7 rules I use to determine whether a fitness influencer’s account is good for me
How to keep your sanity in the New Year New You madness
Credit: Aline Aronsky
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Several years ago, before I understood much about nutrition, training and body types, way before I understood about curating my social media feeds and paying attention to the emotions certain accounts triggered, I followed a ton of fitness influencers. This was before I started lifting weights, and before I started powerlifting.
What I saw mostly made me feel terrible about myself. I was following a lot of young women who would post photos of what they’d eat, and how they’d train, and it would create this weird dissonance because a) I was much older than them and nothing short of a Freaky Friday body swap would change that b) I knew that even if I trained like they did I wouldn’t look like them c) I wasn’t sure I wanted to look like them but I felt as if I should look like them. But yet, I was interested in fitness, and these people seemed to be the authority on it, so maybe I should keep following them?
It took a lot of learning and re-training my brain to make me see that this was wrong, and that shame and comparison are not necessary to feeling motivated around fitness.
Some might say, well if social media makes you feel so bad about yourself, why bother using it at all? To that I’d reply, that social media is a platform and a tool, and it holds the capacity for good and bad. It is also currently the only place where there is a diversity of fitness, and although the algorithm is still heavily biased towards slimness, whiteness and youth, we can seek out people who we feel represent us.
The University of Waikato did some research that found that while women can feel negatively impacted by the online fit-fluencer world, they are also a lot more switched on about protecting what they see, and being proactive about who they follow and engage with.
Besides, what is the alternative? The fitness industry may have marginally changed over the last few years (more women doing strength training, more focus on performance versus aesthetics, more menopause and post-partum specific experts, more debunking of long-held myths around nutrition) but it is still shockingly bad in terms of representation through mainstream channels whether that’s around body diversity, age, disability and race.
As a 40-something south Asian woman who lifts heavy weights and isn’t a size 10, there is very little that I see in the mainstream that reflects myself as a person, and that I also find inspirational. Following people who reflect my own approach to training as well as trusted people who help debunk fitness and nutrition myths, makes me feel seen and sane in this area of my life.
I thought it might be helpful to share how I curate my feed, some of the rules I have in place, as well as things to watch out for. Some of these may not work for you, so feel free to pick what works for you and leave the rest!
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