Have you experienced reading an update from a friend on his Facebook or Twitter account, telling the whole world about his weight struggles? This has become more and more common, thanks to the advent of social media.

In the past, losing weight was largely a private matter. Sure, you could tell your friends about it, but the people who would know about your journey would still be limited to a small number.

In this day and age, if you want everyone to know about your workout regimen, it is as easy as typing in a string of words in your computer or phone and clicking send. In less than a minute you can broadcast to the whole world about what your journey to better health.

For instance, Facebook has made it really easy to give an update to your friends about your weight issues. The same is true for Twitter, where you can tell your followers what you are up to in 140 characters or less. There is even a wifi-enabled weighing scale that automatically tweets your weight every time you step on it.

Moreover, you can discuss more extensively your fitness regimen through blogs. For instance, Hollywood WOD regularly informs his readers of his fitness regimen (he uses FitDeck, by the way). With blogs, you can also pour your heart out about your health concerns in detail, and your readers can share their insights as well.

The question is: does sharing your exercise regimen or health issues actually do some good?

There is no simple answer to this. But I will have to say that it has some benefits, especially for the one sharing.

The path to achieving your fitness goals can be a lonely road. Telling anyone of your exercise habits can be a driving force for you to move forward. The reason behind it is that you are more likely to go on if someone knows about your journey. In this way, sharing your workouts online can motivate you to continue.

This is even truer for someone who is struggling with his workouts. Simple words of encouragement by readers can go a long way for someone who is frustrated with the way his workout is going. It becomes a support group of sorts.

It can be also be helpful to the person reading. Knowing that someone out there is experiencing what the reader is also going through can encourage the him to start or continue his own path to fitness. The reader can also get some tips that can help him along the way. Thus, the benefits go both ways.

Sharing fitness regimen or your health concerns online may not be for everybody. But if it can help you, do it by all means.