My Body is Not My Business Card
RFK Jr. and body image in health and fitness
Good morning and happy Friday my friends.
How’s everyone doing? Have you had your caffeine and carbs yet? If you haven’t, get on it.
I’m going to get a little serious on you today, we’re going to talk about body image and perceptions in health and fitness.
As someone who is trying to grow not only this publication, but some other projects I’m working on as well, I have to be very present in the online space. A lot of times I wish that wasn’t the case but it is. This is what I’ve chosen.
Your body is your business card.
That’s the mindset that a lot of so-called professionals in this industry have.
I see it every single day. Another post from some smooth brained “fitness coach” saying that you shouldn’t hire a personal trainer that doesn’t LOOK like a personal trainer.
What does a personal trainer look like then? Is it a bodybuilder? A football player? A triathlete? A cyclist? What is it? Because all of these populations will likely be very strong and healthy, but they will not all look the same.
Let me make this goddamn clear…
Being shredded is not a credential.
I’m not saying you can’t be credentialed AND shredded, but being shredded is not a credential in and of itself. Far too many “coaches”, especially online, think it is. They think that because they are lean or muscular themselves, that makes them qualified to coach other people. Meanwhile…
They’ve never set foot on the gym floor to train a real person in front of them.
They’ve never been trained in the actual workings of the human body. Believe it or not the human body is a pretty complex organism.
They have no empathy to the real life human condition(wE aLl hAvE tHe sAmE 24 hOuRs bRo.)
A lot of times, it seems like they’ve never fucking spoken to an actual human person.
In short, they’re just not qualified to do this job.
Body Image in Health and Fitness
Would it surprise you to know that fitness professionals have some of the highest rates of eating disorders and body image issues? Do you wonder why that is?
I’ll tell you.
It’s because of the mindset I talked about 2 seconds ago.
Young trainers will see these so called coaches posted up online talking about their 15k monthly income sitting poolside in Bali, they’ll be wearing thick diamond watches and drive a G Wagon. Of course that looks desirable. Meanwhile, these same “coaches” are pumped full of enough steroids to paralyze a horse, they sell the same program to everyone for $1,000 per month and use AI or an assistant to answer emails and messages.
Their actual job is to post photos on Instagram with a caption they pulled off the internet. Usually those photos are heavily doctored and photoshopped.
Young trainers see this and think that’s what they need to do to make money. These young trainers are educated, but they’re naive. They think people wouldn’t behave this way to make a buck.
So what do they do? They adopt extremely unhealthy and unsustainable practices to get that look they think they need to have. But it’s never good enough because there’s always those that look better. So they go further down that path they’re on. And further. Their mental health suffers. They start to become fearful of food that isn’t perfectly “clean”, which is a made up term by the way, they become fearful of not looking their best at all times, which no real person does.
They become anxious that they aren’t doing well enough.
They become depressed that they aren’t doing as well as that person on IG.
But they don’t know the reality behind that perfect photo.
It doesn’t help these young trainers when they see so many potential clients flock to the shredded idiot simply because they are shredded. The client thinks “that person is shredded so they must know what they’re doing and can help me be shredded too.”
They also don’t know the reality behind the photo, and they also don’t know that a person being shredded doesn’t mean they have a single clue how to train someone else. So I’ll say it again, louder this time…
BEING SHREDDED IS NOT A CREDENTIAL.
How does RFK Jr. fit into this?
I mentioned RFK Jr. in the title, so how does he fit into all this?
Well I’m not sure if you know this or not, but he is on his way to being the health secretary in the current united states presidential administration.
In the months leading up to the election it was announced that if the current president won, RFK would be his pick for this position. He was going to “make america healthy again.” In this time a lot of photos and videos of him started circulating the internet.
I’m not going to lie, the dude is jacked.
This led to millions of people loving this guy, becoming convinced that he’s the one that will solve the obesity and health problems in america, he’s the one we should take advice from because look at him, he’s jacked.
Meanwhile, I’m not sure there’s ever been a less qualified person for a job than RFK is for this job. Perhaps the current president is the only person that rivals him in that arena.
RFK is educated as a lawyer. I’m not sure when law degrees started including extensive classes on anatomy, physiology, exercise physiology, nutrition, virology, epidemiology and immunology.
RFK is the chair of an anti-vaccine advocacy group claiming that vaccines cause autism
RFK has repeatedly endorsed the claim that vaccines cause autism. He has written articles, appeared on radio shows, given speeches at events and even written books on this subject. I’ll remind you again that he’s a lawyer and has no education on these matters. The vaccine and autism thing has been thoroughly and repeatedly debunked thousands of times.
In December of 2024, 75 Nobel Laureates urged the US senate to oppose RFK’s nomination saying he would put the publics health in jeopardy.
In January of this year, over 17,000 doctors that are members of the Committee to Protect Health Care signed an open letter urging the US senate to oppose his nomination citing that Kennedy has spent decades undermining the publics confidence in vaccines, spreading false claims and conspiracy theories, that he is a danger to national healthcare and that he has no valid credentials and qualifications to hold that position(because he’s a f**king LAWYER.)
BUT, he’s jacked tho.
See what I’m getting at?
He’s jacked, so he knows more than those 17,000 doctors.
He’s jacked, so he knows more than those 75 Nobel Laureates.
He’s jacked, so he obviously knows how vaccines work.
He’s jacked, so he’s the one that should be in charge of the healthcare of an entire country.
I’m saying these things dripping with sarcasm and frankly, anger. But there are thousands, even millions of people out there that seriously believe it.
When it comes to matters of “health and fitness”, if you look a certain way your qualifications are never questioned.
Even if YOU DON’T F**KING HAVE ANY.
RFK Jr. has no qualifications to be anywhere near the healthcare of the public.
That shredded roid monkey on IG has no qualifications to be coaching real human beings to be healthier and stronger.
But they’re jacked, so nobody cares about that.
Society has stuffed it down our throats that the only way to be healthy is to look like a bodybuilder or fitness model, even though the things those people do to achieve those looks are the exact opposite of health.
You cannot tell someone’s health through their physique.
You cannot tell someone’s knowledge through their physique.
You cannot tell someone’s qualifications and education through their physique.
You cannot tell someone’s empathy through their physique.
You cannot tell someone’s story through their physique.
Thinking that you can is shortsighted and flat out wrong.
By this point some of you might be thinking that I’m encouraging health and fitness professionals to be unhealthy.
That couldn’t be further from the truth.
We should “walk the walk” as they say.
But that doesn’t mean walking around looking like Thor. Thor doesn’t even walk around looking like Thor.
It means we should model behaviours of a healthy and strong person.
We should lift heavy weights a few times per week.
We should regularly do activities that elevate our heart rate.
We should walk a lot.
We should eat mostly whole, minimally processed foods and make sure we’re getting enough protein and fibre.
We should hydrate.
We should sleep as much as we can.
Now to you, the consumer…
Take some pride in your own health. Do more than surface level research on someone you might want to work with.
Make it mean more than “they shredded, me want be shredded too here’s all my money.”
If you’re thinking about working with someone, either online or in person, interrogate them.
What are their credentials?
Why should YOU give THEM your money?
What does their life look like?
This is your health after all.
Lastly, to the professional
You’re more than your physique.
If you find yourself getting caught up in that rat trap of thinking you need to look a certain way to achieve credibility in this business, it’s okay. I’ve been there.
Yes, model the behaviours, walk the walk. But instead of obsessing over a look:
Expand your knowledge base and get really good at actually training people
Develop some empathy to the human condition
Be a kind human that people actually want to talk to
This is the health and fitness industry, so let’s put the health and fitness back in it, yea?
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Until next time,
-Justin