Originally published on influencerdaily.com.

Social media influencers can significantly impact how millions of people worldwide live. According to fitness expert Eugene Pallisco, this can be seen in a number of different aspects of life, with one of the most prominent being fitness and health.

These influencers can help people reshape their thinking about fitness, body image, and health in general. This can positively impact people’s well-being and approach to fitness in many ways.

Of course, there are some potential downsides to social media influencers and how the information they present on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube is perceived by those consuming it.

Here are some positive and negative ways social media fitness influencers impact fitness trends.

Positive: Making Fitness Accessible

Social media has connected people in ways that nothing before has. People from all over the world can connect with each other and feel as though they’re part of a community of like-minded individuals.

Influencers have harnessed this power to make fitness accessible to a vast audience. Many show just how easy it is to exercise at home, for instance, breaking down some mental barriers that exist around needing to go to a gym to exercise.

In this way, influencers can substantially impact exercise trends by just getting more people to exercise. A study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that influencers “positively affect people’s exercise intentions or behaviors.”

Positive: Providing Support and Motivation

Social media influencers can also play a significant role in motivating people to start an exercise routine and then provide support through different communities and channels.

One of the most significant barriers people say they face with exercise is getting the motivation to do something. Social media can provide this motivation in an amazing way.

Not only can people who follow these influencers get motivation and support from the influencers themselves, but they can also get the same from the large following they have built.

It’s a powerful, interconnected community that motivates people to exercise and make healthy decisions while supporting those facing challenges.

Negative: Not Giving Sound Advice

Not every aspect of what “fitfluencers,” as they’re known, can be considered positive. In fact, another study published in early 2023 in BMC Public Health found that two-thirds of the 100 most popular fitness influencers either posted messages that might negatively affect someone or that weren’t good advice.

For instance, some of the information these influencers posted essentially promoted exercise only as a tool for people to get skinnier.

In addition, these fitfluencers could cause their followers to have a negative body image. The way that many of these influencers look can cause people to not feel good about themselves since it might come across that their “look” simply isn’t attainable.

In other words, while much of what fitfluencers do can be seen as positive in relation to exercise trends, there are words of caution about what they look like and the messages they convey.

About Eugene Pallisco

Fitness expert and licensed trainer Eugene Pallisco works in Dallas, Texas. Since he began working with motivational fitness mentors in high school, Eugene has devoted a significant amount of time to shaping his training philosophy, which is centered on improving others. Before starting his private training firm in the fitness industry, he gained more expertise by working one-on-one with gym patrons after beginning as a group fitness teacher.