How social network stars promote fitness to the masses
The types of modern video training, which are now full of social networks, appeared almost together with the TV. The jump from clumsy films about hygiene and the body of the first third of the century to distinct video instructions took place remarkably quickly. On September 28, 1953, fitness instructor Jack Lalain presented a 15-minute morning exercise at the local KGO-TV station. By that time, the 39-year-old Lalein already managed a network of personalized sports clubs, was called the "godfather of fitness" and had a difficult history of overcoming sugar dependence and bulimia, which developed in his teens. Lalane appeared on the screen in a simple sports suit, showed exercises with items that were available to every American family (like a chair and bed), and did not frighten - such a gentle approach helped to attract thousands of viewers and keep them at the screens for 34 years.
Another American legend whose name most often recalls video training is Jane Fonda. An hour and a half of jumps, lunges and squats with vigorous music performed by lean women and men in equally leotard tights - such was the original video tutorial of the Foundations of 1982 and it is just so many people still imagine group sports activities. Jane's aerobic workouts, unlike the Lalane program, were more like an energetic stretch: they were able to beginners and developed noble flexibility. Well, one should not underestimate the charisma of the actress: “simple” American women wanted to associate themselves with her and now they knew (well, they believed they did) how to achieve the same physical form. It's funny that the interest in group classes with such an unobtrusive atmosphere is now experiencing another upsurge, but more on that below.
Jane - the main, but not the only celebrity, who took on the mission to improve the viewers. Claudia Schiffer, Alyssa Milano, Cher, Cindy Crawford, Jennifer Lopez and, of course, Kim Kardashian at the dawn of their careers, for obvious reasons, dressed in athletic form and diligently stretched, squatted and jumped, without flinching a single muscle of the face (I wondered how Against this background, the tutorial of the queen of immediacy Jen Lo, and we hope to see him someday). The trainers themselves also became celebrities, not least because of the TV programs: Iron Gillian Michaels was invited to conduct a reality show about weight loss “The Biggest Looser”, and after a few years she had her own program “Losing It With Jillian”, video games for Wii and Xbox and a bunch of followers.
Coach Kayla Ycinez brought up a three millionth army of sports fans on Instagram
In general, the previous main sports medium was the media, now the social networks have intercepted the baton. Lead, perhaps, Instagram - as the most revealing. With the advent of video posting, it became possible to lay out not only before / after photos that people like to consider losing weight, but also short instructions from which you can put together a full-fledged training program. In addition, administrators of popular fitness accounts post motivational pictures and selfies, encourage followers in the comments and show examples of good breakfasts, lunches and dinners. One of the most successful coaches who brought up an entire army of sports fans on Instagram, Australian Kayla Icinez broadcasts all of this to a three million audience. Her account (and everything on the hashtag #thekaylamovement) is not just a broadcast of events from the life of Kayla herself, but a mini-media entirely dedicated to a healthy lifestyle and encouraging readers to continue to work on the guide developed by İcinez.
There are not so many specialists with such a detailed instagram program, but fitness trainers are a dime a dozen. Sometimes they start an account, having already taken place as counselors, sometimes they grow along with the number of followers. The pole dance coach Sonya Soldatova began practicing five years ago at the university forcing teachers: “I started from the gym and aesthetics of the body until now I’m trying to get there. At the moment I like three directions: fitness, stretching and pole dancing (pole dance) ") The biggest breakthrough in my sporting development happened exactly at the dance classes (honestly worked for 1.5 years). Visual and power indicators rushed up and opened for me the opportunity to develop steadily in the fitness industry as an amateur." Soldatov, albeit an amateur, can teach a lot to 38 thousand much less athletic readers, who are well worth just a reminder of how actively you can play sports if you want.
In VKontakte and Facebook, the main streams of information about sports are in public and groups. They are usually managed by several people, and the quality of the content in them also depends on the adequacy of the moderators. Robert Piotrovich, a trainer from Poland, makes one of the clearest tapes: his Facebook page (by the way, more than a million subscribers) gets only instructions on how to eat and work out correctly. The lion’s share of links leads to Piotrovich’s awkward site, Workoutbox, which is easier to get acquainted with the content through Facebook.
It would be wrong to say that Facebook sports audience is more discriminating than on VKontakte - and there, there are those who prefer to motivate with typical glossy levers: countless photos of perfect bodies and calls to “lose weight by the summer”. Nevertheless, it is publics that promote conventional beauty, and often unhealthy thinness, really a lot (such ideals are attractive primarily for teenagers who are first registered in "VKontakte" and not Facebook). “In 2012, in my opinion, there was a boom in the development of sports publics, which gave a lot of both valuable and false information. I managed to learn how to filter the incoming stream and choose only the most relevant for training,” Sonya Soldatova confirms. One of the examples of intelligible resources is “Body to Work”, which is managed by coaches Lyubov Sidorkina and Igor Oskin. They are friendly outlining their experiences to the audience, shooting video training, well, and often publish motivating pictures.
Organizing offline classes is much more difficult than putting a selfie or a piece of your workout on instagram
In addition, on the basis of "VKontakte" grew one exceptional project - "School of an ideal body Sekta". In 2011, the singer Olga Marquez, fascinated by yoga, started a blog that has turned into a community looking for a healthy lifestyle. Then Marquez and a team of like-minded people turned to VKontakte: “When it all started, we didn’t look for the platform purposefully. But at some point there was a need to transfer communication from LJ and Twitter to a more flexible basis, and since most of the participants had VKontakte accounts "We have settled on it. So far, this platform is great for our learning format. Every day we post new workouts as a separate group for students, keep the official school page and support hundreds of chats for different groups", - explains the PR director of #Sekta Oksana Batykh.
Distance classes, the program of which in #Sekta is ordered with jewelry accuracy, is not the only level of school training. From the first days of its existence, she gave the opportunity to engage in group classes with a coach, and now goes on offline. “In the summer, the whole team, along with the students, we go to our traditional sektacamp camp, which will be held in Bulgaria. The program is very rich: every day - various trainings, lectures of the scientific department and joint rest. conducted training for 300-500 people, which was a new experience for us. "
Going offline seems to be the next level for all listed accounts. Kayla Icinez travels around the world and organizes massive street workouts, sports clubs like Puma and Nike are doing the same, calling fitness bloggers on them, and through them a large circle of their readers. Nevertheless, it’s unlikely that a sports account niche will dissolve: organizing offline classes is an order of magnitude more difficult than putting a selfie or a piece of your workout on instagram, and sharing people’s experiences and feelings has always been important. Now flexible and fast Instagram, Facebook and VKontakte are perfectly suitable for this purpose, but it is quite possible that one day coaches will use an unexpected tool and this will prove to be the best way to translate the pleasures of a healthy lifestyle.
Photo: 1, 2 via Shutterstock, Facebook / Sektaschool