As we are all aware of by now, or at least anyone who hasn’t crawled under a rock and hibernated for twenty years, is that social media influencers are one of the most listened todemographic of people on the planet.
As we are all aware of by now, or at least anyone who hasn’t crawled under a rock and
hibernated for twenty years, is that social media influencers are one of the most listened to
demographic of people on the planet. What qualifies you as an influencer? Shit loads of
followers. Real industry recognised qualifications and genuine experience? Not so much.
It’s something that I find comes up very frequently when discussing health and fitness, both
with friends and clients, and something that I’ll be honest frustrates the hell out of me. Not
because of an issue with social media per se, but because generally the most followed and
talked about social media influencers are, for lack of a better expression, full of shit.
Influencers present themselves in a fashion where we could be forgiven for thinking that
these people are experts in their field, and a lot have even been given air time on large
mainstream podcasts which can further add to the illusion that these people are genuine
experts in their field. But in reality, a lot of the information they provide is a mixture of biased
opinion based on very little on the ground experience and pure lies, usually as a tool to
garner followers, interactions and in a few cases to sell an alternative product that they are
financially tied to. But rather than pick on these people individually, which might take a while,
I have put together a very brief list (in no particular order) of people worth following on social
media, people with real experience and qualifications who can actually pass on some
information helpful to a persons fitness goals. So let us begin…..
Jeff Cavaliere, CSCS. @athleanx
Cavaliere is a former physical therapist and strength/conditioning specialist for the
New York Mets and has extensive experience personal training with numerous elite
athletes. Today he runs the hugely popular YouTube channel AthleanX with over 13
million followers. Jeff has built his reputation with results driven programs, both
personally and online, and his YouTube channel provides informative and
instructional content delivered in a fun and insightful manner.
Sam Warburton. @sw7academy
Sam is an ex Welsh and British Lions rugby player so has a huge amount of on the
ground experience, something that he is now using in his post playing career to build
a successful personal training business. Sam regularly posts realistic nutritional
advice, exercise plans and tips on the @sw7academy Instagram account that will
undoubtedly aid a person during their own fitness journey.
Dr Idrees Mughal, MBBS, MRes, DiplBLM. @dr_idz
A personal favourite of mine, Dr Idz has a fantastic account on Instagram that
highlights and deconstructs the nonsense that a lot of influencers post regarding
health and nutrition. He cites a wide array of meta analysis and scientific evidence to
back up his claims, which are also an invaluable source of information to the
average Joe looking to further their own research into sports and fitness. He’s also
pretty funny with it too….
Dr Joey Munoz PhD. @dr.joeymunoz
Joseph Munoz is a Doctor of Nutritional Sciences and has a very popular Instagram
account that tackles, in a similar way to Dr. Idz, a lot of nutritional myths and
misleading advice with applicable, realistic and well researched nutritional fact. Very
helpful to a person effected by the huge amount of contradictory advice posted
online gain a better understanding of how to improve their diet in order to improve
their own health and fitness.
Sean McInroy. @apex.strength.society
Sean is an Australian personal trainer with over a decade and 15,000 plus hours of
experience in the field. His social media content generally covers advice on form and
how to perform an exercise regime in an effective way in a funny and entertaining
manner. For someone lacking knowledge in this area but who wishes to improve
their resistance based training but who maybe can’t yet stretch to a Personal Trainer
then following Sean is a must.
Layne Norton PhD. @biolayne
Layne is a former IPF (International Powerlift Federation) World Champion and has
a PhD Nutritional Sciences. He regularly posts scientifically backed health and
fitness advice alongside entertaining videos highlighting the contradictory and
somewhat bizarre claims made by influencers. It’s simple good advice, and he’s well
worth the follow.
Whilst this list is not all encompassing; there are a lot of other fantastic sources out there, it
does provide some good accounts to get started, and whilst scrolling through your phone for
tips on health and fitness remember one thing, if someone is making outlandish claims and
shortcuts it’s usually because they’re full of shit. Happy training!
