. I’d call about 1/2 of them legit, a couple of them were person dependent and the rest were just outright stupid. Mentally, I started to go on a rant about this and figured that it would be a good topic for me to tackle on this blog, so here we go.

First and foremost, I won’t be using the person’s name and I’m going to keep this vague enough to where it would be hard to find. I don’t believe in doing the “call people out for attention” thing. My intention of this post is to help any readers sort through the “junk” on the internet and find the right content to help them achieve their goals.

My vague description of the post was this:

• I would describe the person as in good shape, but by no means someone you’d look at and think they are in the fitness industry
• It was quickly mentioned how much money they’ve made in the industry
• Post was in list style form and covered everything from meal timing to what order to put exercises in during your workout
• The word “hack” was used more than once…
• It ended with “if you just do these simple things, you can be in great shape like me” (I’m paraphrasing)

So, the big question would be “what is wrong with this?”. To some, not so much, some of his facts/advice were good, others weren’t. From my view, the major issue in this is the overall tone. You can’t get in great shape via Hacks, Tips, Tricks and Short Cuts. If you can, you were in pretty damn good shape in the first place and probably didn’t need any of that advice…

Another thing that should be pointed out, while I was able to find a shirtless picture of this guy, which again I’d rate as “okay”, there were no other credentials listed other than “I’ve made a lot of money in this industry”. This is a huge red flag…

Stan Efferding, Charles Poloquin, Louie Simmons. All kings of the strength training world, they’ve all made their money via various endeavors and are considered the top of their chosen niches in their professions (or were when they were alive). At no point have I read a single piece of S&C related literature from them that used “I’ve made a lot of money doing this, so you need to listen”. Stan uses the moniker of “Worlds Strongest Bodybuilder” (which was true at a time) while Charles and Louie had extraordinarily long lists of champions they trained. Those things are real credentials.

I’ve read a lot of Charles and Louie’s books, have listened to a ton of Stan’s podcasts and interviews and try to absorb everything Westside I can. At no point have any of these three ever presented something as a “Hack” either. The consistency between the three in their message is actually consistency… You need to have a plan, stay at it and not deviate. That’s how you become successful accomplishing your goals in the gym, not through a list of “10 Hacks” or “Trying This Shortcut”.

I’m not going to tell anyone who to follow, who to read etc… Nor am I going to say someone needs to have chiseled abs or an 800lb squat to be credible. What I am going to tell you is there are red flags you should be on the lookout for on the internet when it comes to fitness. If you’re struggling to hit your goals consistently, you need to take a hard look at the effort and discipline attached to your training. Are you going hard enough, are you staying on programs, are you eating right, are you sleeping enough, etc..?

Going forward, don’t look for that hack. Self reflect and take some accountability for why you aren’t achieving your goals. That’s how you’ll hit them in the future.