Posted on 02/12/2021
3 min read
Faced with the closure of gyms, many of you are turning to social networks to find advice and videos for your home fitness sessions. Really good idea? Not so sure, according to a new study, which reveals that more than a quarter of workouts on TikTok feature influencers adopting bad postures.
The curfew and the closure of sports venues and facilities have not put a stop to your good resolutions at the start of the year. Instead of moping on your couch, you’ve chosen to turn to the many videos posted on social media, including TikTok, to help you with your daily chores. Videos containing the hashtag “workout” have generated no less than 27.6 billion views in the past year, reveals a study conducted by the site Money.co.uk.
Reinforced concrete abs
And when it comes to redesigning your figure, or maintaining it, it is on the abs that your attention is first. The report reveals in any case a certain craze for training videos concerning this part of the body on TikTok, with no less than 1.5 billion views cumulatively for the hashtags “abworkout” and “absworkout”. Next come the gluteal muscles with over 680 million views for the hashtag “glutesworkout”, and the legs with nearly 350 million views for “legworkout”.
It seems like you are looking for super effective workouts first and foremost – understand that get the most body parts working in the blink of an eye. It is therefore not surprising to learn that the plank, a plankworkout, is at the top of the most popular movements on TikTok with no less than 10 million views for videos featuring it (“plankworkout”) . Next are squats, which sculpt the buttocks and legs, with more than 6 million views combined for the hashtags “squatworkout” and “squatsworkout”.
Another finding directly linked to the global pandemic, these training sessions are done primarily at home. Videos tagged with the hashtag “homeworkout” have generated over 6.6 billion views in the past year. Note that the beach also has many followers (32 million views on TikTok), while the bedroom appears to be the best place to do sports at home (6.5 million views for videos tagged “bedroomworkout” ).
Wrong advice and bad postures
The site Money.co.uk teamed up with sports coach Maiken Brustad to determine if these videos posted on TikTok, often submitted by influencers, were effective for optimal training. To do this, she analyzed hours of content on the application, and classified them according to the techniques and postures taught. The result seems clear, as more than a quarter of the videos (27%) contained incorrect advice and poor posture.
The report states that the kettlebell swing is the worst exercise presented with 80% incorrect advice and postures. An observation that is not trivial since this movement is supposed to work several parts of the body, including the shoulders, trunk, quads, hamstrings, glutes, and back. The deadlift is not to be outdone with 57% of errors noted, just like the horizontal pull with 42% of errors.
“It’s great that people can use apps like Tiktok to motivate themselves to get in shape, but not using the right methods can slow your progress or even cause injury. I would recommend starting slowly with the new exercises and if you are using weights go gradually with light loads.“, advises Maiken Brustad. The coach specifies that it is not a question of discouraging those and those who use these videos to play sports, but to realize that these tips and advice are not necessarily delivered by professionals qualified.
The lists of the best workouts were compiled by looking at the related hashtags on TikTok and the number of views. All data is from January 2021.
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To view the full report: Money.co.uk/mobiles/fittok-report.
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