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Since its launch in 2010, Pinterest has been experiencing a pretty meteoric ride to the top. Now, the digital pinboard is everywhere, and everyone seems to be on it–even us. But the photo-centric site (and conversation surrounding it) remains mostly dominated by a handful specific themes, like wedding planning and cute food, with relatively little health or fitness content. Fitness expert and Pilates trainer Lisa Johnson, however, is using it for healthy living–and you can, too.
In a recent (and awesome) blog post, Johnson described how she’s using Pinterest for everything from nutritious recipes to new workouts. It’s easier than bookmarking good resources, she says, and offers illustrated information for Pilates moves and stretches. I was intrigued by the possibility, mostly because I’d initially shrugged the site off as a place for cupcake ogling and Apartment Therapy-esque images of drapes and baskets of stuff. So I asked Johnson a few questions about how a person might go about using Pinterest the same way she does. Here’s what she had to say.
Pinterest is really picking up steam, but it seems to be mostly used for food and weddings. What made you decide to use it for fitness?
I’m a fitness blogger and I’ve been in the fitness industry since 1998 as a personal trainer and Pilates studio owner, so it was just natural for me. I first noticed a lot of great inspirational sayings being pinned, which I thought was great and then realized “Hey, I can do healthy recipes, too, and if people find my boards maybe I can be a good resource.” Then it just naturally branched out into separate boards for healthy living books I like, fitness, and Pilates.
It seems to be doing something that a lot of personal trainers recommend–putting inspirational images front-and-center. How do you use it to inspire you? How can other users?
I love my Pilates board–so inspiring for me. I pin pictures of moves that I love or exercises I aspire to do someday…some of them are really hard! I think people can use it in their own way. If it resonates with you pin it and you can go back to it when you need a little inspiration. It works great.
Is there a lot of interest in health, fitness, and wellness? Is it easy to find?
A Pinterest search does show a pretty wide array of fitness oriented pins now. I’d start there and then look for people with multiple fitness oriented posts on their boards and then follow them. I’m also noticing people who follow me on twitter or friend me on Facebook find me pretty easily on Pinterest too.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Don’t worry too much about what other people are doing with fitness. You’ll want to organize your boards your way and put the content that resonates with you up. If you love quotes have a board for that, if that’s not your thing, don’t worry about it. Pinterest is for you, use it however you’d like.
Want to get started with Pinterest? Be sure to follow Lisa and Blisstree to help you get going.
Images: Pinterest and Lisa Johnson Fitness
This is a good common sense Blog. Very helpful to one who is just finding the resources about this part. It will certainly help educate me.
Marisa Miller workout
I like the Pinterest fitness boards – I’ve gotten some exercise ideas from them and was finally inspired to start doing Bodyrock, which has been great for me.
However, what bothers me about so many boards are the thinspiration photos. I understand that for some people, a photo can be a healthy inspiration to lose weight. However, i see some of the comments & notes next to pictures of rail-thin – not fit & strong – models and just think, “oh, honey.”
It is personal for everyone what is healthy and what isn’t and I don’t want to judge anyone or make a big deal out of something that is not a big deal, but Pinterest is so popular & mainstream that I was kind of surprised to see so much seemingly pro-ana stuff on there.
I say this as a recovered bulimic who has fallen down the rabbit hole of looking at skinny models on pinterest and then looking at my own thighs with disgust. Again, I’m not judging anyone for putting up pictures that inspire them. Rather, I just feel empathy for some of the pinners that probably are flirting with disordered eating or exerice. And I think that in talking about fitness & pinterest, some people have to be reminded to tread carefully if they are triggered by fitness & exercise photos.