Who Am I?
Hi, my name is Adam Ingersoll, and I’m the founder and lead writer for the Max Health and Fitness blog. I embarked on my fitness and health journey as a teenager more than ten years ago. Like many, I first turned to Google and YouTube for fitness and nutritional advice (before the rise of social media influencers); however, finding credible information online was like researching for a medical journal. Who is credible? How do I know that this exercise is the “best”? Is there empirical evidence that backs the exercise, or is it personal preference? I, too, struggled and asked the same questions.
Approximately a year after starting my health and fitness journey, I took an evidence-based approach to my training. I started pouring over medical journals and studies from Eric Helms, Layne Norton, Brett Williams, and other fitness and nutrition journalists. I quickly realized that I developed a passion for evidence-based training, and it not only helped me with my journey but also helped me help others. Over the last several years, I have used the knowledge I have amassed over a decade to help others transform their lives and reach their health and fitness goals through personal training. After numerous suggestions from multiple clients, I finally decided to create the Max Health and Fitness blog. This blog will not only serve as a resource to my clients but also to the wider public for all things fitness and health.
My Fitness Journey
You may be wondering about the history behind my fitness journey. Like most teenagers, my journey started at home with push-ups, sit-ups, and doorframe pull-ups. My original goal was to lose unwanted fat that had made me subconscious for years. This regime helped me do that; however, I quickly learned that it was not enough for the goals I had set for myself. I had lost weight but wasn’t satisfied; I wanted to build muscle on top of my new physique. So, I started researching local gyms and signed up for my local LA Fitness in 2011. Little did I know that signing up for my first gym would be the start of a lifelong health and fitness journey that has significantly impacted my life. Walking into the gym for the first time after signing up, I distinctly remember how nervous and overwhelmed I was. Being a quiet and introverted person, I realized I was on my own and had no idea how to use most of the exercise equipment. I remember being too nervous to use a piece of equipment because I did not want to embarrass myself, so I would wait until someone used it to figure out how to use it. My other strategy involved googling “how to use” followed by the equipment’s name. Over time, I figured things out, and going to the gym was no longer stressful or overwhelming and became my place of solitude.
Based on that introductory paragraph, you might think my fitness journey has been in a straight line (or linear progress); however, we all know that nothing in life is that simple. As in life, my fitness journey has had its fair share of ups and downs, stemming from anything from injuries to inconsistencies. Fortunately, I have stayed the course and have developed a plethora of knowledge and insights that I intend to give back to the fitness community, hence the blog.
Why I Created Max Health and Fitness
I have taken my health and fitness journey seriously from the first day. It is not even a journey anymore; it is a part of my lifestyle, and I could never revert to an unhealthy lifestyle. Over the last couple of years, I began sharing my knowledge with others, trying to make a positive change in their lives. It started with being the go-to person in the gym to get workout tips, form critiques, and nutritional advice because I never wanted to become a full-fledged personal trainer. After numerous requests and suggestions, I began taking on clients, working one-on-one with them, and providing dedicated support. At first, it was strictly fitness-related, and I did not offer nutritional guidance, but I quickly began offering nutrition, diet plans, and life coaching as services. One pain point was that clients always asked me if I could email, text, or write down information we discussed during our sessions (outside of their workout and diet plans). This task started to take up a significant amount of my time as I searched for a better way to handle these requests. Then it hit me: a client mentioned that they fell in love with the process and wanted to absorb as much fitness and health information as possible but needed help determining what was credible and what wasn’t online. My client mentioned that I had a unique ability to meet a person where they are and articulate information in a way they could absorb. The client suggested I start a blog and begin posting my knowledge on the internet. So here we are; the goal for the Max Health and Fitness blog is to provide evidence-based health and fitness advice to not only my clients but the wider public and to impact more lives than I would be able to in person.
The Barriers to a Healthy Lifestyle
From the outside, looking in, the health and fitness industry can be extremely daunting. With the rise of social media, information is now at our fingertips, but how do we decipher the information? There’s so much conflicting information out there, so many self-proclaimed fitness and health gurus. What information is legitimate and evidence-based, and what is a fad or outright wrong? How do we determine if a source is legitimate? What’s even worse is that there are social media influencers out there claiming to be natural athletes (drug-free) but are clearly on performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). These “fake natural” influencers give the younger generation false expectations of what they think they can achieve as natural athletes.
Adding to the complexity is all the scientific jargon and terms you must learn to have a healthy lifestyle. What’s the difference between calories and protein, carbs, and fat? What’s the difference between saturated fat, transfats, monounsaturated fats, and polyunsaturated fats? What’s the difference between adduction and abduction? What the heck is a Bulgarian split squat? These are just a few questions that make the barrier to entry to a healthy lifestyle so high. Maybe that’s why one in three adults in the United States is overweight (30.7%), and more than two in five adults are obese (42.4%)¹.
What to Expect
The Max Health and Fitness blog will provide you with a plethora of information to kickstart your health and fitness journey. As our tagline suggests, your health and fitness journey starts here. We have separated the blog into five main categories:
Each category will have several subcategories to ensure that you can find the information you are looking for quickly and easily. What kind of posts can you expect? In the upcoming articles, you can expect to find hand-crafted, evidence-based workout routines that follow various training methodologies, ranked lists of the top supplements, exercises, apparel brands, and social media influencers. Our articles will dive deep into health and fitness supplements, allowing you to learn more about the supplement and provide you with the information to make educated purchases. We dedicated an entire section to nutrition, where you will find diet plans that fit every lifestyle, nutritional tips/tricks, and general health education on nutrition types. We hope that the Max Health and Fitness blog becomes your one-stop shop for all your health and fitness goals. As we mentioned earlier, your health and fitness journey starts here!
