mind the gap

There’s a gap between expectations and reality in much of the health and fitness industry today, and it sets a lot of us up for unhappiness as we struggle to reconcile what we’re told with what’s actually real.

Let me expand on that with a real life example that I’m guessing you’ve experienced, in some capacity.

You have a break in your work day. What do you do? You pick up your phone. The dopamine receptors in your brain are feeling tHiRsTy, and social media beckons. You open Instagram or TikTok.

[If you’re reading this, you’re probably a relatively active person. You have an interest in fitness, and that probably extends to nutrition as well. You’re seeking health and wellness across different disciplines in your life.]

The algorithm gods know this, and they’ve selected a juicy batch of content to superglue your attention and flood those dopamine receptors in your brain.

The first post that pops up on your feed is about fitness, and it’s titled something like this: “The Biggest Mistake You’re Making In Your Training, and how to fix it for 200% more Gainz.”

Wow, that sounds good.

You watch the reel and learn that all this time you should have been performing your biceps curls hanging upside down because that creates the optimal amount of tension on your biceps for greater gains, and if only you’d been doing that the past 2 years you’d have guns like Arnold!

BUT… if you start doing this exercise now, you could still see huge gains in in no time because this exercise is THE THING that will change the game for you.

You scroll on. The next post is about pain. “Do this exercise and you’ll fix your back pain forever.” This also sounds great. Maybe you’ve had some back pain in the past, or even recently, and it is NOT a good feeling. You’d LOVE to get rid of back pain forever. You watch the video and learn that all you need to do is this one special stretch and you’ll never feel back pain again. Hot dog! What good news.

You keep scrolling. The last post that catches your eye is about nutrition. You’d like to be leaner with summer around the corner, and this one promises that if you just stop eating bread and stop tracking your calories, you’ll have a six pack by next week, because bread is bad and calories aren’t real. Incredible.

Your break time is now over. It’s time to get back to work. You set down your phone, but what you saw is now swirling around in your brain. Some ideas have been planted. Some expectations are marinating. Lots of misinformation is propagating. The problem is, there’s a huge gap between those expectations, and what REALITY actually is.

You’ll find that out soon enough on your own, though. Maybe you get done with work that day, and you try the exercises and the nutrition advice that you saw.

You’re expecting BIG THINGS. Quick results. Hot damn let’s get it!

The reality, sadly, is underwhelming. The biceps curls are meh. The back stretch feels nice, but gives no lasting relief to your back pain. And the nutrition advice? Too soon to tell. You stick with these things for a few days, maybe a week max. But by the end of the week, your biceps are no bigger, your back pain is still there, and you still don’t have visible abs, so you get frustrated and give up.

And then the cycle restarts with a new batch of posts. Times infinity.

These post examples may seem extreme—but what’s both sad and scary is that I see posts like these ALL. THE. TIME. Some of them are obviously scams or on the more ludicrous side of the spectrum, but a lot of them are believable if you don’t know any better. And oh, how we WANT to believe them—it would be so much easier if quick fixes could be true.

But here’s the reality: good things take time and consistency. Fitness, getting out of pain, losing weight…they all require the same thing in the end. Being consistent with basic, sometimes boring actions over a long period of time is not easy, and it’s not sexy, yet it is the only thing that will get you to your goals, across all of these disciplines. Hacks and promises of quick fixes get clicks and views, but they don’t get results.

Gaining muscle takes time and effort, and following a structured program that you can stay consistent with will ACTUALLY do 200% more for you than some arbitrary exercise/suggestion. The same goes for physical therapy/rehab, and for nutrition. Context and application will vary, BUT the principles that hold true are that only consistency, a solid plan, and a long enough time horizon will get you where you want to be.

Our world is speeding up, and creating faster, more efficient solutions to problems is how companies nowadays get ahead. AI. Food delivery apps. Software. Etc. That’s great. I love that for us.

But we’ve now come to expect that kind of speed in health & fitness, and widespread messaging across social media and other platforms is telling us that it’s possible. The issue is, we can’t “quick fix” or shortcut our way to overnight outcomes (at least not yet) because building muscle, overcoming pain and losing weight ALL TAKE TIME. You just can’t hack your way there, regardless of what your favorite influencer is telling you. We’re fed misinformation and novel trends that feed our subconscious desires and prey upon our attention, but these things come and go. And unfortunately, the result is a widening gap between accelerating, unrealistic expectations and an unchanging reality.

I can feel myself getting fired up as I write this, and also getting pulled down about a dozen different rabbit holes (that may have to turn into articles of their own). So let’s distill down all of this into a few actionable pieces of advice.

Rigorously screen your sources of information.

Turn a skeptical eye on anyone who promises you a quick fix to pain or fast results in fitness. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Choose proven, simple inputs that support your goals, and that you know you can do consistently…and do them consistently.

Lengthen your time horizons.

And play the long game.

If you can filter out the noise and focus on consistent action, day after day, you’ve already won.

Mind the gap.