Since everyone is as chronically online as I am, and all of our algorithms are trying to shove the same content down all of our throats, I am going to assume that everyone saw the post that Mike Boyle made on his IG about lifting within rep ranges and resulting debauchery that followed. If not I’ll provide a link to it here:
If you’re unfamiliar with what went down I’ll provide a brief summary. This may feel melodramatic and overly-sensational, but is sadly close to reality…
Mike makes a post saying he doesn’t see the point of making his adult gen-pop clients lift to failure under 5 reps, a bunch of people in the comments accused him of “fear-mongering“ and some made a few posts themselves about the topic with some videos of middle aged moms hitting trap bar deadlifts (that may or may not have been in their original training programs), Mike then snaps back and insinuates that anyone arguing against him is young, in-experienced and “bro-ey”. No one really learned anything, everyone was entertained, some people got a weeks worth of content and a few dozens followers from the exchange. We all got treated to another episode of fitness industries version of The Jerry Springer Show.
This is another great example of why we started this page in the first place. It’s these types of exchanges that we are consuming online that, although are very entertaining and attention grabbing, don’t exactly move the needle in improving the industry. While yes, people were exposed to two sides of the debate on this topic, but this exchange also highlights a growing trend I’ve been noticing online with our industry in particular. And it revolves around the phrases of “fear mongering“ and “bro-science“.
There are very obvious marketing tactics of fear-mongering and bro-science abound within the fitness industry as a whole. There’s people out there attempting to scare people away from eating fruits because it may spike their insulin and cause diabetes. There are also people that use shoddy ‘‘bro-science” that encourages muscle heads to buy breast milk online for maximal gains.
This is real, this sucks, but these are the more obvious examples of these tactics.
What I’ve started to notice is the very liberal usage of these terms directed towards anything that seems or feels contradictory to one’s own beliefs, but used in a way that is a reverse sales tactic. These people may or may not even be trying to sell an actual product, but more so using the growing usage and familiarity of these terms as way to gain moral superiority and intellectual influence.
“YOUR PT TOLD YOUR TIGHT HIPS ARE WHY YOUR BACK HURTS?? THAT’S FEAR MONGERING!! LISTEN TO ME INSTEAD!“
“YOUR STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING PROGRAM IS DIVIDED INTO AN UPPER AND LOWER SPLIT?? THAT’S SUCH 2000’s BRO SCIENCE! LISTEN TO ME INSTEAD!!“
The cycle seems to be as follows, actual fear mongering occurs, it’s labeled as bad, there is then a fear mongering witch hunt, many are accused of fear mongering, some people use the witch hunt to their benefit, not because they’re actually worried about witches, but they like attention that comes with pointing and yelling witch!
So, for the record, do I think that Mike Boyle is “fear mongering” if he doesn’t want to make a 50 yr old with 2 kids and a stable income hit a 3 RM? Of course not. Do I think their vertebral discs are any safer with a 6RM compared to a 3 RM? It’s probably such a negligible amount that’s it’s not even worth the IG post.
My job as a coach and PT is to educate and guide, but at the end of the day we work with grown-ups who can and should be enabled to make their own decisions. Would I advise someone with spinal stenosis, prior disc herniations, and re-occuring back spasms to pursue increasing their 1 RM on their deadlift? Probably not. But if they were adamant about that goal, I will do my best to help them move towards it. My sentiment in the video discussion above is exactly that. It’s a perspective that probably won’t get me a lot of followers on Instagram, but it will enable me to help the most people.
-Campo
