This week, I was named on three different lists:
Greatist’s The 100 Most Influential People in Health and Fitness
JMax Fitness’s Top 40 Fitness Professionals to Follow in 2015
Stack’s 31 Fitness Experts You Should Follow in 2015
It’s always great to be featured on these lists. To be honest, if I wasn’t listed on these, I’d be disappointed. I work my balls off to put out good info and positively influence the strength training community, so it’s good to be noticed. I did some investigating and saw that Google Trends shows that my popularity is currently at an all-time high. The Alexa ranking for my website outperforms every one-person strength and conditioning blog on the Internet and my website traffic is at an all-time high. I published 10 peer-reviewed articles in 2014, which is more than almost anyone on these lists (most people have no idea how much work goes into journal article publishing). My Facebook Fitness page now has over 54,000 followers (and they’re all legit). And the quality of my content has consistently risen. Chris and I publish the best research review on the Internet for new strength training, biomechanics, and physical therapy research – we sift through around 100 journals every month in order to positively influence the way personal trainers, strength coaches, and physical therapists conduct their business.
However, I won’t lie. The competitive side in me wishes I was listed higher on these lists. In addition, I’m disappointed when 1) my favorite colleagues aren’t featured on the lists alongside me, and 2) when certain pseudoscientific individuals make the lists, indicating that you don’t have to be credible, just popular. And the criteria for these lists is never clear to me; is objective criteria being used or is it solely subjective?
For example, in 2013, I was listed at #23 on the JMax Fitness blog, then in 2014, I was listed at #4. Now it’s 2015 and I sunk to #13, even though I kicked some serious butt in 2014. With the Greatist list, I was listed at #70 in 2013 and #55 in 2014, but now I’m back down to #64. When I travel, I purposely attend commercial gyms because I want to see what gym-goers are doing around the word. I’ve personally witnessed that people are using my methods over and above probably any other expert out there. So what’s a blogger gotta do to rise up on these lists?
Nevertheless, right now I’d like to focus on what made me happy about the lists. Many of my colleagues and favorite writers including Brad Schoenfeld, Ben Bruno, Tony Gentilcore, Alan Aragon, Layne Norton, Sohee Walsh, Menno Henselmanns, Spencer Nadolsky, and Mike Tuchscherer were named (I know I’m leaving a lot of friends and colleagues out, these are just people who came to mind at first thought). And certain gurus who I won’t name were not on the lists, indicating that people are catching on to pseudoscience. Hurrah for science! Thanks to my readers for continued support and thanks to Greatist, JMax Fitness, and Stack for including me on their lists.
Why are there only 2 or 3 women recognized? What about two time Ms Bikini Olympia IFBB Pro Ashley Kaltwasser?? Or fitness Guru and author Jackie Warner? Who compiles the list? Just sayin…..
Congrats Bret, well deserved!
I wrote you message to your FB page but I figured I could ask you here as well. Sorry that this doesn’t have to do a whole lot with your article.
Obviously you are the expert on building glutes but how would you go about shrinking a woman’s butt that has very high lower body fat % where her butt is very wide and her thighs are very big as well (also very big calves. Probably from bycyle riding everyday)?
Calorie deficit is obvious. But what about the exercising part? I was going to have her do squats, RDLs and hip thrust as part of a full body workout (2-3 x per week) but right now, I am a little afraid that this is going to get her butt and thighs even bigger since she probably will not be in a very high calorie deficit as she doesn’t want to change her diet that much. I think HIIT cardio would be great but since her feet are fucked up I’m not sure whether that’s a great idea for her.
She’s basically untrained and does cardio once a week and 2 bodypump classes per week. At a bodyweight of around 62 kg (she’s around 5 foot 7) she can squat 35 kg for 3 sets of 12 and has deadlifted 50 kg for 1 rep just for fun so IMO it can’t all be fat.
Would love to hear your insight. Thanks in advance,
Philip
btw, I think it’s a big accomplishment to be on those lists. Where you place doesn’t really matter IMO as long as you’re on it since it’s all objective as you said. So don’t be disappointed. That’s why I said congrats and well deserved. Just so you know and don’t take this the wrong way.
Brett,
If its any consolation, when I think of training butts, I think of you. Thanks for your devotion to my favorite part of the body.
Tyler
There are definitely people on these lists that do not deserve to be in our good company! I was disappointed to see outright quacks listed along with outstanding professionals. The lesson that I take away from looking at these lists is that it is no wonder many people are confused about how to take care of their bodies given the big voices of pseudoscience in our culture.
Um, I meant *your* good company. My company is decent, but I certainly didn’t make any best of lists.
Thank you so much for saying that before I got here. I stopped reading the first list well before I ever got to Bret’s name and after I saw the B & B connection in the second list I went back and did eventually see him. Congrats Bret.
Theory/opinion warning: I think about 25% of what we’re told about fitness is true actually is true, I think about 50% of it is theory/opinion that gets passed off as fact and I think that about 25% is a flat out lie designed to sell us something. I think it’s actually worse in the diet and nutrition game. I think there are several people on that list, not including Bret, that are doing more harm than good. This isn’t supposed to be a popularity contest. New and cutting edge is only good if its actually true, otherwise it’s just another fitness myth/lie. Again, that’s just my opinion. Hence the warning.
Women love to train their butts, but many many forget about glute training. However, most people do like to do heavy squats, which do work your butt pretty good.
As for these “best of” lists, they can be a mixed bag. Some people to make the lists are experts with a lot of knowledge and experience while others are simply people that are in shape and popular on Instagram. I salute you for being in the first category!
Thank you so much for saying that before I got here. I stopped reading the first list well before I ever got to Bret’s name and after I saw the B & B connection in the second list I went back and did eventually see him. Congrats Bret.
Theory/opinion warning: I think about 25% of what we’re told about fitness is true actually is true, I think about 50% of it is theory/opinion that gets passed off as fact and I think that about 25% is a flat out lie designed to sell us something. I think it’s actually worse in the diet and nutrition game. I think there are several people on that list, not including Bret, that are doing more harm than good. This isn’t supposed to be a popularity contest.
Thank you so much for saying that before I got here. I stopped reading the first list well before I ever got to Bret’s name and after I saw the B & B connection in the second list I went back and did eventually see him. Congrats Bret.
Theory/opinion warning: I think about 25% of what we’re told about fitness is true actually is true, I think about 50% of it is theory/opinion that gets passed off as fact and I think that about 25% is a flat out lie designed to sell us something. I think it’s actually worse in the diet and nutrition game. I think there are several people on that list, not including Bret, that are doing more harm than good. This isn’t supposed