How Social Media Hurts Your Training

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It’s been almost two years since I’ve really been active on social media.  I stopped posting at first because I was dealing with a pretty serious injury, and I stayed away because I found that my life is better without it.  

My training is better without it, too.  It’s so much better, in fact, that I want to make the case for you to cut back on your social media use for the sake of your training.  I doubt I’ll convince anyone to delete their Instagram account entirely, but I hope I get a few of you to think more critically about how much doom scrolling can set you back.

What Happens on Social Media

You’re bombarded with misinformation.

I’ll be blunt: there are so many influencers spouting unfettered bullshit on social media that using it will literally rot your brain.  The majority of the lifting content and claims you’ll find on social media are untrue, and doom scrolling is neurodegenerative.

It’s the former issue that really grinds my gears.  Social media gives everyone a platform to be seen and heard, and I do think that’s a good thing in many cases.  Educational contexts are not one of those cases.  Content on social media isn’t promoted based on the qualities you’d want to find in an educational environment (you know, things like truth, usefulness, or anything of the sort).  Instead, it’s promoted based on the Internet equivalent of curb appeal: content that looks good rises to the top.  

Imagine if all of your high school teachers were really hot, really dumb, and oftentimes dishonest.  You might think that sounds like a ton of fun in high school – and you might be right –, but you’d come out knowing next to nothing about math and science.  You’d probably have some trust issues to boot.  

That’s exactly what happens when you try to “educate” yourself using social media.  If that sounds like a dumpster fire, well… it is.  It’s so bad, in fact, that researchers have modeled the spread of (mis)information via social media like a disease, where the “cure” is to not play at all.  

How does this relate to lifting success?  In my experience, it usually plays out as a type of paralysis by analysis.  When you have too many choices (with regard to programming, exercise selection, drug protocols, or anything else) and a limited ability to objectively evaluate them, you end up unable to pick one.  So you end up program hopping – and that’s a guaranteed way to kill long-term progress.

You become less process-oriented.

This is a trap I constantly fall into myself: when you’re scrolling through Instagram and see all of your competitors hitting PR after PR, you’re going to be tempted to load up the bar yourself – even when that’s a bad idea.  Hitting PR after PR isn’t sustainable, even with PED use; but posting sets of 3 at 65% 1RM – even when it’s the best thing for your progress – isn’t going to attract more followers.  (This is assuming, of course, that you were able to actually pick a good program and avoid the analysis paralysis trap I mentioned earlier in this article.)

There’s a lot to unpack here, but I really want to focus on the idea of process orientation (in contrast to outcome orientation).  Process orientation means that you’re focusing on, well, the process: you’re actually performing your sets at 65% when they’re scheduled; you’re following your meal plan; you’re getting to bed on time – and you’re doing those things for the sake of doing them.  Outcome orientation means that you’re focused on your end goals (in this example, weight on the bar).

Research suggests a process-oriented mindset produces better results than an outcome-oriented approach¹, but the hard truth is that, at least in a lifting context, process orientation can be pretty darn boring at times.  Success in lifting demands an enormous amount of consistency, discipline, and patience – all of which become more difficult when you’re constantly watching other people achieve their end goals on social media.  

If this sounds familiar to you, it’s probably time to back off on your social media use.  It will make a process-oriented approach easier (not easy – just easier).  

You recover slower.

I think everyone is familiar with the idea that social media platforms are designed to be addictive.  When you find that one really good post, you get a little hit of dopamine – and then you keep scrolling to get your next hit, and your next, and your next.  

I don’t know that everyone understands how detrimental this sort of dopamine-seeking behavior can be with regard to physical performance.  In the first section of this article, I mentioned that researchers have modeled the spread of misinformation via social media like an infectious disease.  They’ve also modeled the use of social media as an addiction, and that “sick” individuals (i.e., those addicted to social media) exhibit symptoms similar to those observed in depression and bipolar disorder.  

Consider the following consequences of excessive scrolling:

• Decreased willingness to pursue long-term goals

• Decreased mental performance

• Increased incidence of anxiety, depression, and insomnia

I think it’s pretty obvious how all of these things could quickly derail your performance.  Recent evidence suggests that it might even be worse: there’s some evidence that excessive screen time can cause oxidative stress.  That’s a physiological consequence, and it contributes directly to what I call a “recovery deficit” – the difference between what your body can handle and what it can recover from.  For most of you, training itself can create a recovery deficit, and I promise you don’t want to make that deficit even larger by doom scrolling.

You can check out this book to read more about training and oxidative stress!

Get Off Your Phone

Now, look: I try to take a pretty balanced tack in my writing, and I’ll be the first to admit that my arguments here are founded largely in my own experiences.  I acknowledge that social media does have plenty of benefits.  As a lifter, you can use social media to connect with teammates, competitors, and mentors.  You can use it to get feedback and encouragement on your own training, build a coaching business, or even attract sponsors. 

Research shows that social media use is a mixed bag, too.  It’s not exactly predictive of success or failure, although it is correlated with both positive and negative behaviors and outcomes.  

Again, I don’t expect you to forgo those benefits entirely.  I just hope that if you do seek them out, you do so mindfully and responsibly.  Regardless of how you feel about social media, it’s here to stay, so that’s advice that I’m convinced everyone can benefit from.

1. I don’t mean to suggest that process goals should always supersede outcome goals – both are important for long-term success.