The unfortunate fact is health and fitness industry is becoming increasingly more and more about marketing and sales and provide less information about the quality, products, and services. Of course, selling has always played an important role in health and fitness, but these days, making the sale is more important than ever. Now common for companies and individual sellers to spend most of their time and energy developing better sales pitches and marketing tactics, as opposed to develop better products and services. In other words, health and fitness becomes less about helping you succeed in achieving your goals and more about finding a way to manipulate you into buying a particular product or service, no matter if it will benefit you or not.

I know there are many wonderful and qualified people in the health and fitness industry who put their clients ‘and customers’ needs first and provide great information, products, and services. However, the problem is most of the information and messages people are exposed today does not come directly from quality sources. In contrast, most of the information people see and hear is from a business or an individual trying to convey a certain message in order to make sales. As a result, the information is usually biased and designed to manipulate your emotions and / or strengthen a company or organization a certain point of view. To make matters worse, these messages are often disguised to appear objective and information, even when they really only targeted ads.

All of this bias and health are often misleading or even blatantly untrue and fitness information is a source of great concern, because people are exposed to so many half-truths and conflicting messages, that the end result is often confusion and frustration only increased. To add to this confusion, even when the information is correct, exercise and nutritional information is often presented in a general way on top, showing things like there is a great way to exercise or one of the best ways to eat and how to be followed by everyone. Many health and fitness information applies only to certain people or certain circumstances and no single approach is best for everyone, regardless of what the marketers would have you believe. Everyone is different and the exercise or nutrition information that is useful for one person may not work for others.

It’s a shame that so much information is biased, manipulative, or inappropriately used, because most of the health and fitness industry is constantly learning more about exercise, nutrition, and other matters relating to the workings of the body and use that information to help others. Researchers continue to conduct experiments and publish books and articles that provide honest and straightforward about things like how to train for specific purposes, how to recover after exercise or injury, and how certain foods and nutrients affect your health. Other people, including high-quality coaches, trainers, and nutritionists take this information along with practical experience and pass their knowledge to others. All those who work to provide valuable information and move the health and fitness industry in a positive direction.

Read the rest of this entry »