Social Media Fitness Celebs Getting What They Deserve?

Bigger Stronger Leaner
61

Hair pulling probably wasn’t going to work on 90s powerlifters. Goatee pulling though, that’d get you somewhere, haha.

I know a lot of people like to talk about the “dirty fighting” trump card, but I’d honestly be cautious in thinking that it’s some sort of safety net. For most people, that’s simply called “fighting”. If your goal is self defense/preservation, I think avoidance is the best bet, with de-escalation being pretty critical as well. I mean, definitely do whatever it takes if you’re going to die, but odds are, if you’re in range to bite/pull hair/eye gouge someone, then they’re in range to do it too, and if they’re bigger and stronger and have better control of the situation than you do, they’re probably going to do it better.

You can see a lot of this in the old Gracie fighting tapes. Lotta guys thought this stuff would be the ace in the hole, and it just kinda sucked.

62

Certainly! It is not a trump card.

In some way I was simply trying to express that I am unfazed by this ridiculous talk by badasses on video and in print. Deescalation sure is the better way to do things as adults; it’s not like I want my life recked in prison, which they don’t want to either. Which s why the whole thing is comical!

No one has a trademark on so-called dirty fighting .

63

Oh yeah, I understood where you were going with it; that part just stood out to me. I got into lifting from MMA (was getting too beat up in the latter), so it’s still something of an interest for me.

64

Isn’t that Kirk? Pretty sure that was because he was training in some private invite only gym at that time or something like that.

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65

I don’t recall him mentioning that, and if it was an invite-only gym, I don’t know why he wouldn’t have the respect for the other powerlifter who was invited. When I first heard him say that in the film ten years ago I thought, “Man, this guy’s the real deal.” Looking back, it sounds damn silly!

66

True true but we are getting a bit off topic aren’t we. Kirk certainly wasn’t a “Social Media Fitness Celeb”. He was a powerlifter and that’s about it. I’m not gonna lie, I’m not super familiar with him but I do know he was monstrous squatter. 800lbs for 5 raw? You’d be nuts to take up his squat rack space. Isn’t this one of the wonderful aspects about powerlifting? It doesn’t matter how much of a douche you are, if you have the bigger total, you’re the man.

67

No, he was not a social media fitness celeb. We go off track because of the online personas many fitness celebs are portraying, one of those personas being the badass with an over dramatization of some guy who goes to a gym.

68

Yeah I think he said in a later interview that he exaggerated that story because the director was pressuring him to say some “badass” stuff for the camera.

Regardless, I’m not getting into a physical altercation with someone crazy enough to fling plates at me for a squat rack lol.

69

I wonder if I get crazy enough to throw plates at someone for the squat rack, will my squat also increase exponentially?

70

Hey you never know until you try!

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71

But please don’t. If this plate flinging for the squat rack becomes a fad, where the fuck am I going to do my curls?

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72

Just start a new trend, maybe do your curls on the platform.

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73

I had a suspicion he was saying that for an effect because he seems like a nice guy and I was doubting he would do that.

74

I remember Jason Blaha from my beginning lifting days. I had just spent a few months doing machine and dumbbell work before seeing a picture of Hugh Jackman deadlifting in toe shoes. I didn’t even know what a deadlift was, but I knew that I too wanted to become a person who deadlifted in toe shoes.

Anyway Jason Blaha’s name was one of the first that popped up on my radar screen as I set out to learn abut barbells, and I more-or-less accepted the notion that this guy who had a youtube channel with a significant following must be some kind of authority on the subject.

Nearly three years later, it is obvious to me that Blaha is no expert. His lifting advice is not the worst advice, but it is clearly regurgitated rather than drawn from personal insight and experience. I didn’t run his Ice Cream Fitness program and I don’t have any animosity towards the guy, but it is interesting to reflect on how much differently I view a fitness character like Blaha with a few years under the bar vs how I perceived him when I was a novice.

I listened to the first half of Brick and Stu’s podcast (great job BTW guys) and was completely unsurprised to learn that Blaha is a fraud. I finally followed up on that last night and dove into the wide weird world of youtube fitness personalities.

I watched some Blaha videos. I watched some Blaha exposed videos. I watched some bizarre videos of Blaha using an alias of coppertopp22 as well. It was obviously him pretending to be a mercenary commando with his face blurred out and voice altered, regaling the audience with bullshit tales of Blaha’s mercenary exploits that clearly never happened. Does he really think ANYONE is buying that?

I’m not sure what to make of all of this, other than the fact that any schmuck with an internet connection can start a youtube channel, to which other schmucks who don’t know any better will gravitate.

I just hope Blaha doesn’t shoot anyone as his meltdown progresses.

75

Call me crazy but I don’t exactly know what’s up with the Blaha hate. I’m actually a subscriber and I watch his videos semi-frequently. That being said, alongside all other YouTuber fitness gurus or whatever, I tend to take their advice with a pinch of salt.

76

I think the hate is stemming from, in no particular order, his…

…clear pattern of lies.
…threats of physical violence against others.
…disparaging remarks about other, more accomplished Youtube fitness personalities.
…clearly fraudulent persona.

Plus you get into the whole concept of Stolen Valor, which many consider to be among the most shameful things a person can do.

He could have let his lifting achievements stand on their own merits, but then he wouldn’t have ever gotten the attention he was craving. He had to invent a fraudulent action hero persona, which is not a mark of good character.

Compare Blaha’s youtube “success” to that of Alpha’s budding channel, and it becomes quite clear that quality of content does not necessarily drive subscribers. Who wants to sit though great explanations of things like breathing, bracing and using your lats as a shelf for your strict press when you could hear about who Blaha thinks is on steroids?

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77

The odd thing is that Jason could have just gone along, googling info and making his little “I hope it has been informative” videos, and he could have kept a decent audience of mostly newbie or inexperienced lifters tuning in. No one would ever have known, even as he never managed to produce results from his own attempts to cut, or reach certain lifts and eventually just putting excuses out there (always needed a deload, or the fact that he’s almost 40 -lol) to change the subject.

Heck, there are plenty of folks online who have fairly decent physiques but no real insight into the advice on training or nutrition they dole out. For whatever reason, and some people can dig up seriously old forum posts from Blaha’s past where you can see what type of character he is, he must have loved the attention, and started playing up the persona of who he wished to be.

-Former bodybuilder (although every bit of evidence was lost in a house fire),

-Competitive powerlifter (try and find the results from that meet anywhere online),

-Hired mercenary by the CIA (because they always secretly recruit out of shape - 100 lbs overweight by his own admission - near sighted, vertigo suffering, continually out of breath high school kids to go on covert missions

  • and most recently hinting at his “street racing past” -lol.

This is so far beyond the average forum wanna-be who needs to argue with everyone else and screams of their own accomplishments while providing little in the way of proof. Jay’s been completely found out, and now it’s just spiraling all over the place. The delusion that his “arch nemesis” (read too many comic books as a child?), the evil Dr Layne Norton is behind all of the people conspiring against him, and that he himself is faultless would be laughable if he wasn’t comparable to some of the lone shooter stories we’ve all watched transpire in recent years. The guy hasn’t held a real job in who knows how long, and his entire livelihood, if you can call it that, and sense of self worth is wrapped up in his silly little youtube channel.

It’s a pot of water that’s just so close to boiling over, and to be honest, I’m a bit worried that this can take a very bad turn.

(I actually had a little exchange with Layne yesterday about my concerns before he recorded his “I’m out” video)

S

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78

Interesting… Still not gonna jump on the hate train but I do have my guard up.

Oh and on a side note, why is it that no one ever gives a shit about quality of one’s subscribers? I’m sure there’s a very logical reason for that but still, it kinda matters to me at least.

It’s like, if I run into someone and they say they watch Alpha’s vids, they automatically +1 (out of 100) on the respect scale as compared to say… Barbell Brigade. Can’t say I’ve ever met a Barbell Brigade viewer whom I’ve liked so far. Most of them are just skinny hipsters who think the shirt look nice who struggle with 225 on the squat.

I do realize that I’m over generalising but it just deeply annoys me that powerlifting/strength training in general is a huge fad and it’s the hip and in thing too. So many people who don’t even (lift) wearing barbell brigade clothes around me.

79

A useful test is to read their articles from 10-15 years ago.

80

What are you talking about? I’m kinda lost.