From workouts to nutrition to injury recovery, magazines are constantly churning out new, supposedly “cutting edge” fitness advice, which can often feel confusingly contradictory. To get to the heart of things we went straight to the expert, North Loop Farrell’s owner Casey Bloemke, and got some straight answers on which sources he trusts and what to ignore when it comes to magazine fitness tips.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
"Where do you get your health/fitness insights and news? Who do you trust and why?"
I have a formal education in kinesiology from an accredited university, work with all kinds of fitness professionals and do continuing education through reading and research. That said, I only trust people with more experience and education than myself.
Bottom line: I generally only follow peer-reviewed analysis when it comes to guiding my membership.
"For an average Joe, where do you recommend they go for fitness news and best advice?"
If you’re looking for some solid Youtubers to start: Jeff Nippard, Jeff Cavaliere and Jeremy Eithier are all quality content providers. For nutrition content, Eric Helms, Mike Israetel and Lyle McDonald all have fantastic reading material out there.
I’m generally wary of social media stars, however, and most people should be as well. There’s no certification process so it’s doubly important to make sure your content providers are providing credible sources within their content. If not, they’re simply parroting what others have said.
"What do fitness magazines do wrong, or what should people be aware of when reading them?"
They can’t and won’t tell people the most important fact when it comes to health and fitness: consistency and time is everything! Without either one of these, we simply will not succeed. Why won’t magazines discuss these important details? Because getting in shape and staying strong, fit and healthy is a process. That kinf of delayed pay off doesn’t sell magazines. Instant gratification and quick solutions sell, but they also fail to work in the real world.
