Wildfires, Water Pistols, and Buried Bars: The Danger of Misleading Fitness Articles

Ah, welcome. In ancient Norse tradition, they’d call this a thing, a gathering of minds and power, leading us today to confront an inconvenient truth fitness articles dangling low-hanging fruit so enticingly that it’s no longer on the branch, but lying on the ground, overripe and rotting. “One 20-Minute Workout Per Week Might Be All You Need!” it proclaims, a shiny bauble of convenience. At first glance, it seems like a gift. But as with all things too good to be true, there’s a catch.

This isn’t an indictment of simplicity,

simplicity has its place. This is about the dangerous allure of an accurate yet sorely misrepresented idea. Allow me to explain why this article well-meaning though it may be likely no longer serves you and why embracing it now would be nothing short of a disservice.

The articles, drawn from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, boasts impressive first-year results: chest-press strength increased by 50%, leg-press strength by 70%. Extraordinary gains, on the surface. But dig deeper. This seven-year study reveals that those stellar numbers dwindle over time. Why? Because the human body is a brilliant adapter. It rises to meet the challenge, but without progression, it plateaus. At best, it stagnates. At worst, it begins a free fall.

This article’s promise is designed for the young and the uninitiated, for those taking their first tentative steps into fitness. For them, it’s a starting line—and a poor one at that. For you? It’s more likely a step back, a retreat, a white flag of surrender.

Here lies the larger problem. By the time we reach our 40s, our muscles are no longer passive assets. They’re battlegrounds. Sarcopenia, the gradual loss of muscle mass, is a relentless foe. It doesn’t ask permission; it simply takes. And one short session a week? That’s akin to fighting a wildfire with a squirt gun.

What’s required isn’t the least you can do it’s the most you can do efficiently. Two or three sessions a week. Compound lifts. Functional movements. Progressive overload. A diet rich in protein to fuel recovery. A regimen that blends strength, mobility, flexibility, and cardiovascular health.

Articles like this, with their low-hanging fruit, may be well-intentioned, but they do more harm than good. They whisper the sweet lies of mediocrity to those who should be reaching higher. They’re a permissive parent, swapping the broccoli of truth for the green gummy bears of convenience, simply because they’re the same color. They’re not a roadmap; they’re a cul-de-sac.

These types of articles, well-meaning as it may be, paint a ridiculous picture that has real consequences. It doesn’t lower the bar; it buries it in the sand and encourages others to bury their heads right alongside it, only to wonder later why their time feels wasted and their results are minimal. Thus, they slide backward even further.

This article doesn’t apply to you anymore. You’ve outgrown it. And that, my friends, is not just progress it’s triumph. It's time to Make Life More

The Rise of DRAGO (The rebirth of TECH in the fitness industry) is it worth the hype?

Rocky 4  featured the unstoppable juggernaut of Ivan Drago who was touted as the pinnacle of scientific study and data driven training. From the  punching machines and indoor running track, to the weight lifting and drugs that he was injected with. The whole process was documented, adjusted, and incorporated by numerous men in white coats into the next round of training. Smiling scientists marveled at their work and mocked ol’ Rocky out in the mountains lifting wheelbarrows and carrying logs. Seems the stuff of cinema; but is it only happening on the big screen? How about an example a little more real to life?

Several years ago when the recession was in full swing every fitness trainer with a business card was calling on clients to come to boot camp style workouts in the park. Everyone was feeling the wrath of the economy and this low cost low overhead was a heavy influence on the marketing around the “bodyweight workouts” and the “functional movement” programming that could be offered in this environment.  All you needed was a pair of shoes and the will to get out there to get into shape.

Flash forward a few years, with the improving economy and the ability to afford space and  equipment again, garage fitness with truck tires and sledgehammers sprung up. A hybrid so to speak, that had clients out running in the streets with weights over their heads and doing squats out by the dumpster in the alley.  ( no that is not an exaggeration saw it with my own eyes ) and those facilities calling themselves “elite training facilities". These hour long workouts with “practical movements” were now the way to go to get fit and lean.

Flash forward again to the present, the latest movement is data / tech driven fitness. Biofeedback, variable and assisted resistance machines, large billboards flashing neon heart rate numbers so  clients can see they are out performing the rest of the pack. This data driven fitness is now a little more affordable and all the rage. So the fitness industry is more than happy to add some bells and whistles that now wow clients in a way that hasn’t happened since they strapped a television to the treadmill. Truly the age of Drago has arrived.

However IS that data being interpreted correctly and does it benefit you?  Last year, Expert Review of Medical Devices ran an editorial written by a group of scientists that highlighted how new digital tech devices get to be commercialized without actual proof of their effectiveness (Morone et al., 2016). Documentation by several independent testers including Consumer reports have found digital wearable trackers to be up to 33% off in their reporting of calories burned. (Oct 19 2017) And even the numbers on your favorite cardio machine are just a guesstimate based upon time and speed of the motor. That machine has no idea how much your body is actually working.  However  with the booming trend in wearable trackers and high tech workouts It is easy to add some flashing lights and a few testimonials and suddenly we are all Ivans  expecting to take on the world.

However for the majority with unproven, over reliance on,misinterpretation of, or just inaccurate data we are not actually doing anything more for our health and fitness.

1. Technology/data is not a replacement for physical monitoring and body manipulation

New devices are including feedback from exercise with everything from heart rate to sensory muscle engagement. However, none of this is actually new. It has just become cheaper with lower production costs. Now with it being back in the fold the industry touts it as amazing new tech.  However, this relatively old technology with a twist should not be elevated to being anything more than another tool in the toolbox. Without an individual trained in the exercises that you are doing and carefully monitoring how you are performing them this tech simply becomes another commercialized hammer that will supposedly fix all of the clients ills. 

2. Technology/ data  does not assure procedural adherence, develop programming, or modify for the client

Ever since the first clock was strapped to a treadmill people have been looking at it wondering when they could get off this crazy thing or using it as a benchmark as to how fit they are by how long they can go. However with this new set of tech, clients have never had so many numbers and markers  thrown their way.  People generally enjoy setting goals and tracking them; many find the accountability and sense of accomplishment that comes with this process helpful, like getting a food pellet when the right button was pressed. However if clients see their goals not being met, the decline of that tech use is swift, that is until they find a different piece of tech or a different set of numbers that they can insert and feel successful again. We have all heard don’t trust the scale but has anyone said don’t trust the flashing neon billboard?  That device touting itself as the all and powerful OZ has very little to offer behind the curtain. The underlying belief system that accompanies almost every heath and fitness trend often seems to be a “Set it and Forget it” mentality that offers a system of if “ I just do what the tech tells me to then I will be successful.”

While we can use tech and the numbers as  fitness markers and make correlations to other data to help gain a sense of the bodies overall capacity and health, simply seeing one’s heart rate up on a billboard in truth has a minimal impact on the actual level of fitness and even less on the level of health.  It is time to start taking exercise and its benefits beyond the level it is currently at. It is time to accept a larger mantle of responsibility in the fitness world. To be the forward thinking professionals that can discuss the benefits of exercise in a tangible concrete fashion. 

RE*FIT is proud to be among that group who believes in training not trends mentality. When your ready to make a change , make a choice,  and make a difference in your future RE*FIT will be there to help.