There has been an increasing demand for men to pack on lean muscle over the last decade in order to bolster their sex appeal. As a result, online fitness programs and blogs have gained a lot of popularity. This is largely due to their ease of access through plain language strategies and wide range of fitness philosophies. Greg O'Gallagher, a 26-year-old Canadian fitness expert, created his own workout program called Kinobody. He independently launched his own fitness blog/website in 2011 where he writes about fitness and sells his workout programs. Greg uses plain language styles with basic vocabulary, direct explanations, and short sentences in order to draw people in. More specifically, he aims to reach younger men who want to improve their physique.
In order to give his brand a higher level of trust and legitimacy, O'Gallagher constantly streams and posts his workouts on YouTube and Instagram. This helps him build his brand because his followers can watch and learn as he advocates for his simplistic fitness philosophy. In fact, Greg’s plain and straightforward approach to fitness has become so popular that over 200,000 people have followed his programs. Unfortunately, while this type of strategy does lend itself to popularity among basic fitness advocates, it also disqualifies him from any academic and scientific acknowledgment from Exercise Sports Science professionals with bona fide credentials. Greg does not seem to be hurt by this, though, as his number of followers continues to grow by the thousands every month as new people learn about his simple message for fitness success. Of course, Greg is not the only fitness expert who targets younger men who want to build muscle. So, what exactly is Greg doing with his marketing style that makes his brand so attractive and accessible?
At the heart of his philosophy for fitness, Greg truly likes to keep things simple. He says on his blog, “I'm confident that you're going to be blown away by the information and simplicity of this program. More than that though, when you start implementing it - if you follow the program as I have outlined it - I know you'll be shocked at the results.” As someone who has followed his workout plans for over two years, I can say that Greg’s simplistic approach does live up to the hype and produce the legitimate results he promises. An anonymous follower of his program described their experience by saying, “Greg’s program is worth the investment. The system is simple but really effective.” It is plain to see the type of fitness community that Greg wants to build: people who want to build an amazing body without spending countless hours trying to become fitness experts themselves. Instead, Greg makes things simple by creating an easy-to-follow path for fitness novices. Not only this, but by constantly promoting his own lifestyle online through YouTube and social media sites, he never stops selling his programs. By marketing his product with core elements of plain style language, Greg creates an accessible and attractive fitness model for young male fitness novices to purchase and follow.
The Kinobody blog, in addition to housing all of its fitness programs for purchase, also serves as a means of education and reinforcement. Greg often posts about nutrition and exercise in order to circulate his simplistic messages. He writes, “I created this training with the objective of hitting the right areas on your body hard and efficiently. This means by spending less time in the gym, you'll get better results.” This is a very accessible writing style that anyone could understand, which is exactly what Greg wants. The passage above uses active voice, short sentences, and basic vocabulary to get the message across. Because of these factors, the passage was considered to be written at a seventh grade reading level. But should such a low reading level be considered a good thing? In some ways, it is good because Greg opens up his philosophy to a wide range of people. However, by excluding technical terminology and avoiding complex explanations, he distances himself from another audience: the experts.
While Greg does appeal to many fitness novices who are attracted to the simplicity of his program, he does not fare so well with fitness professionals. In fact, I could not find a single academic or scientific paper that cited him. Aside from personal fitness blogs and reviews from other fitness leaders, the only article written about Kinobody came from the media venue Vice News. It says, “O'Gallagher doesn't have a degree in fitness or any professional experience in personal training. Any training he has, he's given himself.” Knowing this, it is not surprising that he lacks any endorsement from the academic fitness community. However, he almost seems to use this to his advantage. Much like Donald Trump, O'Gallagher appeals to a wide range of people by reducing complex ideas into simpler concepts that make sense. Unlike Donald Trump, however, Greg actually does hold true to his word and provide positive fitness results for his followers. Of course, this, too, begs the question: What are the implications of achieving success without understanding how or why? I believe the answer is complex, but it can be approached from a few perspectives.
On one hand, Greg’s use of plain style to explain his fitness philosophy has led to hundreds of thousands of people improving their health and physique--myself included. While this might seem like it is a good thing, it does has some limitations. Weight lifting and health can be dangerous things without proper knowledge and safety measures. If novice weightlifters believe they are experts, they might take unhealthy risks because they trust their own intuition. This can lead to devastating injuries and other health issues. You can see where this issue is leading.
Plain language is a double-edged sword. By making complex issues more accessible for more people, it can open things up for a larger audience. But at what cost? Some areas like sports, video games, or entertainment might be safe to practice the plain language because there is not much danger in being a novice. But weight lifting, politics, and other things could potentially have catastrophic results for people who do not understand them completely. With that said, am I arguing that people should stop following fitness experts’ advice if it is simple and easy to understand? Of course not. There is still a lot of value in being able to easily digest issues that we normally lack the time to understand thoroughly. However, if you decide to trust an expert using plain language, you should make sure you do not make the mistake of believing you are an expert, too.
Lucas Wyrembeck
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