I was surfing over to one of my favorite fitness sites, when their banner ad poked me in the eye. A picture of a celebrity instructor with a yoga mat tucked under her arm, pushing her latest product a Yoga DVD. Really? The Yoga mat looked like the plastic sleeve had just been removed and it hadn’t even been unrolled once. I’m sure that’s the way it’ll remain.

This celebrity instructor is not a yoga expert, she is not a nutritionist, her credentials for personal training barely qualify her to work in the industry. Why do you want to take any advice that she dishes out? Yup, she’s cute, she’s sassy, she has a drop-dead gorgeous body but c’mon now she’s doing yoga?

I’d like to let you all in on a little secret. The fitness industry is about 95% marketing! It’s some guys in suits sitting around figuring out how they can tap into this billion dollar industry. You know what the easiest way to make money in the fitness industry is? Throw a celebrity’s face on the cover of whatever gizmo/gimmick you’re selling and sit back and wait.

Because of that we get the Susan Lucci Malibu Chair, the Kim Kardashian diet (I don’t even know what the real name of it is, I just see it plastered all over the place) and said celebrity instructor diet pills. It’s appalling.

To give you context, Brad Pitt walks up to you and says,” Hi there!” (flash big toothy grin). I’ve had surgery 5 or 6 times in my life and I’m pretty sure I can remove your gall bladder no problem. Just lie down on my magic pillow and when you wake up you’ll be good as new. Would you lie down on the table, with Brad Pitt holding a scalpel and happily let him cut you open? (If the answer is yes, you need to see a therapist …)

A good yoga instructor has hundreds of hours of certification training before they begin teaching. Someone like Rodney Yee or Baron Baptiste know how to guide people fluidly, even on a video, to keep them safe and ensure an effective workout.

Please ~ I beseech you ~ consider the source of your fitness information before you swallow it all, hook, line and sinker. The goal, should always be to make you a healthier, more fit person, not to give some network marketing dude the opportunity to buy another Armani suit.

Excerpt from Lisa Johnson Fitness