"But I saw it on TikTok..."
Fact-finding for fitness fanatics
Scroll for five seconds through any of your social media feeds and you’ll be inundated with “experts” telling you exactly what you need to do to lose weight, gain muscle, and change your life. In a sea of knowledge, the average person would drown in overwhelm. How could anyone possibly feel confident in what they’re doing, when there is someone telling them the opposite every time they open an app?
The “experts” don’t only live on social media, either. I’ve been teaching group fitness classes for nearly 15 years. Occasionally participants will critique classes they don’t love - without any knowledge of exercise science or program design - telling instructors they wish a class had more Y or Z. It’s happened to me! (Side note: exercise isn’t supposed to provide entertainment value. It’s work. Sure, parts of it may be fun, but you’re not going to love every second of it, just like you don’t love every aspect of your job.)
Since we live in a world where we can access unlimited, unfiltered content any time of day, there’s a common belief that the more we consume, the more we know. More information doesn’t translate to more knowledge in the absence of truth.
Becoming a Discerning Learner
I understand not everyone knows how to find and interpret research articles, so that’s certainly not a prerequisite for fact finding. However, assessing someone’s knowledge based on their body type, their follower count, or how smart they sound, seems to be one of the biggest flaws in our chronic overconsumption. There are so many grifters on socials trying to make a buck through supplements, or by convincing you that your current routine is so flawed, you have to try their 30 day program.
I used to recommend making sure someone was credentialed, but sadly, even having a certification doesn’t guarantee someone knows what they’re talking about these days.
At the end of the day it’s your body. You can do whatever you wish. I’d never discount someone’s personal experience, so if something worked for you that perhaps wasn’t supported by the research, it still matters. Life isn’t lived in a vacuum and we all have unique factors that shape our decision making and action taking when it comes to our well-being.
Experts aren’t who you think they are
You should know that experts don’t know everything. When we go through graduate training, we often hyper specialize in one niche area of our field. We tend to know a great deal about very little. Acknowledging these shortcomings is critical. Until you realize how much you don’t know, you won’t deem it necessary to continue to learn more.
While I can only speak for myself, the research based content that I write about and share takes extensive research. Not all of the knowledge that I share lives rent free in my brain. So, in addition to reading the research, the texts, and whatever validated information I can get my hands on, I also consult with my friends and colleagues who are experts in other fields. We may not know everything, but a true expert is always in pursuit of more.
Collaboration is truly the essence of fact finding. Rich discussion with trusted friends compels me to ask more questions, consider new perspectives, and evaluate my own beliefs.
Tips for truth seeking
Here are some recommendations for utilizing credible sources.
For written sources, textbooks are always my first go-to for the general public. They’re written by experts in the field who hold terminal degrees in the content, and are usually a collaborative effort by many, many experts with each chapter having different authors. Think about it: nearly every college course uses a textbook as its foundational source of info. Textbooks are literally anyone’s opportunity to obtain free college-level information. They provide a scaffolded introduction to knowledge: concepts are defined, explained in context, and then linked to more complex concepts with pictures, graphs, and images. If you want to learn more about a specific topic, buy the textbook. Yes, they’re expensive, but $150 beats $3000 for a college course (and there are no assignments!)
Listen to experts who interpret the research. Most fitness influencers I’ve come across when scrolling spout off tons of opinions which aren’t supported with evidence. Whether it’s changing your training throughout your cycle or fear-mongering cortisol levels, an influencer’s job is to 1) grab your attention in 5 seconds and 2) sound really technical. This conveys expertise, whether the claims are validated or not. Luckily, to combat this, actual specialists in the field are translating the research into practice by explaining technical details in ways that anyone can understand. More of this and less exercise bashing, please.
Understand that books written by physicians and other experts often have the same underlying motive as an influencer: espouse a certain diet or method of training and convince you that you need to eat this way otherwise you’re doing it all wrong. They write to make money and to gain notoriety. That’s not to say don’t buy them or read them. As you start to learn how to discern evidence-based information, you’ll be able to assess a variety of viewpoints and make an informed decision that’s best for you.
Read the research. As you start to learn more in the respective area you’re investigating, visit PubMed.gov or Google Scholar and read the articles published in the last five years on that topic. Sure, some of the stats may be over your head, but you can always do a quick YouTube search to learn about that statistical test to better understand the interpretation. Scan the abstract, which is the small summary at the very beginning, to determine if it’s worth reading. You may not be interested in the methodology, but look at the information about the participants. For example, did the study look at males 18-25? If you’re a middle aged woman, these outcomes likely won’t pertain to you. In the article itself, the background section will also give you a good overview of the topic (with some more citations to cross reference).
Make a decision, take action, and be consistent. You can literally find any article to support any way of thinking. When you begin to learn, it can feel like drinking from a firehouse. The main issue that happens is paralysis by analysis. You constantly feel like you’re not making the most optimal decision, or there’s always something better that you could be doing. The fitness basics have been the tried and true basics for years because they’re effective when applied consistently. Don’t waste valuable time trying to make things perfect when you could just start and see what happens.
Do you have any other tools or tips you use when evaluating your health and fitness based content? I’d love to know. Share them in the comments so we can all become better together.
Simply Fit is a free, weekly newsletter written by Dr. Amanda Durall, a Kinesiology professor, fitness professional, and busy mom who aims to simplify exercise science and deliver practical recommendations to help you achieve your fitness goals. Want more free content like this delivered straight to your inbox? Subscribe for weekly training tips, technique overviews, and more evidence-based fitness content!