Tag: Health & Wellness

Obesity Is a Disease – What Does It Mean for the Fitness Industry?

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When I sat down to do some research before writing up this post today, I typed into Google, “Is obesity,” but before I could get any further, Google finished my question for me: “Is obesity a disease?” 61,600,000 pages came up when I hit enter. It’s the question everyone is asking — and now the American Medical Association (AMA) has answered it. On Tuesday, after considered debate, the physicians’ organization voted to extend official disease status to the condition. Yes, is the answer to the question. It’s a disease.

What this means for the medical community is immediately clear: Doctors will now be required to raise concerns about weight with obese patients and to prescribe a course of action to help treat it. As it is now, some doctors are reluctant to discuss obesity with patients, in part because addressing the issue can be a time-consuming process, the cost of which often is not covered by insurance companies. Now, with the AMA’s new designation, doctors will be professionally obligated to diagnose and treat the disease, which means insurance providers will feel greater pressure to provide reimbursements.

All well and good, but since obesity is a disease – what does it mean for the fitness industry? The implications are not so clear. The change could be very beneficial. With more than 78 million obese adults and 12 million obese children in the country, there is now a huge portion of the population — more than one-third — affected by what doctors consider a disease. Because this is a disease best treated, for most people, through changes in lifestyle that incorporate dietary overhaul and regular exercise, health clubs, gyms, and other fitness facilities stand to gain a slew of new members — members whose doctors will be monitoring them to make sure they’re sticking to their regiments.

While the AMA’s decision doesn’t require insurance companies to pay up, it does put pressure on them to do so. Does this mean that insurers will begin classifying obesity as a disease? And if they do, will they pay for gym memberships and personal training sessions? It’s possible, but if they do, the fitness industry could find itself bogged down in the same kind of paperwork that assails doctors’ offices, with only certain percentages of costs being covered and with endless red tape. Membership levels could rise, and rise dramatically, but membership could become a complicated new thing.

It’s impossible to know what all the ramifications will be, but now that the AMA has had a chance to debate the pros and cons and imagine a healthier future for obese people in this country, it’s time for the fitness industry to start a dialogue of its own. What does it mean for those of us who provide services that could potentially help a large number of disease-sufferers? What kind of relationship, if any, do we want to have with health insurance providers? How can we gear our businesses to be most beneficial to both diseased and healthy populations — while also remaining sound businesses? We need to start talking now.

Workers Need You

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Yesterday was International Workers’ Day, a holiday created to commemorate Chicago’s Haymarket Affair of 1886 and the events leading up to it. The long and short of it is this: in 1867, the federal government passed a law guaranteeing federal employees an eight-hour work day; all Illinois workers were covered by a similar law. But the government failed to enforce its own law, and workers in Illinois were forced to sign waivers of the law as a condition of employment. So, on May 1, 1886, labor leaders organized a protest to demand adherence to the eight-hour rule. It ended badly, a few days later, with riots, police killing protestors, and someone throwing a bomb into the crowd.

What does all this have to do with anything? Well, it seemed like a good day to talk about a recent study that found out what today’s employees desire most: onsite fitness facilities. In a way, this could speak to the failure of the demand for eight-hour days so long ago; although eight hours is still the law, millions of salaried workers work ten- or twelve-hour days, or even longer, and just a few months ago Eric Cantor, the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, called for ending overtime pay for hourly workers. Clearly, employees need a way to shake off the stress of their long days.

But more than that, it speaks to our present-day understanding of how crucial fitness is to health, and the link between fitness and productivity. According to the results of a survey, titled Principal Financial Well-Being Index: American Workers, twenty-five percent of workers who did not have an onsite fitness facility in 2012 wanted one, up from 19 percent in 2011. (The second most desired benefit was fitness center discounts; twenty-three percent of workers who did not have an onsite fitness facility in 2012 wanted those).

Now, only 12 percent of workers who participated in the survey said their company offers an onsite fitness center. What does this mean? There’s a demand for your services, and so far the demand is going unmet. Have you visited local companies to talk to Human Resources folk about how you might be able to help keep their employees happy, either by bringing your business into their building or offering discounts and opportunities in your facility? If not, it’s time to think about doing so. And then go ahead and knock off of work early today—you’ve probably been there for too long already anyway.

Helping Others Heal

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For years now, studies have reported that exercise eases the effects of trauma. Though it’s not always easy to predict how trauma will affect an individual, it’s a nearly universal law that regular exercise will help individuals manage their reactions to trauma. Doctors recommend workout routines for veterans returning from war and others who might suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and coaches know that the best morale-booster for athletes who have recovered from an injury is to get back into the game.

Chances are, therefore, that if you own or manage a fitness center, at least some of your clients are there because they’re struggling to overcome some experience of trauma, whether physical or emotional, small-scale or large-scale.

You’ve probably guessed by now what I’m working up to here. A few days ago, in Boston, thousands of people experienced a large-scale trauma. Thousands of others around the country, and around the world, watched with horror and anxiety as events unfolded.

In this instance, many of the people involved already know the benefits of exercise. They were, of course, runners. They were personal trainers. They were tennis pros and fitness directors and health club maintenance workers. They were also just people who appreciate the discipline, hard work, and determination that go into marathon running, the beautiful, triumphant spectacle of the whole thing.

How are all of these people going to heal? Exercise helps, we know — but what if exercise is the thing associated with the trauma? Will runners want to continue running? Will people training for future marathons be too scared to continue? Can exercise still heal when it was exercise that gave a platform to the trauma in the first place?
Given the results of most studies on exercise and trauma, the answer is probably yes. But what can you do to help?

The bombings at the Boston Marathon directly affect the fitness industry; it only makes sense that the fitness industry should respond. Were any of your members running in the marathon? If so, give them a hero’s welcome home, or maybe just have your membership services staff reach out to them personally. Whether you had clients involved or not, can you offer a discount for the month in honor of the people who were killed or injured? Do you have the resources to bring in a social worker or trauma expert to give a talk to the community about the bombings?

Whatever you do, your efforts will be felt by your community — merely seeing your facility respond in some way can help initiate healing for those who need it. And you might find some of them realizing that exercise could help further their healing, and signing up for a class or two — or a run around the track.

Time to Visit the Doctor

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I sat in a doctor’s waiting room for a long time today. I had accidentally left my book at home, and none of the magazines lying around appealed to me. As I’m currently attempting to renegotiate my relationship with my smartphone (I feel like I need some space but it’s having trouble letting go), I kept the thing tucked firmly in my jacket pocket, and there was nothing to occupy my attention except for a large monitor in the corner that kept cycling through a handful of health-related messages: avoid stress, substitute walnuts for croutons, exercise regularly.

“Ha,” thought the crankier part of me. “How am I supposed to find time to exercise regularly when I’m stuck here in the doctor’s office for three hundred hours?” (Well, it felt like three hundred hours.) But that got the less cranky part of me thinking. What if my doctor’s office helped me exercise regularly — not just by reminding me to do so, but by providing me with concrete incentives for doing so? What if they gave me five dollars off my co-pay if I brought in a form from my personal trainer, or yoga instructor, or gym manager that showed I’d worked out three times a week for the past month? What if, along with my prescription, the doctor’s assistant also handed me a certificate good for one free class at a local Zumba studio or a free session at the gym? What if I was offered a discount on a gym membership if I lower my cholesterol between this visit to the doctor and the next?

In short, I realized, health providers are natural partners for fitness centers and health clubs. They have the authority to convince people to get to the gym, combined with the opportunity to pass along incentives for doing so. Maybe it’s time to start cultivating relationships with doctors’ offices, to approach local ones with an offer they can’t refuse: a way to really encourage their patients to improve their health (because, to be honest, that monitor wasn’t very effective. I tuned out its messages well before my wait was over. Good thing I had my smartphone with me).

BFF: Benefit From Friendships

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I’m reading a great book right now: Friendfluence, by journalist Carlin Flora. As the title suggests, the book examines the ways in which our friends influence us. From our personalities to our choices to our emotions, habits, and self-perceptions, friendship, argues Flora, strongly helps determine who we are.


Unsurprisingly, this holds true for physical fitness too. As Flora puts it, “We seek out health and weight-loss advice, but the most effective plan might be to hang out with fit friends. Not only do they make it easier for us to eat better and work out by setting an example and dragging us along on active outings, but they also provide the human connection that fosters robust physiological characteristics, such as lower blood pressure and increased immunity.”
Pick up almost any women’s magazine and you’ll find an article that offers you advice along those same lines: Want to lose weight? Find a friend! That’s because studies and surveys have shown that people are more likely to achieve their weight-loss goals, or at least to lose more weight, when they work out with others.


Even more significant, perhaps, is how similar to you your workout comrades are. Flora cites an experiment conducted by MIT, which found that people were more likely to start using a diet diary if others using the diary in their online network were similar to them. “That,” she argues, “indicates that having a workout or weight-loss buddy ‘just like you’ will motivate you to adopt better strategies.”


What do these facts mean for health clubs and fitness centers? Start thinking about how you can capitalize on friendship. Can you offer special “friendship deals”: classes half off for members and their friends, if they bring them? Or membership drives in which anyone who becomes a member by a certain date wins a month’s free membership for a friend? Or maybe a “Friday is Friend Day” initiative: bring a friend to the gym for free on Fridays. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. And the potential results? Members or clients who lose the weight they want to lose, or who meet other fitness goals, are likely to be happy, long-term members or clients. Plus, you might find yourself on the receiving end of a two-for-one deal: Your member’s friend might well decide to join herself. This, as Flora explains, is the power of friendfluence. It’s a power you can tap into.

Continue reading “BFF: Benefit From Friendships” →

Fitness for a Cause

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Gyms, fitness centers, health clubs, and other similar facilities do a lot for their members and clients. They help transform bodies into leaner, healthier shapes. They push individuals to meet personal goals and overcome limitations (the self-imposed sort and other kinds). They boost confidence, provide fun social settings, and introduce new modes of movement. But one of the best things about such organizations, to my mind, is that they can produce large-scale change that benefits whole groups of people.


Take, for example, the recent Cycle for Survival initiative at Equinox. Designed to raise money for cancer research, Cycle for Survival events in February and early March at Equinox clubs in 10 cities around the country drew 13,000 people who raised $13.8 million. That money will fund clinical trials and research studies led by the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Since Cycle for Survival started in 2006, the event has raised more than $31 million. There’s no counting how many people have been helped, and how many will continue to benefit as findings emerge from the funded trials and studies


But you don’t have to be a mammoth operation like Equinox to make a difference. Last fall, Pearl’s Fitness Studio in North Bergen, New Jersey, held a Zumba party to raise money for a local shelter that serves victims of domestic violence. In January, Carozza Fitness in Stamford, Connecticut, raised funds to benefit the families of Newtown who suffered from the horrific killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Last month, the Student Fitness Center at Illinois State University hosted a volleyball tournament to support the American Heart Association. Whatever a health club’s size and scale, there’s a way to serve local or larger communities.


As for the participants who work up a sweat to raise the money, they benefit too. First, of course, they reap physical perks. Also, they gain from the emotional and mental rewards that come with working hard on behalf of others.

Reward Your Clients to Reward Yourself

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A recent Mayo Clinic study found that, probably unsurprisingly, giving people financial incentives to work out helps them lose more weight. Researchers paid some study participants $20 every time they hit a monthly weight-loss goal and charged them the same amount if they failed to hit the goal. The result? Participants receiving the financial incentive — or trying to avoid having to pay — lost 6.74 more pounds than participants receiving no financial incentive.

For gyms, sports clubs, fitness centers, and the like, this is good news. Now, obviously, you can’t stand at the door handing out money to each member who meets his or her weight-loss goals each month, but maybe you can consider using other kinds of incentives. No doubt you already have some in place — have a friend sign up for a class and receive a free class yourself, or work out a certain number of times over the course of six months and receive one month’s membership free. Whatever you might be offering, great. In addition to that, can you offer something in exchange for members meeting stated weight-loss goals? A free class, a gift certificate for a health drink in the cafe, a free or reduced-cost session with a personal trainer?

Granted, the Mayo Clinic study looked only at cash incentives, so it’s not clear whether other types of incentives would have the same effect. But it’s worth a shot. If members meet their weight-loss goals because you helped them get there by providing small rewards, they’re probably more likely to stay members. They’re probably also more likely to get their friends and families to become members as well, or to sign up for classes, or whatever makes the most sense at your facility.

Your management software can help you keep track of who is taking part in an incentive program you offer, how close they are to meeting their goals, what incentives you’ve offered, and which ones you’ve paid out. As an organization devoted to your clients’ health, it makes sense to do what you can to help those clients get to where they need to be — while also solidifying a loyal customer base for yourself, not to mention a reputation for being a facility that really cares about its clients’ wellbeing.

Childhood Obesity Awareness Month

What Are We Doing to Our Kids?

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Recently, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield awarded $125,000 to nine schools in Western Pennsylvania to help fight childhood obesity. This got me thinking. Childhood obesity, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past thirty years. The percentage of children aged 6 to 11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7 percent in 1980 to nearly 18 percent in 2010. In 2010, more than one third of American children and adolescents were overweight or obese.

What are we doing to our kids? With the effects of childhood obesity ranging from, in the short-term, increased likelihood of suffering risk factors for cardiovascular disease, having prediabetes, and being at greater risk for bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and poor self-esteem to, in the long-term, being at risk for adult-onset heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, cancer, and osteoarthritis, we owe it to our youth to help turn things around.

Which is why Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield’s action is laudable. The executive director of the Highmark Caring Foundation, Charlie LaVallee, was quoted as saying, “Our goal with funding additional schools is to ensure that even more children will begin to learn early in life the benefits of being active and healthy.” We should all be working together to teach as many children as possible those lessons, in whatever way is available to us. It’s great to see a health insurance company step up to the plate. Of course, parents, schools, and medical professionals also need to play a role.And what can sports clubs, health facilities, fitness centers, and gyms do?

As organizations dedicated to helping individuals meet their physical potential, push themselves past preconceived boundaries, and achieve greater awareness of their own health and their ability to control it, sports facilities of all kinds might be uniquely positioned to fight childhood obesity.

Take a look at your scheduling software: Can you fit in an extra class or two that will get kids moving? Can you host healthy-eating information sessions for parents? Can you even send personal trainers or other staff out to schools, maybe in underprivileged areas, where their expertise (and enthusiasm!) could inspire whole classes full of kids?

It’s worth thinking about, anyway.