Before taking this class I had some experience with blogging, I knew that blogging was a platform that could be used to share thoughts, opinions, information, and facts about a specific subject area. I thought of blogs as another sharing platform. As I started blogging each week I found out that when trying to write a high quality, informative blog post you need to seek out information from a variety of different reputable sources. I sought out information from reputable sources related to my subject of health and fitness, and related to the topic of the post I was writing. I learned that it is important to use these reputable sources to back your ideas, thoughts, and opinions about your topic of interest.

I did not realize the amount of time, research, and preparation that must go into each weeks post until starting this blog. In my research for this blog I learned a lot more about the key players in the fitness industry. I discovered that blogging can be a great way to not only share information with others related to your area of interest, but also for you as the blogger to learn more about your subject area. Blogging can provide you with an opportunity to learn, share, and reach out to others who share your same interests. I want to know more about how to grow a following for your blog now that I have more experience in blogging.

Featured image: My logo- designed by Kaitlin Farrell

Image: https://pixabay.com/photos/running-runner-long-distance-573762/

An Interview with Zach Boland 

When trying to get in shape and stay in shape consistency is key. In order to stay motivated and be consistent in working out, it is important to have goals. Big or small, having a goal will help motivate you to keep going as you’re working towards something. Having a goal helps us to hold ourselves accountable and continue improving. I wanted to talk to someone who has experience as a personal trainer, who understands the importance of setting goals, and who through experience know how to reach your fitness goals. So today, I will be sharing with you an interview with Zach. He not only has experience in working to successfully reach his own fitness goals but also has experience as a personal trainer helping others to reach their goals at the gym. 

How did you first get into working out and weight training?

Zach: “I actually started weight training because of football. In high school my coach told me if I wanted to get to a higher level, I would have to put on muscle.”

When did you discover a passion for weight training and fitness? 

Zach: “When I started weight training I immediately knew it was something I wanted to keep doing. I loved seeing the progress and the way it made me feel. I put on a lot of muscle and got a lot better in sports. That motivated me to keep pushing myself to workout, lift heavier, and put on more muscle.” 

When you were no longer playing football, what became your motivation to continue weight training? 

Zach: “Being in the military, it was important that I stay strong and in good shape. I needed to do well on my Physical Fitness Training Tests, so that gave me something to focus on.” 

Do you think that it’s important to set goals when working out to stay consistent and keep improving? 

Zach: “For sure.” 

How has setting goals helped you to be more consistent and improve? 

Zach: “It helps put me in a good mindset and figure out if I want to gain strength in a certain area, or lose weight in a certain area. That sort of thing.” 

When you set the goal of wanting to gain strength in a certain area or lose weight in a certain area, what do you change in your routine to help you reach that goal?

Zach: “When I want to gain strength in a certain area I’ll change my work out routine to have a primary focus in those group of muscles while still getting everywhere else. The biggest thing to help this focus is to decrease the reps and slow down the repetition. It is not a race to finish your workout. When I’m trying to lose weight in a certain area I’ll increase my reps and bring in supersets and high-intensity circuits to my workout.”

What would be your number one recommendation to people who have hit a plateau as far as their progress at the gym? What can they do to continue seeing changes? 

Zach: “They need to change their routine by adding in new workout routines and changing the combination of muscle groups if possible. This will shock their muscles and help them past their plateau.”

What would be your number one piece of advice for someone who is just getting into working out and weight training? 

Zach: “To find a friend to do it with. When you are first starting, finding that motivation of drive to get you at the gym every day and push yourself can be very hard. Having someone there to help push you, and you push them will help you reach your goals and see improvement twice as fast. And once you see the improvements that you want, you are addicted and there is no going back.”

Final Thoughts 

Thank you, Zach, for taking the time to answer my questions about fitness, motivation, and how to reach your fitness goals. Zach offered a lot of really great advice for those starting their fitness journey and for those who have been working out for a long time and reach a plateau. As well as advice on how to gain muscle and lose fat. If you are just starting out at the gym, or have been working out so long that you stop seeing progress, consider taking Zach’s advice. If you’re just starting to work out at the gym and are feeling unsure and unmotivated, bring a friend to the gym with you. If you’ve been working out so long you’re not seeing progress and you’ve reached a plateau, switch up your routine. 

Featured photo of Zach Boland taken by Kaitlin Farrell

Gymshark is a United Kingdom-based athletic apparel company that has blown up globally in recent years. Gymshark was founded in 2012 by Ben Francis and his friends while they were still high school students (Gymshark, 2019). Their unique designs, affordable prices, and influencer partnerships have brought a lot of attention to the company. While most of the attention Gymshark has received has been positive, a campaign they launched in 2017 to advertise their “Flex” apparel to women received a lot of negative attention, especially on social media. 

Gymshark launched a video advertisement for their “Flex Effect” campaign featuring one of their Gymshark female athletes, Karina Elle. The advertisement showed Elle wearing the Flex leggings and matching sports bra. She was strutting down the street, as men watched, with jaws dropped and made gestures while responding to her appearance. Women in the commercial stared at her and covered their boyfriend’s eyes. 

The “Flex Effect” campaign video received a lot of negative feedback from the audience. Some of the feedback they received for the ad on social media included comments on Instagram that the ad is “disgusting”, they are “disappointed”, that women would “rather not be cat called”. On Reddit, the advertisement was called “desperate” and “cringey”. Needless to say, people were offended by this advertisement. 

This campaign was memorable, but not in a positive way. I have a few problems with the “Flex Effect” ad campaign video myself. When they describe the campaign for the Flex collection on the Gymshark website, they make the claim that essentially when you wear clothing from this line you will want to Flex (Gymshark, 2017). It seems likely that through the advertisement they were trying to show that this line of clothing will make women feel confident. Rather, the advertisement sent the message that women seek validation in their appearance from men. It sent the message that women want to put on clothing that will help them show off and receive attention from men. It seems to me that the advertisement is encouraging cat calling and objectification, as the woman is responding positively to the behavior of the men. The message aside, the product Gymshark is advertising is athletic apparel. In this advertisement, they do not showcase how the apparel supports physical activity or the ability of the woman to perform in the apparel. Rather it sends the message that what is important, is how you look in the apparel. Of course, women want to look and feel good in what they wear when being active. Though, what female athletes want to know is if the athletic apparel will support their ability to perform athletically, not what men will think of how they look in the apparel. 

While Gymshark may have intended to send a different message with the campaign, I think they could have done a much better job showcasing the Flex apparel line in this advertisement. An advertisement that showcased the athlete’s ability to perform athletically in the apparel would have received better feedback. Women would have responded better to an advertisement showing a strong woman working hard in the clothing, and the unique design of the apparel would have spoken for itself. 

Here is a link to the video advertisement: 

https://www.gymshark.com/blogs/news/the-flex-effect

Instagram: 

Reddit:

References:

Gymshark. (2019). About Us. Retrieved from https://www.gymshark.com/pages/about-us

Gymshark. (2017). Vision: The Flex Effect. Retrieved from https://www.gymshark.com/blogs/news/the-flex-effect 

Featured Image Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/vectors/animal-shark-3364833/

Who They Are and What They Do

Fabletics was founded in 2013 by Kate Hudson, Don Ressler, and Adam Goldenberg. Their mission was to address a problem they saw in the athletic apparel industry: a lack of high quality and affordable athletic apparel. Fabletics quickly grew in popularity as the idea of luxurious athletic wear at an affordable price appealed to consumers. They started out as an athletic apparel line primarily for women, but now have a men’s line as of 2015 (Fabletics). Fabletics provides personalized options for men and women of all sizes based on their lifestyle and activities. They offer a lifestyle quiz that they use to provide personalized outfit options for you. No matter what your lifestyle, or how you like to work out, Fabletics has affordable apparel for everyone.

On the Fabletics website, they feature photos of women wearing their products in their real lives. You can upload your own photo of you wearing Fabletics apparel to their website to be featured as well. I think this is a great way for Fabletics to connect with their customers while showcasing customer satisfaction with their products.

Customers can also upload reviews of their products to the Fabletics website, and these are showcased at the bottom of the home page. I think this is a smart way for Fabletics to show their customers that their feedback matters while showing those visiting the site what consumers think of their products. These positive reviews can encourage others to make a purchase, and make them feel more confident in their decision to do so because others are clearly satisfied with Fabletics apparel.

https://pixabay.com/illustrations/social-icon-logo-community-cloud-1710317/

On Fabletics social media channels including their Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook they have a large following. They have an Instagram following of 1.1million accounts, a Twitter following of 34.5k, and a Facebook following of 4.6million. Fabletics makes daily posts on their social media channels. They effectively make use of a variety of different multimedia channels on their social media. They share more on their social media that just photos of their products. On all of their social media channels, they share short videos of workouts featuring their products. They also share photos of founder Kate Hudson and their campaign partners, such as dancer Maddie Ziegler. They share updates and photo advertisements to remind their followers that they are having a sale. Founder Kate Hudson even shares videos to celebrate holidays such as Mothers Day. They use their social media to announce Mothers Day deals.  They will also feature photos and videos from people who wear their products.

Fabletics use of different multimedia channels such as photo, video, photo collage, and video advertisements effectively work to engage followers with their content by sparking interest. Sharing videos for holidays like Mothers Day, and featuring customers wearing their products helps them to connect with their followers and customers. Fabletics social media strategies have been effective for them in not only increasing awareness but also increasing revenue. According to an article from synthesio.com, by author Abbey Edgeworth, “In addition to working with influencers, Fabletics embraces customer reviews and improves customer loyalty by having testimonials on their website. Their online retail marketing strategies are working! An increase of 35% revenue every year since its launch in 2013 makes them a brand that knows how to adapt to customers’ needs.” (Edgeworth, 2018).

Resources:

Edgeworth, A. (2018, November 19). 4 Online Retail Marketing Strategy Tips to Learn from Fabletics. Retrieved from https://www.synthesio.com/blog/online-retail-marketing-strategy-tips-fabletics/

Fabletics. (n.d.). Our Story. Retrieved from https://www.fabletics.com/about#our-story

Featured Image: https://pixabay.com/photos/people-woman-yoga-meditation-2562357/

A current trend in the world of health and fitness has been fasting diets. I am sure many of you have either tried them yourselves, are following one right now, or know someone who it. I came across an article on Live Strong that discusses the risks involved in doing such diets, in particular, “water fasting”.

Something really important that they shine a light on at the beginning of this article is that there is no fast way to actually lose weight overnight (Galic, 2019). Everyone is always searching for the fasted way possible to lose weight and keep it off. Unfortunately, that doesn’t exist. Reaching a healthy, maintainable weight takes time. Many of these diets that claim to provide you with magical, overnight results that sound too good to be true are just that. The promises and claims made by these fad diets and weight loss plans are usually are too good to be true. Losing weight in a healthy way takes time, and many of these fad diets do more harm than good.

Fasting diets, or water fasting diets, are usually more harmful than useful when trying to lose pounds and keep them off. Fasting diets typically involve not eating for 24 hours (more or less), and with the water fast you do just that while only consuming water during the fasting period. This type of dieting can lead to headaches, nausea, lightheadedness, fatigue, and can even have dangerous consequences especially if you are someone with diabetes (Galic, 2019). A study that was published in AE Press even found that when people water fasted for 11 days they experienced a highly elevated amount of uric acid in the blood as a result, which could lead to issues like kidney stones (Galic, 2019).

I stand by the position they take in this article on fasting diets, they are unnecessary and cause more harm than good. There are so many better ways to lose weight that will allow you to maintain a healthy weight long term. Implementing a balanced, healthy diet followed by routine exercise will benefit you much more in the long run. As the article recommends if this is still something you are interested in trying to be sure to consult a doctor to help you find the safest fasting option and to ensure you avoid health complications.

Resources

Galic, B. (2019, June 3). How Much Weight Will I Lose on a Water Fast?. LIVE STRONG.  Retrieved from https://www.livestrong.com/article/221792-how-much-weight-will-i-lose-on-a-water-fast/

Mojto, V., Gvozdjakova, A., Kucharska, J., Rausova, Z., Vancova, O., & Valuch, J. (2018). Effects of complete water fasting and regeneration diet on kidney function, oxidative stress, and antioxidants. AE PRESS. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29455546

Featured Photo: https://pixabay.com/photos/glass-water-ice-cubes-drink-cold-1206584/

Whitney Simmons is a well-known influencer in the health and fitness community. She began her career as an influencer on Youtube, and now has a large following of 2.6 million followers on Instagram. She began her Youtube channel posting videos featuring healthy recipes and her weight training workouts for people of all fitness levels. She still does those types of videos, along with fitness apparel hauls, questions and answers, along with other types of videos. She now posts workouts on her Instagram account, along with inspirational quotes, and Youtube updates. She is based out of the United States.

What is so unique about Whitney is her ability to inspire others to have a positive outlook in order to reach their goals. Whitney’s motto is, “It’s a beautiful day to be alive”. She talks openly about how she got off track in her life during college, and she was in a bad headspace. She shares how she struggled with her diet and stopped exercising after she stopped doing gymnastics at age 18. She finally decided to change her perspective and her life by taking care of her health through diet and fitness. That is when she began weight training (Simmons).

Her story is one that a lot of people can relate to in some way. I think it is her positive attitude and relatability that inspires people and makes them connect with her as a fitness influencer. I know she has inspired me in my journey with health and fitness.

With 2.6 million Instagram followers and 1.6 million subscribers on Youtube, she has made a career for herself in the industry. She is someone people feel they can trust, not only because of her knowledge in health and fitness but also because she only takes sponsorships from brands she trusts and uses. She is always honest and upfront with her followers, which has a lot to do with her success as an influencer. Beyond that, she is a charismatic, kind, young woman and a positive influence. She shares her knowledge of health and fitness in a way that everyone can learn from. She makes good health and fitness seem like something everyone can achieve no matter what their background.

Be sure to check out, subscribe, and follow Whitney on her Youtube channel and her Instagram. You can also learn a little more about her on her Gymshark page, as Whitney is a Gymshark athlete. Also, if you visit her website you can check out and purchase some of her fabulous merchandise, featuring her motto “It’s a beautiful day to be alive”-Whitney Simmons.

Resource

Simmons, W. (n.d.). Whitney Simmons. Retrieved from https://www.gymshark.com/blogs/athletes/whitney-simmons

Featured Image: https://www.pexels.com/photo/bright-close-up-color-colorful-221247/

When trying to live a healthy lifestyle it can be difficult at times to keep track of everything we are eating. How can we tell if we are eating healthy? How do we know if we are getting all the nutrients our bodies need? When trying to reach our health and fitness goals nutrition plays an important role. In order to help us answer these important questions, and ensure we are fueling our bodies with the proper amount of macro and micronutrients we can turn to the “My Plate” app.

First off, some of you might be wondering; What are macro and micronutrients? Macronutrients are proteins, fats, and carbs. Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals. Both macro and micronutrients are essential to our diets and help fuel our bodies so that they can function optimally.

We all require a different amount of these macro and micro nutrients in order to fuel our bodies. How much we need is based on a variety of factors including height, weight, age, activity level, nutrient deficiencies, etc. The “My Plate” app can help tell you how much of these nutrients (proteins, carbs, fats), as well as how many calories, you require each day based upon factors such as height, weight, age, and activity level. The app will make adjustments depending on your personal goal, whether it is to maintain, gain, or lose weight. You can go into the app at any time to make changes to any of the personal height, weight, age, goal, and activity level information that you provide. What the app will not do is inquire about any nutrient deficiencies or personal factors that may impact your nutrient needs, so these things are best determined with the help of a doctor.

It can be difficult to keep track of how many micro and macronutrients we consume each day. With the “My Plate” app you can track on your phone or device, everything you eat each day. You can do so by searching for the food or beverage or scanning the bar code on the product. You can also make your own manual entry for a food item, beverage, or meal. You can manually adjust your portion size, and the app will provide you with the nutrient information of which it will save for you.

The app is organized by day so that each day you can properly track your nutrient intake and needs. It is also organized by meal, including a section for snacks so that you can track each meal separately throughout the day. It provides charts and data to show you where you are at on reaching your nutrient goals for that day.

I find these types of apps to be incredibly helpful in helping me ensure I am meeting my nutrient requirements, and to help me reach my goals. I have tried many of these apps over the years, and this one is by far my favorite. It is very easy to use and provides you with beneficial information that is based on your individual needs. This app makes it so much easier to keep track of where you are at on reaching your nutrient requirements. I highly recommend trying out the LiveStrong “My Plate” app (it’s free!). Whether you are trying to eat healthier, concerned that you’re eating too much or too little, or just want to help to track your nutrient intake this app will help.

For more health and fitness tips, product reviews, and advice subscribe to my blog. Be sure to check out my other posts, I will be adding new ones each week.

Thank you!

-Kaitlin

Featured Image: https://pixabay.com/photos/fruit-mango-vegetable-epicure-3253002/