A CRITICAL LOOK AT THE FITNESS BOOM:
“FIT FOR WHAT???”
(Editor’s Note: Robert E. Duvall MMSc, RPT, a registered physical therapist with a master of medical science degree from Emory University School of Medicine, is the president of Medical & Sports Rehabilitation Associates, Inc. and Medical Wellness Associates, Inc., with offices in Snellville and Stone Mountain, Georgia. This Column is written as a community educational service).
While the present fitness boom has successfully increased American involvement into exercise and diet (an estimated seventy-five million people), there has been little understanding of important medical aspects related to fitness. Consumers have failed to obtain necessary fitness information and the medical community has failed to supply such information. Unfortunately the fitness consumer most frequently is blind to his or her ignorance.
It has been reported that as few as one-third of America’s seventy-five million fitness consumers are receiving any benefit for their fitness efforts and dollars. That is, approximately twenty-five million fitness consumers are not obtaining fitness, and may not even know that they most likely are doing more harm than good for themselves! Are you one of the ignorant and abused consumers? Thirty-three percent chance you are or yet; a greater chance that you are not even one of the seventy-five million fitness consumers. Of the twenty-six billion dollars currently being spent on fitness, experts reveal a large percentage of the money is wasted on fads, gimmicks, abandoned equipment and unused health-club memberships where the “dropout, not-participating” rate is estimated to be 90 percent. With these facts in mind, it is time we take a critical look at the fitness movement and determine a means to assure greater fitness effectiveness to consumers.
The fitness movement has failed at numerous places. First and foremost, the medical and physical education communities have failed to formally organize themselves and establish regulations and guidelines for directing and educating consumers. Presently, conventional Western-medicine has been conditioned to acknowledge “ex-post facto” pathological conditions and to respond with only pathological conditions and to respond with only pharmaceutical or surgical measures. Furthermore, the medical community has benefited financially from those making no attempt to improve their fitness and from fitness victims who have injured themselves while ineffectively trying to improve their fitness. Insurance and governmental agencies have remained antiquated by financially rewarding medical practitioners for remaining in said model. Physical education experts have failed to educate medical experts on the development of comprehensive and objective fitness evaluations. How many times have you read “see a physician before starting any fitness program.” An equal number of times you have probably paid an exorbitant fee and been let down to only have had your heart and lungs subjectively examined and told you’re okay to start a fitness program. There has got to be more to fitness than heart and lungs. The medical community has got to offer the consumer more than a subjective assessment of your heart and lungs.
Sharing the responsibility of where the fitness boom has gone awry has got to be the consumer. While setting unrealistic goals and being gullible to misleading advertisement ploys such as “sex-selling” manipulation ads, and celebrity gimmick endorsements, and corporate hospital systems offering “DOCS IN A BOX” to do incomplete and subjective fitness assessments at “fifty” percent off, the consumer has failed to critically study the market and make wise decisions. The fitness boom has occurred so suddenly that fraudulent practices and gimmicks become commonplace quicker than effective programs or professional organizations have been able to educate to public and formally regular the market.
The need for educated and professional intervention into the fitness boom has been established. Just as the Food and Drug Administration has regulated pharmaceutical products to protect the consumer, so should fitness products be regulated. Properly and expertly executed, fitness programs have proven to be beneficial in the prevention of heart disease, the reduction of high blood pressure, decreasing the incidence of stress related illnesses, the changing of blood chemistry and many other positive anatomical physiological and psychological effects. So for now, how can the consumer protect himself and become assured of receiving all of the positive benefits that fitness can provide.
A medical-fitness evaluation and concurrent fitness education is the most direct route to objectively discovering your personal level of fitness and how to take the safe steps necessary to efficiently improve this level. A properly designed fitness program that assesses your physical nutritional and mental fitness needs will enable you to respond to sudden physical and emotional demands with physiological and mental efficiency.
However, before embarking into the world of fitness there are some important steps you should take, particularly if you’ve been sedentary for several months. Most importantly, you should undergo a battery of medical-fitness testings. Ideal medical-fitness testing should be comprehensive to assure that one area of fitness is not evaluated and treated at the expense of a neglected area of fitness. Proper medical-fitness assessments analyze the entire body’s fitness needs, which include physical, nutritional and mental fitness. Having your family physician examine only your heart and lungs fails to assess other important fitness factors including muscular fitness. Flexibility fitness, joint integrity, postural fitness, body composition, nutritional fitness and mental fitness. Without objective assessment of all fitness factors, your prescribed fitness program is less than ideal and you are probably training one system at the costly and insidious expense of another body system.
Through comprehensive and objective modern testing techniques one’s personal level of fitness is determined. Then based upon your individual anatomical, physiological, nutritional and mental weaknesses, a personal physical fitness program is designed to improve your level of fitness.
The most important consideration in obtaining optimal health is that the fitness program is based upon your personal individual needs that are unique to yourself. In addition, careful attention should be made to treat the entire body and not to train one system or fitness area at the expense of another. This important judgment can only be performed by a medical fitness expert.
Compliance is also a major thrust. The use of constructive positive feedback, frequent fitness reassessments and programs that take into account your personal likes and dislikes increase the chances of incorporating fitness practices into your daily routine.
The education you receive as to the why and how to exercise and improve fitness levels make certain compliance will become habitual through an educated understanding to physical fitness. Frequent fitness-reassessments also motivate compliance as well as assure effectiveness.
In addition, careful attention is made to professionally assess your total fitness needs: The physical fitness consultation is performed by a registered physical therapist or exercise physiologist. The nutritional consultation is performed by a nutritionist. The psychological consultation is performed by a psychologist. The collective efforts of this highly qualified and credentialed medical-fitness team assure you a competent and complete fitness program.
The total philosophy of expert medical-fitness professionals revolves around helping people discover their individualized level of health and to provide specific steps to efficiently improve this level. Through comprehensive and objective fitness assessments an efficient personal fitness program is tailored to safely improve your total health. And because good health begins with the desire of an individual to have it, medical-fitness experts are committed to educating and then supporting both those who have and those who are looking forward to obtaining their optimal level of the most valuable asset a person can have – good health.
The medical and fitness experts of Medical & Sports Rehabilitation Associates urge you to participate in the following programs:
Physical Fitness Consultation
Individualized evaluation of your personal and surgical medical history is performed. This includes a cardiac risk profile and examination of your lifestyle (e.g., cigarette smoking, diet, alcohol intake, habitual physical activity, working environment, stresses). You are asked questions such as: What medication do you presently take? Do any of your blood relatives have a history of heart disease, vascular disease or lung disease? Do you have diabetes or have you been checked for diabetes? Have you ever had high blood pressure?
Following the initial history taking, a battery of physical examinations is performed to determine your anatomical and physiological fitness. This battery of six reliable and objective tests includes: a) Submaximal cardiovascular stress testing to determine the maximal amount of oxygen your body uses during exercise. This test is the most accurate indicator of cardiovascular and respiratory function. B) Computerized muscular fitness testing is used to identify muscular weaknesses, disproportions, imbalances, work, power and endurance levels. C) Muscular flexibility testing determines what muscles need special stretching to avoid unnecessary muscle pulls and to assure flexibility symmetry. D) Joint integrity examination is performed to identify the presence of sound ligament stability of major joints. In addition; this evaluation identifies the degree of joint wear and inflammation (arthritis). E) Posture examination is performed to identify the presence of abnormal curvature of the spine. F) Body composition measurement is performed to determine your percentage of body fat versus body lean composition.
Based upon the information obtained in this total fitness consultation an accurate exercise prescription is developed. If any body system reveals evidence of medical pathology, you are not prescribed a fitness program until you have been treated by a medical doctor. The exercise prescription includes identifying the type of equipment, specific exercises, number of repetitions, target heart rate and in addition essential educational information such as warm-up instructions and cool-down instructions.
Nutritional Consultation
To objectively identify just what your dietary habits are, this program analyzes over 300 essential nutrients based on your food intake. Specific analyses based upon your personal dietary inventory include caloric intake, sugar, protein, carbohydrate, fat and fiber intake levels. Additional blood analyses include cholesterol high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, iron and calcium levels. Based upon the finds of the nutritional testing, specific dietary programs are developed and based upon your personal likes and dislikes. Objective reassessment is performed to assure effectiveness.