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Daniel Bogle

Professor Gardiakos

ENC 1102

18 November 2022

Discrepancies between the terminology in research and YouTube videos found in the resistance

training community

Introduction

The introduction of the internet has completely changed the landscape of the world,

especially in terms of education. It has led to platforms, like YouTube, where people can share

videos which can be meant for entertainment, education, or other things. The educational videos

on YouTube have resulted in a large amount of people turning to YouTube to find out

information instead of research studies. This is true as well for the fitness community and the

sub-community of resistance training which is an incredibly diverse community. Similar to how

Dr. Stone et al. in their article “Weightlifting: A Brief Overview”, resistance training will be the

term used to refer to exercises performed with free weights and machines, because weightlifting

is a competition in the Olympics where people perform two exercises that implement resistance

training (Stone, et al.). Resistance training is a heavily researched topic, but the majority of the

research implements medical terminology because fitness is heavily linked with medical terms.

Medical terminology in the past has been difficult for many of those without the proper

education to understand because of how complex and intricate it is; however, studies such as

those done by Fage Butler and Jensen have showed that there has been an increase in medical

literacy in e-patients which the authors believe has started because of the internet and people’s

interest in their personal health. This has led to more YouTubers in the fitness industry willing to
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implement medical terminology into their videos because they are teaching their viewers how to

properly exercise, while teaching them medical terms or how to understand medical terms.

Which is why, the purpose of this research paper is to find out the extent of discrepancies

between the language used in research communities and three YouTube channels all of which are

situated in the resistance training community.

Background

This researcher became interested in the topic because he enjoys resistance training and

he has family that has taught him some medical terms, which meant he understood some of the

research language. However, not everyone has that background with medical terms which led to

the question of how people in the discourse community speak versus how researchers speak. The

resistance training community contains multiple communities and ideas which contradict each

other, with some people relying on research to build muscle and strength while others say

research is a hindrance to a person’s ability to grow in strength and muscle. The research is

typically split into two goals bodybuilding and powerlifting. “Bodybuilding” is when someone is

trying to maximize their muscle size to look a certain way, which typically is associated with

having a lower bodyfat percentage while maintaining a lot of muscle mass. In an article written

by Suffolk, a researcher from North Dakota State University who was pursuing his PhD before

his untimely death, competitive bodybuilding was described as “an aesthetic pursuit that relies on

somatic form as opposed to any apparent display of functional ability” (Suffolk). The article is

saying that competitive bodybuilding is based entirely on somatic aspects, or how a body looks.

On the other hand, lifting weights to get stronger, or “powerlifting”, is when someone lifts

weights to be able to lift even heavier weights; this style of training does not focus on having a

lower bodyfat or looking a certain way typically. This description of powerlifting works well
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with a study written by Dr. Farland and Dr. Comtois, where competitive powerlifting was

described as “a sport of relative and absolute maximal strength that includes 3 events: the squat,

the bench press, and the deadlift. Participants have 3 attempts in each event to lift a maximal

load in a single repetition while respecting judging criteria” (Farland, Comtois). The differences

between the goals does not mean that bodybuilders are not strong or that powerlifters do not have

muscles it is simply a difference in their goals. This study will focus on three different YouTube

channels that each explain resistance training from a bodybuilding and powerlifting perspectives.

Youtube Channels

The first channel which will be analyzed is the Jeff Nippard channel which is run by Jeff

Nippard. He has 3.38 million subscribers, and his most popular video has 11 million views. In

his own words he is “a Canadian [,] natural [,] pro bodybuilder and internationally-qualified

powerlifter with a BSc in biochemistry/chemistry and [has] a passion for science.” (Nippard).

His channel in his description is “dedicated to providing science-based training and nutrition

information and journaling my own fitness journey” (Nippard). In the resistance training

community on Youtube, Nippard is known for breaking down research done in the resistance

training community in terms that are easier to understand. He was chosen because of his

connection between the discourse and research sides of the resistance training community and

his expertise.

The second channel is Greg Doucette which is run by Greg Doucette. On his channel,

Greg Doucette described himself as “a Canadian IFBB Pro bodybuilder, published author,

influencer, and Guinness World Record holding powerlifter with a [b]achelor’s and [m]aster’s

[d]egree in Kinesiology” (Doucette). He has 1.61 million subscribers, and his most watched

video has 3.1 million views, but his most watched YouTube short has 7.2 million views. He is
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known for his resistance training advice, nutrition advice, and reaction videos. His reaction

videos are critiques of the advice or content in the other video, or it is him supporting the content

of the video.

The third channel is ATHLEAN-X™ which is run by Jeff Cavaliere. He has 13 million

subscribers, and his most viewed video has 34 million views. Cavaliere is a physical therapist

and strength coach who has coached “professional athlete[s] and celebrity clients” (Cavaliere),

according to his “about” section on his YouTube channel. He says that his channel is about

putting “the science back in strength to build muscle” and it is meant to teach people how to

“keep your muscles and joints healthy and improve your overall athleticism” (Cavaliere).

Cavaliere is known for his weekly new workout plan videos, workout advice, and stretching

advice.

Research Analysis

All three channels are run by experienced lifters in their own ways, but they occasionally

contradict each other and agree with each other. Sometimes some of them use medical and

research terms but sometimes they use generic gym slang which showcases the variety and

diversity of resistance training vocabulary and the YouTube channels that cover the community.

This concept of learning through videos and watching others do actions is not unique to the

fitness industry. In a study done by Dr. Hahn, the department chair of psychology at Furman

University, and Dr. Gershkoff, a director of the Baby Language Laboratory at Indiana University

Bloomington, it was found that both children and adults learn better through actions rather than

labels (Hahn, Gershkoff). That study may be the reasoning behind the results in a different study

by Jerrentrup, et al.. The study found that medical dramas such as House M.D. can help medical

students learn about rare diseases. The study done by Hahn and Gershkoff provides a reason as
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to why a show meant for entertainment can help medical students learn. This could possibly be

the reasoning behind why people choose to learn how to perform exercises properly through

YouTube. Three of the most common exercises are bench press, squat, and deadlift. The bench

press, squat, and deadlift are exercises that have been thoroughly researched and described in

research because of their designation as compound movements. In a study done by Bartsch, et al.

it was found that a bench press mainly works the chest, shoulders, triceps, and elbow flexors

(Bartsch), which makes sense when it is taken account with how Kompf and Arandjelovic

describe in their study how to properly do a bench press. A non-medical terminology version of

their research explains that a bench press is performed by a person that lays down on a bench

with their legs spread for stability as they bring a bar with weights down to their chest and then

push it up and away from their body (Kompf and Arandjelovic). The pushing motion requires the

chest to push the arms forward while the triceps work to extend and push the bar up and the

shoulders work to stabilize the bar. Multiple variations of the squat exist three of which are

talked about in a study done by Swinton, et al., in it they talk about how the variations can cause

different parts of the body to be affected more than other but overall, most of the lower body

muscles are affected by any type of squat. The deadlift is the most involved of the three exercises

because of the risk and the muscles involved. A study done by Peter Ronai, a clinical professor

in Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences and the associate editor of the American

College of Sports Medicine’s Health and Fitness Journal, explained that the deadlift works the

back muscles, leg muscles, and arm muscles mainly (Ronai). The study also split the exercise

into three phases; the starting position where an athlete will walk up to a barbell on the floor,

place their feet under the bar, use their legs to get lower, grab the bar, and get ready for the next

phase; the upward phase is where the athlete uses their legs mainly and their back to support and
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help move the bar up while keeping their arms straight and keeping the bar close to their shins

(Ronai). Ronai’s research is backed up by the study done by Kompf and Arandjelovic which

explains how to perform the exercise in more medical terms. Most of the studies presented have

medical terms to describe how to perform the main exercises which can make it difficult for

someone without the prior experience with medical terminology to understand, but the article

with the most medical terms in the explanations of the exercises is the study done by Kompf and

Arandjelovic. For this reason, Kompf and Arandjelovic’s research will be the one compared

against the YouTube channels.

Methods

The study compared the language used in weightlifting videos on the platform of

YouTube versus the language used in weightlifting research communities. The way the

comparison was done is by examining the language used in the YouTube videos and seeing if

they are the same medical and scientific terms used in the Kompf and Arandjelovic’s paper. For

the purposes of this study, a phrase or set of words that describe one thing or action will be

referred to as a term. The research paper provided a database of scientific words that can be

referred to when watching the videos; the videos were chosen according to the similarity in topic

to the research paper. This is why the topics chosen were the three most common exercises, the

bench press, the deadlift, and the squat. The only channel without videos dedicated to explaining

how to properly perform exercises was the Greg Doucette channel, however there were videos

where he explained the steps in a video that involved the exercises. In total there were nine

videos and three channels that were watched and reviewed. The way the language in each

channel was coded was through a spreadsheet with the scientific terms used in the research paper

was created, and each one each term was given a row. As the study went along it became
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increasingly difficult to decide what was a medical term and what was a discourse term. This led

to three different columns being created, one titled “Research”, one titled “In-Between”, and one

titled “Discourse”, and each video was given their own spreadsheet with these labels. The

“Research” column was used if a medical term was used; the “In-Between” column was used if

the scientific term was used but defined, if a medical term for the group of muscles was used, or

if a medical term was used in conjunction with a discourse term (e.g. instead of saying “humeral

adduction in the transverse plane”, “horizontal shoulder adduction” was used) ; and if the

scientific term was not used but instead a form of slang or simple term for the same term was,

then it was placed under the “Discourse” column. Each instance that a scientific term was, or

could have been used, was logged and whichever column had the most instances logged would

then be used as a label for the video. Each channel was tested against the three labels and

whichever label showed up the most for the channel was used to label the channel.

Results

The first channel analyzed was the Jeff Nippard channel. He had 3 separate videos

dedicated to explaining how to perform each one of the big three exercises. The bench press

video, titled “How to get a huge bench press with perfect technique” had a healthy mixture of

each label. In the spreadsheet the way to signify that the medical term was used or if it was “in-

between” or a “discourse” term was with a black or blue box (simply used to make box

separation more apparent), and sometimes there would be white text to signify how the term was

replaced if it was below five words. If a research term was not used or had no suitable

replacement in the video, then the section changed to a white box. If there were extra terms used

in the video that could be considered medical terms, then they were placed in the “Extras”

section. The words seen in the “Research Terms” section to the left of every Figure are only the
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words seen in the research paper’s section for that specific exercise, if there are words in the

video seen in the other exercises’ sections then they are placed in the “Extras” section as well.

The bench press video for Jeff Nippard can be seen in Figure 1.

(Figure 1)

Figure 1 showcases that Nippard’s bench press video was an equal mix of “Research” and “In-

Between” with both columns receiving 7 instances. Nippard’s video on the squat, “How to get a

huge squat with perfect technique (fix mistakes)”, can be seen in Figure 2.

(Figure 2)

In Figure 2, it can be seen that the “Research” section is the top section, with 7 instances. The

“Discourse” section is at 3 instances and the “In-between" section is at 3 instances as well, which

places the “Research” section far ahead of the other two. The final video from Nippard in this

study was, “Build a bigger deadlift with perfect technique (conventional form)”, which is

analyzed in Figure 3.
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(Figure 3)

As can be seen in Figure 3, Nippard referred to many of the smaller muscles found in the

research as the name of their combination (e.g. quadriceps refers to the vastus medialis, vastus

lateralis, vastus intermedius, and rectus femoris). The deadlift video was considered an “In-

between” video by 1 instance. At the end of the research, it was found that Jeff Nippard had two

videos classified as “Research” and two videos placed at “In-between”. Table 1 gives an

overview of the important information about the videos.

Jeff Nippard Videos

Bench Press Squat Deadlift

Views 2.6 Million 4 Million 2.2 Million

Category Research, In-between Research In-between

Likes 75K 104K 60K

Years ago 3 Years ago 3 Years ago 3 Years Ago

(Table 1)

All of the information in Table 1 is taken at the time of the study. For the sake of simplicity of
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this study, Jeff Nippard’s channel will be categorized as a “Research” channel because the squat

video received more views and likes than the deadlift video.

The next channel that was analyzed was the ATHLEAN-X™ channel run by Jeff

Cavaliere. The first video analyzed was the bench press video, “The official bench press check

list (avoid mistakes)”, and it is in Figure 4.

(Figure 4)

Figure 4 shows that the bench press video lands squarely in the “Discourse” section with 4

instances and no instances in the other sections. The next video is the squat video which was

titled "How to squat properly (major form fix)” and it can be seen in Figure 5.

(Figure 5)

Similar to Figure 4, Figure 5 shows that the squat video is also entirely just a “Discourse” video

with no other instances in the other sections. The third video, the deadlift video, titled “The

official deadlift checklist (avoid mistakes), is found in Figure 6.

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(Figure 6)

FINISH Add Works cited