Since it’s especially important to get your health information from trustworthy sources, knowing how to spot these red flags is a valuable skill. Once you know them, it’s easier to identify whether trainers, influencers, and other professionals online are more likely to harm than help you.
1. A Creator Has No Visible Health Credentials
If a fitness expert talks a lot about healthy foods or the physical and emotional benefits of different exercises, they should have actual credentials in personal training, nutrition, physiology, psychology, or other relevant fields to back up their advice. Look through their website or talk to them and find out what their qualifications are. If they don’t have any to speak of, avoid this “expert.” If they do, assess the value of their credentials.
For example, in-person courses sometimes make better gym instructors than online programs. On the other hand, a few humble certificates can lead to greater trustworthy experience. What’s essential is that your potential trainer can prove their expertise. Fitness professionals with no visible credentials and vague statements are definite red flags. No matter the workout you’re looking for, whether it’s a HIIT session or some online pilates classes, make sure the providers are dependable.
2. Scientific Health Claims Without Evidence
Another problem with unreliable fitness gurus is that they often make big statements without evidence to back them up. To begin with, letting your mouth run on topics you don’t know much about is unprofessional. But it’s also dangerous when you have people hanging off your every word, thinking that you, a fitness professional, would know what you’re talking about and would never mislead them.
A 2021 systematic review of studies on the prevalence of health misinformation on social media, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, found that 36 percent of online content related to diets and eating disorders was misleading, while 30 percent featured wrong advice on medical treatments.
So, try to steer clear of trainers contributing to such trends, consciously or not. Any professional offering advice on why certain movements are good or bad or what diet plan to follow should be able to provide evidence of their claims, ideally in the form of valid scientific journals, reports, and similar research. To spot red flags like these online, scan a fitness expert’s social media or blog posts for questionable statements and a lack of evidence.
3. Discriminating Viewpoints and Statements
Something else to pay attention to that can help flag problems with fitness professionals is how they express themselves. Watch their videos. Read their posts. See how they interact with different people. The goal is to work out their mindset and attitude.
For example, do they idealize thin people or do their tips and fitness programs embrace different body types? Do they advocate for specific masculine or feminine ideals and ignore, or even reject, anything else? You’re looking for signs of a toxic environment that may alienate some people while pushing those it favors towards unrealistic standards. This is an unpleasant situation to avoid, especially if you’re trying to create healthy fitness habits you can stick to.
4. Creators Using Negative Instead of Motivational Language
Another linguistic red flag when it comes to fitness experts is what goals they give you. Do they prompt you to burn off fat and get rid of your old self or even push you to painful limits? Or do they inspire you to exercise at your own pace and appreciate yourself, inside and out?
Even if your purpose really is to lose weight and improve your appearance, someone who truly cares about your well-being as a whole would focus more on helping you love yourself regardless of looks. So, any professional in the fitness industry who thinks they can boost physical and mental health with negativity and aggression has the wrong priorities and isn’t worth your time.
5. Big Health Promises and Absolute Statements
Other fitness experts to avoid are those who promise unrealistic goals and use absolutes in their speech patterns. Both factors show an inflated sense of what they can deliver. Words are important, whether you’re motivating someone at the gym or apologizing in a professional email.
A trainer promising you the best results within a month regardless of your individual needs or claiming that every other service is inferior demands a closer look. Read their reviews on and off their official platforms. Ask around about them on social media or sites for health and workout tips that also have communities, such as Fitness Blender. If the expert’s actual results don’t match their claims, you’re better off with someone else.
6. Too Many Ads and Hints of Sponsor Influence on Fitness Platforms
Creating a domain with website builders is simple, but deciding what you’ll add to it affects your public image. The same applies to social media profiles. When assessing fitness platforms for red flags, weigh how much the expert’s sponsorships might affect their claims, not to mention how many and what type of backers they have.
On the one hand, a professional with lots of prestigious support is a good vote of confidence. The funds and resources brought in are also essential to succeeding in the fitness industry. However, some sponsorships come with requirements, like promoting brands and their products. This could be in the form of ads, name-drops in videos and blog posts, or even photo shoots.
Promotional content on a professional’s website is normal, but an overwhelming amount is cause for concern. Firstly, it suggests that the platform’s owner cares about money and fame more than providing a service and ensuring a smooth user experience. Secondly, too many sponsorships and related content beg the question of how much of the information that this person shares is paid for and therefore potentially unreliable.
In the end, go for a fitness expert with a sensible number of adverts, and make sure the brands they’re affiliated with aren’t compromising their principles.
Stay Alert for Red Flags in Fitness Experts to Find the Best Information
As health information continues to be a high-traffic category on the internet, online fitness experts will keep cropping up, some of lesser quality than others. All-in-all, the most rewarding experiences come from trainers and influencers with a helpful, positive, realistic, and inclusive mindset and first-hand expertise in the subject.
Spotting bad services, from websites to mobile apps, is easier said than done. But with a discerning eye and key red flags in mind, you can learn to do it better and faster to benefit your workout plans.
