For those who aren’t familiar with it, the Dunning Kruger effect is a cognitive bias where people think they know more than they actually do, or believe they are capable of more than they actually are. That is, someone’s very little knowledge about something leads them to believe that they actually know a lot about that thing. And the other kicker is that, in most cases, the person doesn’t know that they don’t know. That is, the person is ignorant about their own ignorance.
As such, the self awareness required for someone to identify their faults, and set backs, is lacking at best. And we need to check ourselves, biases, privileges, in order to do better.
But when these biases are so ingrained and coupled with little capacity for self-awareness and reflection, self-growth becomes a challenge. Basically, how can we grow if we do not have the capacity to see what is holding us back? And how can we challenge those biases when we cannot and, in some cases, refuse to acknowledge them?
So how does this related to health, fitness, and exercise?
Cognitive Bias and Exercise
Put simply, a cognitive bias is a cognitive/behavioural trait, based on misinformation, that dictates our thinking and behaviour toward something. For example, a man could be raised to believe that women are more emotional than men, and that too much emotion is a bad thing. And in this case, that man’s interaction with women and/or anyone showing emotion will be poisoned by that false narrative.
Likewise, that man’s interaction with his own self and his own emotions will be poisoned. And so his relationship with women and emotions in general will suffer.
As such, cognitive bias is generally harmful because it stifles our ability to think critically. Likewise, it leads us to think in behave in ways that are harmful to us as well as others.
I have come across many instances of dealing with people’s cognitive biases when it comes to exercise. And it’s sometimes funny and sad to see the Dunning Kruger Effect radiate from a person when they are performing certain exercises. It really becomes a problem when the person is presented with evidence that challenges or disproves their cognitive bias, yet the person refuses to acknowledge it and change.
Typically it looks like this: a person is doing an exercise and clearly doesn’t know how to do it is approached by a qualified trainer. The trainer offers to help the person. The person refuses right away, because they’ve seen plenty of videos about it, and have watched so and so from Youtube/Instagram talk about how to do it right.
Or, 2 people at the gym talking about nutrition. One person tells the other “Plant based diet is best. Meat is terrible for your health, I watched a documentary on Netflix”.
I’ll explain two different cases where I’ve dealt with clients and witnessed Dunning Kruger in action.
Case Study #1
I remember one of my clients, let’s call him John. John is a typical middle aged-cisgender-white-type-A-personality-high-powered-lawyer, asking for help with weight loss. I try to never bring up the topic of weight loss with my clients anymore, unless they feel comfortable bringing it up first. He assured me that, due to health reasons and under the advice of his physician, he needed to lose weight. He shared that he was confident he could do it, since he’s done it many times before. And that was an immediate red flag for me.
Still, I agreed to help John, being knowledgeable and qualified enough in areas of nutrition and exercise, while respecting my scope of pratice. Yet after speaking further with him, I come to find out that his thoughts on the matter were very outdated.
“I’ve done it many times before” is the hallmark statement of the infamous yo-yo diet, whose mindset has been hijacked by diet-culture. It is based on unrealistic and rigid rules, severe calorie restriction, and too much exercise, and little to no consistency. Though I tried to explain the newest evidence and research on why that doesn’t work, John wouldn’t budge.
He was convinced that because it worked in the past, it will work in the present and in the future. Never mind that he was now older, less active, had different body composition (lean mass/fat mass ratio), it worked before so it will work now. Forget that he now has different life stressors, less sleep, more work, it worked before so it will work now.
Regardless that I was the professional, with the experience, education, certification, resources, connections to other professionals etc. John was convinced that he knew better.
Case Study #2
This is another case with a middle aged-white-cisgender-type-A-man…except he was in finance instead of law. It’s usually always men. This guy was very interested in exercise, but wanted nothing to do with being instructed or coached. He basically just wanted me to watch him workout and entertain his conversations that ranged from sports to politics.
I enjoy conversing about sports and politics as much as the next person. But not at the expense of my profession. That is, if you’re paying for my services, coaching, teaching, instructing about health/fitness/exercise, then that is the focus of our session.
Tom, as I will call him, believed that I just had to tell him what we were working on and he would just do the exercises himself. “Today we’re gonna work on upper body Tom”. And before I can say anything else Tom would jump in “Alright, let’s do some shoulder raises, and I feel like benching today.”
Now, again, if that’s what you like to do, more power to you. But if you come to me with specific expectations about progress and accomplishment, then you have to put your trust in my expertise. That wasn’t the case with Tom. Many times he wanted to lift weights that were way too heavy for him. Or perform exercises that were not safe considering his personal mechanics (range of motion, range of contractile ability, control etc.). And if I try to correct or instruct? “I know what I’m doing. I used to workout all the time in university”.
Tom believed that he didn’t need instructions or coaching because he used to work out. Because he had done deadlifts and squats before, then there was nothing further he needed to learn about form, technique, personal body mechanics etc. And no matter how I tried to explain it, he believed he didn’t need to understand, load, periodization, proper programming etc. why? because he used to workout in the past…
Tying It All Together
Some movements and exercises require practice in order to develop body awareness and motor-competency. Though it’s possible to develop them through trial and error, it’s not the most efficient way. Everybody can use a little coaching every now and then.
Sadly, mainstream health and fitness has convinced people that they can just get all the info they need on the internet. But there is a difference between having the knowledge to do something and having the skill to do it.
I can understand everything about the biomechanics of exercise, movement, and strength. I can study the moment arms, different angles, different muscle and their functions. But I wouldn’t be setting myself up for success if I don’t practice those movements and exercises properly
So I hire a professional to help me lear about how to progress and develop exercise and movement skills. However, the case isn’t so with many people. The two examples I gave above are meant to highlight the typical mindset of most people who go to the gym. They think they know what they’re doing, and they think they know best.
Their knowledge is usually based on things they’ve watched on Youtube and Instagram. Or maybe on having a friend, with no formal training in health and fitness, tell them what they should do and how they should do it.
This, to me, is what Dunning Kruger looks like in health and fitness. There is so much more to health and fitness than what you see people doing or showing you online, or in person! This idea that you can always just show up to the gym with a friend and do chest day! or Back day! or Leg day! without having much of an understand of how to structure a program, or perform exercises according to your personal abilities, can cause more harm than good.
Final Thoughts
Now, some may say “But Ali, don’t YOU put instructional videos for exercises on social media?!?!?”. Yes, 100% I do! I’m also a qualified professional. I also constantly talk about the importance of having a coach. I also try and remind people that my content is scratching the surface. I also tell people to reach out to me and ask for help or if they have questions about a certain exercise that I post. And I really try to emphasize the importance of structure, and consistency, and routine.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s well and good to have some fun and go off the books every now and then. Sometimes you need to show up with no plan and just do whatever. Great! At the same time, understanding should not be neglected. Understand how your body moves. Understand your own limits. Understand how to get the most out of health and fitness. Understand how to to make it both fun and effective.
In my experience, those that never received formal coaching or training are more likely to injure themselves than those who have. My coworkers can also attest to this! People who develop movement and motor-competency tend to do better and enjoy exercise more than those who don’t. They are also more likely to stick with it long term.
And I will go on record to say that anyone who tells you that you never need to worry about planning or structure, is full of crap. And if a trainer tells you this then they are a bad trainer, and do a huge disservice to the profession, and should be avoided.
So stay humble, ask for help, and keep practicing.