YOUTUBE WORKOUTS

The Truth About YouTube Fitness

BY MARGARET HOLMES

Ithink we can all remember those early-to-mid days of Covid. We were all stuck at home with nothing to do except spend hours upon hours on our phones. There were a lot of strange trends back then, one of which was those fitness videos taking over YouTube.

One of the biggest names in that space, Chloe Ting, especially seems to be in on it solely for views. If you go on her website and select a fitness ‘program’, she will have around 5 different fitness videos that you can follow along with. These videos will be repeated numerous times throughout the 30ish-day program, with little variety. She makes sure that she gets plenty of views (and plenty of money) on each video. Pamela Reif functions in a similar way.

In the fall of 2020, I followed one of her 28-day programs. Everyday I would be on online school for 7 hours, then on my phone for several more. And then instead of getting some fresh air on a walk with my dog I would trudge down the stairs to my basement, pull up Chloe’s website, and do 45 minutes worth of her workout when I was dead tired from a long day.

There was something almost addicting about those workouts. I hated them, dreaded them, I would often wait until 8 at night or later to start them. But, of course, no one wants to be lazy… So I did them, reading the commiserating comments on each video, each person detailing with a devout reverence how eventually the workouts stop hurting, how after a while you can start to catch your breath again. As if that’s a healthy accomplishment.

These influencers would claim to have “new and improved” exercises. When in reality, these workouts were the same lunges, squats and pushups, changed just slightly to look fancier. And the whole video would repeat the basic rejuvenated exercises over and over again throughout the same video with little variety. There’s nothing new, nothing fitness icons like Joyce Vedrall hadn’t accomplished almost 30 years ago and, in my opinion, executed far more effectively then her imitators today.

So maybe the actual problem with YouTube workouts is how they pretend to be something they’re not. Fitness ‘coaches’ wearing their fashionista workout gear, being praised for their brand new workouts that have been around for years. And then their fans, mostly female, flock to the videos so they can look just like them! Plus, these videos ignore the hard truths of health–that if you don’t have an hourglass already, a workout is not going to help much. Or that those recipes on their websites are really not very healthy. Relying on slightly less sugar than store bought desserts and an overabundance of dairy. Or most important of all, that being fit is a lot more than spending 45 minutes a day using some random workout on YouTube.

YouTube fitness videos can be a great gateway to unlocking your ultimate fitness routine. However, they shouldn’t be treated as a one stop pitstop to base your entire workout, diet and lifestyle around.