Ben Carpenter has been an online presence, tirelessly curating and sharing fitness research, for over 15 years – something he’s done with remarkable authenticity.
“As someone who is horribly out of shape, thank you. I think even I can manage one minute to start with.”
Ben Carpenter posted a video several weeks ago that referenced how doing even one minute of exercise can be an appropriate place to start. Since seeing the above comment posted on that video, he couldn’t get it out of his head, and it sparked a movement worthy of highlighting here.
The story of this remarkable movement reveals four lessons of authenticity in creating community.
Authentic Fitness Advocate
Ben provides fitness advice and encouragement, but not with simple platitudes or whatever the current fitness trend is circulating through the internet – he thoroughly researches everything.
Whenever one of his followers comes across some crazy advice online like, “Fruit is killing you! You might as well eat a cookie instead,” they tag Ben.
Ben often then responds to the original post calling out the BS but doing so with citation after citation of what actual research shows. His channels are first and foremost educational.
He is also an advocate – for your fitness as much as your finances. He is merciless in calling out harmful nutrition and exercise advice pumped out by self-proclaimed fitness and health gurus whose aim is to profit off you.
He shares his authentic emotional reactions to these as well as his own struggles with the effects of chronic illness on his health.
Authentic Inclusivity Advocate
The only thing that riles Ben up more than someone reaching into your pocketbook with some baseless fitness product is body shaming.
He is perhaps most well-loved for how he advocates for inclusiveness, particularly in gym culture, for everyone to have a space – no matter their size or fitness level. Everyone should feel comfortable while working to improve their health.
Though the vast majority of his content is educational, he is now in the midst of sharing his journey about his own insecurities about his natural hair line and what he’s decided to do about it.
Authentic Mental Health Advocate
Ben shows what’s behind the curtain in fitness influencer culture, using his own professional photographed images alongside him in a natural stance. These demonstrate that a lot of the fitness influencer images you see online use angles and anabolic lighting in ways that are not representative of what someone looks like in person.
He speaks frequently of the damage to mental health that such images create, often sharing his own personal struggles with mental health as well.
He regularly highlights those who speak out about their own negative experiences feeling shamed for not meeting a certain standard, bringing attention to the mental health impact of unrealistic expectations – whether self-imposed or directed at us from others.
Again, while his content is educationally focused, he doesn’t shy away from addressing the mental health concerns associated with a subject when relevant.
Authentic Challenge Advocate
It’s because Ben is so well attuned to the struggles and prejudices in the fitness world, that when he proposes a 60-second challenge, the community he has created responds in remarkable ways.
For himself, he chose jumping rope – something he hasn’t done since he was five. He films himself awkwardly doing his first 60-second set to establish a baseline that whatever you choose, you’ll likely be shit at it at first.
Initially, I was expecting to see people stepping up to get better at planks, or lifts, or even joining Ben at jump roping. Even though I’ve followed his channels for years, I was surprised by the type of posts that flooded in from people joining the challenge.
- Working up to standing 60 seconds a day for someone with a chronic illness
- Getting back to moving post-cancer
- Focusing on starting the day with 60 seconds of affirmations to combat depression
These are people for whom doing something for 60-seconds is a significant struggle as well as something to improve over time.
It’s been touching and inspiring to watch people respond as the challenge brings together a surprising collective of people – not just those getting ready for swimsuit season, but those getting ready to summon enough energy to get out of bed today.
Ben has engendered a community who is comfortable vulnerably sharing their own challenge goals – goals they likely would never consider talking about in any other fitness space.
This community has evolved to be brave with one another because Ben has modeled lessons of authenticity by vulnerably sharing his own:
- Chronic illness struggles
- Insecurities about his body
- Mental health struggles
- Lack of graceful jump roping skills (well, at first)
The Authenticity Lesson
Ben has been sharing his fitness research online since 2009 – all without ever taking any advertisements or monetizing his channels. His community knows they can trust what he says because no motivation to please sponsors exists.
He has written a book on fat loss that compiles all of his advice on that topic for convenient consumption which he quietly makes the offer for purchase available on his posts.
The lesson of community and connection to learn from following Ben is that being authentic - about realistic fitness achievements, inclusiveness, and mental health – gathers
Authentic Husband
I would be remiss not to mention Ben’s most famous, and viral, post to-date – the one in which he reveals how he spent months secretly learning to say his wedding speech in Korean so his wife’s family could enjoy part of the celebration in their native language. You won’t be sorry you spent 9 minutes on the video The Secret I Kept From My Wife Until Our Wedding Day.
around you a community of fearless people who do remarkable things. When you bravely share yourself vulnerably and authentically, people respond with their own bravery.
Golden Connection Challenge:
What new skill can you commit 60 seconds a day to?
How can you use your personal challenge to connect with others by bringing them alongside you?