Edited by Taylor Stolfi
There are quite a few toxic fitness influencers currently on social media, but Krissy Cela isn’t one of them. Cela started her Youtube career in 2015, uploaded her first video in 2017, and consistently posted vlogs, workout videos, Q&As, and more since then. Through her Youtube platform, she shows her journey with resistance training and encourages women to focus on becoming stronger and lift heavier through progressive overload, rather than focusing on their weight. In 2019, she launched her app, now known as EvolveYou, which connects women all over the world and offering workout plans, access to a dietitian, and more.
With the overflow of fitness content on social media these days, it can be difficult to find someone in the fitness industry who is actually doing it right. Often the idea we have of a fitness influencer can come from distortions of the truth; some post photos taken on the same day as if months apart, some photoshop, some pose differently, and some promote an unhealthy relationship with food. Perhaps one of the worst kinds of influencers and maybe the most difficult to detect are those who pose as experts in their field while spreading misinformation about health and fitness. Compared to many of these other fitness influencers, Cela’s approach stands out.
The conversation around fitness has shifted a lot in recent years. With the move away from aesthetics being the sole motivation of fitness and the current trend toward health and wellness as a primary goal, influencers like Cela have adapted and modified their brand. For example, Cela changing the name of her fitness app from “Tone and Sculpt” to “Evolve You,” to shift the focus of fitness away from aesthetics and towards health and empowerment. In a recent video, she discusses the importance of this shift in relation to her latest collection of activewear, Timeless.
Cela explains that timelessness should be the central focus of fitness. She describes her overall fitness approach on her website as an “empowering, no-nonsense approach to leading an active, healthy and happy lifestyle.”
Sustainability is one of the most important elements of fitness. Unfortunately, in our social-media-dominated world that is fast-paced and result-driven, choosing to focus on slow, maintainable change and living a well-balanced and maintainable lifestyle is a choice that goes against what social media and its many consumers tends to value. Cela is an example of someone who isn’t afraid to do that, which is what really makes her brand timeless.