Richard Talens

This is a must read. It’s why I often see less-than-intelligent “bros” from bodybuilding.com achieve great transformations, and detail-obsessed geeks from Reddit, Fitblr, etc. (who are no doubt, super knowledgeable about the science behind fitness) fail in their journey. I’ve admittedly been one of these guys in the past.

Apr 26

Doing a bodybuilding show on September 22nd!

I am excited to announce that I will be doing a bodybuilding show on September 22nd and will be doing contest prep with none other than THE Dr. Layne Norton (seen below)!

When Layne offered to do my contest prep, I was absolutely ecstatic. I had been following him since I was a skinny-fat 17 year old looking to get into lifting. He’s seriously been an idol of mine and one of the best sources of natural bodybuilding motivation (No, I am not squeeing… well… maybe a little).

Check out his site and Fitocracy profile here:

The last time that I did a contest was in 2008, and I’ve put on a substantial amount of muscle mass since then. I’m also starting out a lot leaner than I was before, so it will be interesting to see where I end up with Layne’s help.

Today marks being between 21 and 22 weeks out and I’ll be starting at 20 weeks out. I don’t usually update my Tumblr very often, but I’ll make sure to check in once every other week with progress.

Mar 29

Mar 15

Mar 13

Unfortunately, I have to disagree with you. I was going to write a dissertation-sized email here about my startup, Fitocracy, which has a quarter of a million users and many testimonials of people who have changed their lives via. community and data. Instead, I’ll keep it short (as short as a comment about my biggest passion can be) and issue a challenge.

For what it’s worth, I agree with you on a lot of things. Fitbit and Nike Plus, by themselves, don’t solve the healthcare problem. Quantified health only goes so far, and no one has ever lost 100 lbs with a glorified pedometer alone — I don’t care if it gives points or gorgeous graphs. What you are not seeing is that these are incomplete versions of the true vision behind the intersection of health and social media.

Enter Fitocracy… On Fitocracy, there are individuals who have lost hundreds of pounds, 70-year olds who are still doing Crossfit, individuals who have reversed type II diabetes because of information from the community, and an amputee who is the most consistent deadlifter I know. I am citing four of the dozens of stories that I’ve heard of, and none of these guys are “quantified self freaks”, as you describe. Fitness is inherently social, or at the very least, collaborative; people love to share their accomplishments and find similar people to empathize with. That keeps them consistent and accountable. On Fitocracy, the gaming element is what draws people in and makes workouts a digestible talking piece, but it is the community that make people stay and continuously progress in their fitness goals.

The problem is that you completely uncouple true fitness and preventative health from actual health, and that is where you, and a lot of doctors have it wrong. No seriously, you have it so very wrong. I will assert that as a 25-year old who has spent thousands of hours reading about fitness, nutrition, and diet, I am more knowledgable than 99% of doctors on the subject of fitness, weight loss, and preventative health. Saying that a doctor should understand preventative health is like saying that a car mechanic should understand the collapse of the US Auto industry. MDs know how to fix, but not prevent… in fact, most MDs think that it’s about “move more, eat less”, which it is not (not to mention think protein is bad, fat is bad, you should follow the food pyramid, etc.)

Here’s a testimonial from an actual MD on Fitocracy:

“I will be 32 this April, but I am without a doubt now in the best shape of my life. Before joining Fitocracy I had pretty much resigned myself to being big. I wasn’t obese, but I was terribly unfit and just pretty pudgy overall. I wanted to get fitter, but had no real idea of the best way to go about this, despite being a doctor. Aside from fairly basic ‘eat less, move more’ advice then medication for failed risk factor modification, it wasn’t something covered in depth in medical school.”

I am not saying this to brag by any means — there are plenty of fitness autodidacts like me in the world, many more knowledgable. Nor am I saying this to take anything away from doctors. Most are good at what they do: fixing problems. What I am saying is that most doctors will be unable to understand the true vision behind social media and fitness until it has already changed the world, because they don’t actually understand fitness. Fitness IS preventative health.

I’m sure you have a rebuttal to this, and we’ll never agree based on a comment exchange, so I am issuing you the following challenge:

- Sign up for Fitocracy and join the healthcare professional groups. You can do so using this link. You might also want to read the post that inspired this group.

Feb 23

“Sadly the belief that it’s about willpower and calisthenics is what fuels childhood obesity. Kids are the same as they always were. The world is different. Trying to treat this problem by suggesting kids, little kids, should be able to will themselves into healthier habits, and to dance dance revolution their way down is addressing a symptom, where the cause is the world. You can’t cure a disease by treating its symptoms. For more on this check: http://bit.ly/A04wlI” — Yoni Freedhoff on childhood obesity

Dec 19

A glimpse at early Fitocracy

This was our very first iteration of Fitocracy. This was done in October of 2010 in Brian’s mom’s basement, right after we’d just quit our corporate jobs and I moved up from DC to join Brian in the NY area.

We showed this to a handful of people before we moved on to a re-design. A year ago today, Fitocracy looked like this and had a few hundred users.

Dec 16

Dec 13

It’s the last day to give Fitocracy your vote for the “Biggest Social Impact” Crunchie.