Results not typical: Beware of ads for fitness products
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Have you noticed the increasing number of advertisements promising to make you trim and healthy lately?
Although these claims have been around for many years, their ludicrousness has recently gotten out of hand.
Cable television, magazines and even radio have been overflowing with more false information than I can keep up with.
The ab-trimming device, the new aerobic fat-burning workout CD and the latest fitness potion are all over every type of media, preying on the public's lack of knowledge to sell their snake oil.
Most of my friends in the fitness business have recognized all the erroneous information these products and their spokespersons offer. Lots of these products are also downright dangerous, in my opinion.
Many of these advertisements are made using a fit and trim spokesperson. They usually claim to use the product themselves, tantalizing the public into believing that without their touted device, potion or program, they wouldn't and couldn't have achieved their success of a flat tummy and rock-hard biceps.
In addition, nearly all of these claims are made by someone with little to no real education in fitness or medicine. Again though, if they look the part, the company simply hires them to state their falsehoods.
It is human nature to want as much as possible with as little effort as we can get away with. That doesn't make you a bad or lazy person. And unless you have years of experience and/or a degree in the fitness field, the chance that you truly know what works (and what doesn't) concerning your body and fitness is slim.
These snake-oil companies count on this, and don't you forget it!
The government usually won't step in to countermand these false ads until the damage has been done to many people many times. So if you think that it "must be true" because the advertisement said so, then you are in for a rude awakening.
For your own safety, please consult a registered dietitian, exercise physiologist or physician before endangering your health. These fitness- and health-related testimonials that sound too good to be true usually are.
The sheer number of bogus fitness promises is on the rise, as are the ridiculous results they promise. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Scot E. Long, MSS, CSCS, is an exercise physiologist. He also is a doctoral candidate at the University of Southern Mississippi and an adjunct professor at Mississippi College.
