Unfit, Unhealthy & Unwell - Ari Bernstein, Nick Wright, Frankie Cruz, David Lyons, Scott Newton, Rami Odeh, Khadevis Robinson, Mike Rosa, Alyssa Spaw, Nia Williams

Unfit, Unhealthy & Unwell (eBook)

The Truth, Facts, & Lies the Health, Fitness & Wellness Industry Sell You

Ari Bernstein, Nick Wright, Frankie Cruz, David Lyons, Scott Newton, Rami Odeh, Khadevis Robinson, Mike Rosa, Alyssa Spaw, Nia Williams (Autoren)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021 | 1. Auflage
304 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-7923-5815-9 (ISBN)

You try to do all the right things to be fit and healthy. The gargantuan fitness, health, and wellness industry is supposed to be based on the premise that it helps others. Yet the obesity epidemic is still on the rise in first-world countries. The countless useless supplements, gadgets, programs, and books that claim to know the 'truth' have seeped into our very culture. That's why in Unfit, Unhealthy & Unwell a group of acclaimed industry veterans, renowned medical doctor Ari Bernstein, and international award-winning consumer psychologist Nia Williams finally reveal the tricks of the trade. These experts offer their candid opinions in a set of easy-to-read hard-hitting essays. Learn about the dark depths of the industry to protect yourself, and learn how it moves forward from here...

Americans everywhere have a lot of pent up energy. Trying to do the right thing by dieting and exercising to be fit and healthy. In response to this huge demand, the health, wellness, and fitness industry has grown exponentially into an immense, multi-billion dollar industry. Online advertising, televised infomercials bombard us with machines to build better abs, flatter tummies-influencers and health gurus pop-up on our phones, offering fitness and diet solutions. The onslaught urges consumers to pull out their credit cards, then purchase gym subscriptions, dietary supplements, exercise bikes at three thousand dollars a pop, toning creams, diet cookbooks, workout programs, and holistic diet plans, and more claiming to give you the body of a Hollywood star or starlet. It seems there is nowhere to hide. You'd think Americans should be the fittest population on the planet for all the glitz, glam, and sweaty bodies losing weight pounds. But what is the truth?The facts could not be farther from all the hype. Obesity is an epidemic. Despite the industry's constant claims of helping people become fit, healthy, and well, American's health is deteriorating at an alarming rate. Misinformation is spread far and wide - giant corporations prop up their favorite fitness influencers and 'gurus' on their behalf to garner sales from the hordes of unsuspecting individuals-all in a vicious cycle of profits over people's health. Now, for the first time, a group of international, diverse, and dedicated industry veterans that include, best- selling authors, multi-award winning fitness health and wellness experts, an Olympic athlete, a renowned Medical Doctor, have teamed up with, Dr. Nia Williams an award winning consumer psychologist will debunk the lies, with unsparing frankness. The authors' will fearlessly expose their Health and Fitness Industry's worst aspects but also offer significant new thinking about how to restore trust and integrity, and present well-thought-out ideas to help fitness consumers make better choices. Unfit, Unhealthy, and Unwell offers candid opinions in easy- to -read essay format. Curated by Frankie D. Cruz along with a team of authors who are dedicated to combining their expertise to save their industry from itself, and help Americans from all walks of life become healthier, and genuinely fit for far less money.

Chapter 2:

The Rise of Fitness Gurus and Fitness Cults

— Frankie D. Cruz, CPT, CNC

I’m going to ignore everything from the ancient Greeks to the Nazis for the sake of brevity.

Instead, I’d like to start in the 1950s. Television has just begun its reign as the king of advertisers. One ad in particular grips you with its grasp of pop culture. It knows you feel undesirable, unpopular and unhappy. The ad features a Hollywood actress, so you know it must be believable. The ad implores you to follow this actress’ advice if you want to look like a movie star. Even if you don’t want to be one, who doesn’t want to look like one? This product proclaims you don’t need to exercise, use pads, fish oils or diets. The product is Wate-On, and it will help you gain 5, 10 or even 15 pounds.

Yes, it’s a weight gain pill, not a weight loss pill.

For decades, in fact, this product was all the rage. You’d think it was a product for men. Charles Atlas was as popular as ever, and men were hell-bent on not being a 98-pound weakling whose ribs stuck out. The honest, true surprise is that it never catered to men, instead proudly advertising to primarily women that a full figure is the ideal body. You were an “underweighter” if you were too skinny.

This wasn’t even an odd decade, either. There were fluctuations here and there, like the 1910s. However, overall being on the heavy side has, historically, been a preference in many parts of the world. Even for the majority of the Victorian era, being plump was a sign of good health, and being too thin meant you were only good for not being eaten by cannibals.

Naturally, the facts and medical information they had about obesity were not nearly as great as what we know today. It is still noteworthy, however, as good context to keep in mind.

Where things start to take a turn is the early 1960s. The Cold War is in its most intense period, and American paranoia of communism is reaching its peak. Politicians are warning that the communists are dominating, due to their greater focus on public health and sports programs. Not untrue, either. The Leninist Young Communist League created the GTO, a nationwide physical training program for people of all ages to participate in. John F. Kennedy appealed to the American populace in a black and white broadcast with men, women and children exercising and playing sports: “A nation is only as strong as its people.”

Thus began a new culture of physical fitness in America that spanned all people of all ages, including women getting an elevated role as contenders in the Olympics. We wanted to be bigger, stronger, better than the communists. You may have even heard of the Presidential Physical Fitness Test, also known as the President’s Challenge, which was a program created in the same decade.

Further spurring the boom of exercise and fitness culture in the 60s were a couple of books released by members of The Royal Canadian and United States Air Force: “The Royal Canadian Air Force Exercise Plans For Physical Fitness,” and “Aerobics,” written by Dr. Bill Orban and Kenneth Cooper respectively. Both sold tens of millions of copies. It’s no wonder, then, that after Frank Short’s Olympic marathon win and Title IX finally granting women athletes more competitive opportunities, we saw a giant running boom in the 70s.

However, this running boom was not limited to only the US. There were athletes all around the world cropping up that inspired people to get more active. The 1970s boom saw the rise of several best-selling books centered on running, Runner’s World magazine rising to prominence, and technological improvements that allowed the media to better cover the various high-profile marathons. Not to forget, of course, in the 1970s we began to see the rise of legendary celebrity icons, like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Richard Simmons.

This rise in aerobics and fitness icons continued into the 1980s. The decade started with a bang as first Carol Hensel’s “Dancerize” album took off, soon followed by “Jane Fonda’s Workout.” Regardless of whether you believe Stuart Karl or Richard Klinger’s version of the story of how Jane Fonda created her iconic video, the impact is undeniable. “Feel the burn” was born and women now felt empowered to sweat and get fit for fitness’ sake. As opposed to only being involved in athletics to defeat the communists, Jane Fonda’s success went even further beyond that. While the groundwork had been laid in many regards, it could be said that she was the spark that lit the fuse.

It was during this time period from the 1980s into the 1990s when commercial gyms began to take off. Some of the biggest brands known today were founded and took off in popularity. Planet Fitness, 24-Hour Fitness, Equinox, Jazzercise, LA Fitness, Life Time Fitness, and Town Sports International. However, it was also during this time that something else began to take off: diet programs.

Weight Watchers, the Atkins diet, Nutrisystem, and many weight loss clinics had already been established in previous decades. However, it was in the 90s that Weight Watchers’ well-known point system was implemented. Nobody at the time could have known, but the modern-day fitness culture had taken root.

The late 70s through the 90s was a wondrous time for the industry. Sure there were a few oddities here and there, like the ThighMaster, but overall pretty good! There were many great successes, and the tenets of fitness began to become mainstream for everyone in the form of not only aerobics and bodybuilding, but also yoga. People became curious, exploring the possibilities of human potential, gathering information, doing more targeted research, and large personal training organizations like NASM, ACE, and ISSA sprang to life.

This brings us to the 2000s, where things became immensely more interesting for our purposes. This is the decade when iconic services like MyFitnessPal, smart gadgets like the FitBit and others became widespread. A whole new way to enjoy fitness massively rose to new heights of popularity. Though the trend started in the 1990s, this was also the decade when all manner of useless exercise gadgets came out in droves. All wanting to capitalize on the huge growth of the fitness industry. Not to even mention the explosion of supplements and diet pills. Like in the 1930s, weight loss pills have had a dark history: the early Internet was a wild west of scams and endless ads.

This was also the decade when social media started. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, with the decade topped off by Instagram. We started to share our lives with each other, not only in the form of silly cat photos, or what we ate that morning, but also our data. As humans, we tend to like seeing numbers become bigger and bigger. Is it really so odd that some of us had a desire to gain hundreds, thousands, or even millions of “friends” and “followers” on social media?

Additionally, the thicker body type had long since fallen out of fashion. Since the 80s, the ideal body had only gotten thinner and thinner. In the race for followers, influence and financial benefit, it was not unbelievable to think that this trend would only accelerate. After all, in an age where you can present your life in the best light to others why not also make your body appear superior to others as well?

Naturally, like with most new mediums, most of the pioneers were genuinely helpful, exploring the space and seeing its potential, sharing useful information with one another in larger communities, helping one another advance. Small pockets of those with differing beliefs in a subject did break off — or perhaps they wanted a more focused discussion. Regardless, what were once bigger forums largely split up.

It didn’t take long for people to soon realize the monetization potential of social media. Trust in brands was already in decline. If traditional advertising and a logo couldn’t persuade someone to buy, then what was left? The answer was obvious. We buy from people we know, like and trust. On social media, we can see the lives and thoughts of those who share them. We can feel like we know and trust them, and we will inevitably like them if their beliefs match our own. Thus, sponsored posts, and a whole new career, were born. People could become celebrities and get paid due to their popularity on social media. Their ability to influence people’s purchasing habits was immediately apparent to those who employed this strategy.

Combine the effects of social media and their more targeted communities with a general shift away from traditional fitness for a perfect storm. Pure aerobics and bodybuilding had begun to fade away, transitioning to activities like hiking, yoga, Pilates, and all variety of other exercise activities. It was only natural, in a situation like this, for people to split off and find like-minded individuals interested in the same activities. It was in these conditions that the stereotypical fitness, wellness and health gurus were born.

In the 2010s, all the issues that had begun to appear in fitness culture in the prior decade accelerated and spread....

Erscheint lt. Verlag	3.5.2021
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie
ISBN-10	1-7923-5815-6 / 1792358156
ISBN-13	978-1-7923-5815-9 / 9781792358159

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