Sarah Palin: Fitness Expert?
She’s back!
So this morning I saw a segment about Sarah Palin on The Today Show while performing some HIIT training on a bike at my gym. And since I’m a multi tasking blogger, I went straight to my Angry Trainer Facebook page to leave the following message…
‘Sarah Palin slated to write a fitness book….come on’.
That was my total message – no nasty words, no political commentary, nothing. The fact is Sarah Palin is a politician, NOT a fitness expert or trainer, so my remarks were meant to reflect this.
Well many people were quite upset with me, calling me a hater and telling me I should put my political feelings aside. Political feelings? Me? No way. My remark had nothing to do with politics and everything to do with how I feel about any celebrity or any person with a platform who tries to capitalize on the fitness market when they don’t actually work in the fitness industry! Being thin, normal weight or appearing fit are not good enough credentials to give fitness advice nor does it speak to a person’s knowledge about health and fitness. It means they’re thin. That’s it.
Now since this morning I’ve looked around the web a bit and read that Palin is an avid runner – heck she’s even been on the cover of Runner World magazine, runs marathons and apparently was a high school track star. I guess these facts are enough to make her a fitness expert right? Sorry, no dice! It means Sarah is a runner. That’s it!
I think what bothers me most is that I feel this is another example of shameless money making and taking advantage of people’s desperation to lose weight and become healthier. If Sarah Palin weren’t a former Vice Presidential nominee, if she weren’t in the spotlight, would anyone listen to her fitness and health recommendations? The answer is no. And even if she exercises regularly and eats well, that’s still not a free pass to start dispensing advice to people. Frankly Palin’s book bothers me, after all I’m a career personal trainer and I take my job and this website very seriously.
Now in truth Mrs. Palin’s book could come out and be terrific for all I know. Maybe she really does know a lot about health and fitness, we’ll all have to wait and see what she says when her book hits the market. But I feel this is a big problem within the fitness industry – everyone and anyone can be an expert. Where else does this happen? In what other industry can someone with ZERO experience in a particular field make headlines for writing a book?
I freely admit I don’t know everything and know there are many routes to achieve a goal. And I try to give different points of view on various subjects and introduce you all to other people in the fitness industry who I feel are worth following. My way is not the only way – I know that. But when it comes to celebrities, models or anyone else in the public eye, I wish they would just stay doing what they do and let people who really live and breath fitness for a living do their job. That’s just my opinion.
By the way I’m not writing a book on politics anytime soon…!
So what do you think? Should Sarah Palin write a fitness book? Is she qualified to? Comment away…
| Print article | This entry was posted by Alfonso on October 10, 2012 at 2:00 pm, and is filed under CELEBRITIES, NEWS. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 7 months ago
Well she wasn’t qualified to be President either but that never stopped her
about 7 months ago
This blog needs a “like” button.
about 7 months ago
if only someone were around to ask her what fitness magazines she reads…….
about 7 months ago
I’m sure her response would be rambling, “Well, um, a LOT of them!”
about 7 months ago
Couldn’t agree with you more~ Always enjoy reading your articles, thanks a million.
about 7 months ago
Right on! What expertise could she possibly give?
about 7 months ago
I agree with you completely. As a fitness STUDENT, the advice and information I want to hear comes from a professional who not only knows a great deal of what they’re talking about, but also how to DELIVER that information. Essentially, it’s the equivalent of, in my job (graphic & web design), if I were to hear someone say “I’m a plumber, but I know photoshop, so I’m going to write a book on graphic design!”
Political ideology or affiliation is not applicable in this case. She might know how to govern Alaska, but that doesn’t mean she knows how to deliver fitness information…and even if she does, it undermines the people like you who have invested much of their life and resources into becoming an actual expert on the subject.
about 7 months ago
No one should be writing a book on fitness unless they have the credentials and background IN FITNESS. I agree with you when you say that celebrity status and being fit and eating clean do not give anyone the right to write a book on fitness. It’s almost like personal trainers writing a book on surgery just because they have knowledge of muscle actions and attachments. I would like to know exactly what she is writing about though.
about 7 months ago
sure, this is America! she should be able to write a book on fitness if she wants to. I just think that it should be filed under “fiction” or “sci-fi” rather than find it in the fitness or self help section of your local bookstore. And Alfonso, when you write that book on politics, lemme know. i’d like an autographed copy!
thanks!
gene @boutdrz
about 7 months ago
Absolutely not. I agree with every word you said.
She has as much right to write a fitness book as her daughter would writing a parenting book.
about 7 months ago
I couldn’t agree more with you on this, but it doesn’t surprise me, either. I totally understand the annoyance of having a non-expert be put on a pedestal and making money at something you are, in fact, an expert of. But think of it this way… look at her audience. Nobody I know in my age or demographic would THINK of buying her book (unless it were a joke). However, my mom might. My mom’s friends might. And it might be awesome to have an epidemic of 60- and 70-year-old women doing HIIT, or even just exercising at all, because of Sarah Palin.
That’s the silver lining. I don’t think Palin is much good for anything other than brightening my day with a good belly laugh, but maybe some good will come of this.
about 7 months ago
I agree 100%. But what are the odds she’s actually putting pen to paper herself? I get pretty skeptical when any celebrity (hello, Snookie) purports to write a book. I mean, do they actually? Or do they have “ghost writers.” If she actually wrote the book, I’d be surprised.
Also, if she wanted to write a book about fitness, I think something about her running experience, told from a memoir point of view would be more appropriate.
about 7 months ago
The fact is Sarah Palin is a politician, NOT a fitness expert or trainer.
I’m no fan of Palin, but just to play devil’s advocate, isn’t making decisions about things outside of your education the most essential skill of a politician? I’ve worked in government all my life, studied policy, international relations and economics at the post-graduate level… only to have my carefully researched proposals vetted on a whim by a politician whose only career prior to being elected an MP and appointed a Minister of the Crown was “farmwife” (her word, from her bio). And that’s how it should be – she was elected to the Commons, after all, and appointed to cabinet in the proper manner. But your frustration as an expert in seeing someone barge into your field of expertise solely because of their ability to speak in front of a camera is felt very widely. Policy wonks, scientists, teachers, police officers, etc, etc, etc all get to experience this same feeling every day!
about 7 months ago
I totally agree! She is not the first “celebrity” to try to cash in on fitness (Kim Kardashian, Bethanny Frankel etc) but it is soo misleading! I know she is a runner (as in RW magazine) but someone that truly needs a safe, effective weight loss plan and has never worked out and needs a legitimite “pathway to health and fitness” I hope does not look to her. Whether or not they are a Republican!
about 7 months ago
I totally agree with you. Here in Canada, we have a show called THE FIFTH ESTATE, they had an episode on “EXPERTS” or should I say “how everyone qualifies themselves as experts. there is even experts on experts…” the episode is worth taking a look…… ciao
about 7 months ago
Of course she has a First Amendment right to write a fitness book if she wants to. And it will make a boatload of money because of the author, not because of the content. In all likelihood, no one will get hurt.
With all of the fitness books out there that make you wonder if the author really has anything to say about the subject, and that are reviewed by someone who knows nothing about the subject, what’s one more? Of course I would prefer that my reference materials always be written by someone who’s knowledgeable about the subject, but maybe she will at least make it interesting.
about 7 months ago
I agree Alfonso. Your comment was not about politics, it was about fitness and about how many people with little to no credentials can claim they are fitness experts.
We have so many examples. Pornstars who pick up a couple of dumbbells, read a couple of books, get a quick certification and start a fitness channel making big money out of it dispensing fitness and diet advice. Now we’ve got Sarah who’s thin and pretty, probably eats well and….BOOM she instantly becomes a fitness trainer.
It’s sad to see that fitness is not taken seriously as it should and this is the result of people’s stupidity and disinformation. They think that if a person looks great, she must be a great trainer. FALSE!!!!
LOVED YOUR ARTICLE. And keep up the great work.