The marketing of fitness in the United States is booming. Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent yearly participating in exercise activities, as well as supplying equipment needs, buying nutritional supplements, and using fitness oriented services.
Funny though how we are still unhealthy as a national population. Did we not spend enough money or is it something else?
Following the Money
Snake oil sales have been around for generations. Magical concoctions “guaranteed” to, as my father used to joke, “Good for what ails you. Gives you what you haven’t got and grows hair on your chest.” Dad jokes aside, modern fitness miracles follow the tried and true paths to making a fast buck.
Do not get me wrong, fitness products can provide helpful supports in our exercise performances. I cannot imagine what it would have been like to ride a leather saddle wearing non padded wool shorts. Ouch. Modern cycling bibs have to be a vast improvement.
My cynicism comes in mostly with the tone of so many pitches. Starting with the assumption that I am unable to solve my own athletic performance problems and that their product is my only hope. There are times when I am stumped and can use some help, but do not scold me.
Healthy skepticism is useful when reviewing products on the market. Fitness and health considerations are usually buried in the marketing. They often arise as buzzwords that mean one thing to the buyer and something else to the seller. Staying oriented to the difference makes for better purchases.
What Is Normal?
The one size fits all training method or fitness product does not exist.
Given the vast variations in body types, proportions, chemistries, etc. that people present, there is a lock and key relationship to many products. What works for your favorite elite athlete, may or may not work for you.
The idea of normal is just a statistical calculation and not based on individuals. It is an average taken across many people. We all possess characteristics that are above, below, and on the button. Our bodies just do not fit in just one place, so comparisons with “normal” becomes more of a word game rather than a helpful classification.
Labels only help in general. Relax and revel in your uniqueness.
Fitness Tips
Advice about how to improve your game, or just garner more PR’s, abound. Everybody has an opinion, though as most of us have discovered, not all advice will work for you.
One of the first “a-ha” moments I experienced in med school was literally seeing that every “body” is different. Anatomy will vary according to a person’s genetics and life experiences. There are similarities but no two are alike.
There is no surprise in that not all training tips work for all who try them. Training ideas, however, are a great place to start.
My approach to training has always been one of trial-and-error. Since I do not have any way of knowing if something will work, there is only one way to find out.
These tryouts produce one of three outcomes. Nothing changed, performance got worse, or performance improved. With all of this experimentation, my training regime is a strange patchwork of different actions that work for me.
Will it work for you?
No idea but you are invited to give it a try. Our personal brands of training develop over time and experience. Trying out different regimens is the start of discovering what works for you.
The Business End
Flexibility is called for when it comes to buying fitness products over time. The manufacturing of products may change. While we really liked that equipment or supplement, when it is redesigned, the product may no longer work the same way.
When I first started running (to compensate for a recently discontinued smoking habit), I found the perfect shoe for me. Nike made a Pegasus model that matched my particular biomechanics perfectly. When going back a year or so later to replace the worn pair, the same model did not fit as the first.
Bummer.
Same goes for supplements. Sports drinks that got me through long hot summers have suddenly declined in their efficiency or flavors became unpalatable.
Bodies change also, so a bottom line in being a consumer of fitness products and services is to accept the changes that are coming.
Fitness Marketing Flexibility
Be the center of your own fitness. Marketing can look and sound overwhelming, but place yourself in command and work through the hype to find what is useful for you. There are loads of different resources (and plenty of imitators too) available.
Some of the products and services will work for you. Some will not.
“People love to say, “You gotta fake it till you make it.” But this implies that the fake you is someone better than who you inherently are, and this is simply not the truth. Let me say this loud and clear: the person you imagine yourself to be in the very best and most powerful moments of your life, is the authentic you. And in truth, I imagine you’re probably much more amazing even than that.”
― Richie Norton
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