“Coach Hale why are you so skeptical?” “Why do you have such a negative view of the fitness industry?” “You are so cynical.” I hear these types of questions and statements on a weekly basis. The people that approach me with these statements are almost always supplement salesman, homeopathy practitioners, equipment salesman etc. Generally, people that do not like to have their authority questioned.

Skeptic or Cynic

Some people believe that skepticism is the rejection of new ideas. Often people confuse “skeptic” with “cynic.” The Fitness Skeptic (Skeptic is derived from the Greek skeptikos, which means "inquiring" or "to look around) applies reason to any and all ideas promoted by the fitness industry or ideas promoted by anyone making fitness claims. The Fitness skeptic (the term Fitness skeptic applies to health, nutrition and supplement claims as well) requires evidence before claims are accepted as fact. It is important to consider who is making the claims, but no matter who makes the claim evidence is required. In reality, the person’s reputation, authority or credentials do not make the claim correct. The evidence determines whether the claim is correct. Skepticism is a method used to question the validity of a particular claim. In its simplest form skepticism requires evidence for a claim to be accepted as fact (valid evidence = Primary Research Data, valid evidence doesn’t include “they say” “my instructor says” “the gym staff says” “I have always heard”...).

There are many different aspects of fitness so it becomes obvious that science has not investigated every topic. Many claims are so outlandish and unjustifiable (according to already established scientific facts) they do not warrant scientific investigation. These are the type of claims that violate basic laws of biochemistry, kinesiology, endocrinology and so on. The people that promote these claims generally make up their own terminology and attempt to impress people with fancy words (in many cases words that do not exist or words they cannot accurately define).

What is a cynic? Cynics are distrustful of any advice or information that they do not agree with themselves. Cynics do not accept any claim that challenges their belief system. Recently in an interview I was asked the following:

Skepticism and Science

Skepticism is a key part of science. Basically, science is a specific way of analyzing information with the goal of testing claims. Giving a precise definition of the scientific method is difficult as there is little consensus in the scientific community as to what that definition is. A Aragon (Girth Control 2007) defines the scientific method as: “systematic process for acquiring new knowledge that uses the basic principle of deductive (and to a lesser extent inductive) reasoning. It’s considered the most rigorous way to elucidate cause and effect, as well as discover and analyze less direct relationships between agents and their associated phenomena.” Deductive reasoning provides comprehensive grounds for its conclusion. Deductive reasoning makes specific predictions and is either valid or invalid. Deductive arguments are generally viewed as the most precise and the most persuasive; they provide conclusive proof of their conclusion. Inductive reasoning forms a hypothesis from drawing general conclusions from a small incomplete amount of specific observations. As I mentioned above if you asked a panel of scientists to define the scientific method you would receive a large array of answers, but I think most would agree on the basic concepts.

The following is an excerpt from Why People Believe Weird Things (Shermer 1997).

When using the scientific method one of the primary goals is objectivity. Proper use of the scientific method leads us to rationalism (basing conclusion on intellect, logic and evidence). Relying on science also helps us avoid dogmatism (adherence to doctrine over rational and enlightened inquiry, or basing conclusion on authority rather than evidence). I doubt if there is any industry in the world that has a more dogmatic mind set than the fitness industry.