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Obesity – Wake Up Call – We are Torturing Our Bodies and Our Minds

How many Americans listen to the statistics on obesity and ignore t he reports.  They know they are in that group defined as obese and yet they ignore the warnings.  Obesity is a medical concern.  We, as fitness professionals, must put this in simple terms for our clients.  Nuts and bolts, the circumference of our waist is the best compass.  Men if your waist is over 40”, women if your waist is over 35” you have put your body in what I will appropriately label “a torture zone”.  This torture zone is strangling your heart, clogging your arteries and more than likely you are already subject to Diabetes type II.  Walking is difficult, climbing stairs takes your breath away, and you are prone to depression.  Excessive weight, inactive lifestyles creates a torture chamber for the body that you live in.

The statistics have been out for decades.  The government’s attempts to fight this torture we ourselves have created dates back to Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 with the President’s Council on physical fitness and sports.  Interestingly, we have not made ANY progress.   Jack LaLanne has promoted fitness for over 70 years!  And dozens of fitness experts have followed faithfully in his footsteps.  Jack opened his own health spa in 1936.  Yet America continues to eat and be sedentary.  Why?  A good part of it is we have the very best marketing and advertising professionals in the world promoting high fat foods, drive through and high processed foods.  Eating out is the family activity not physical activity.  Additionally, I believe we have not set reasonable / achievable goals.  And most importantly, we as fitness professionals have not adequately conveyed the risks associated with this detrimental lifestyle as what it truly is – torture, actual torture for our bodies and our minds.

We have the documented research; we know we are shortening our life when we are sedentary and overweight.   Perhaps more important is the fact that the quality of our life both physical and mental is torture – it is physical pain.  Your body was made for exercise.  Your muscles lovingly respond.  Yet we call the muscles response “delayed onset muscle soreness”.  This is a gross misstatement.  Engaging our muscles, feeling the muscles activated is not soreness, it is an awareness, it is a preclude to better health and well being both physically and mentally strong. 

Working in swim fitness is fascinating to people watch.  I watch as my clients and others limp into the swimming pool, I see the relief on their face as the water gently soothes their physical and mental pains, and then I see a miracle, I see them working very, very strenuously during the swim fitness programs.  Some are swimming laps, some are in water aerobics, some are target toning, some are simply easing their mind and their muscles with the refreshing healing qualities of the swimming pool.  Then afterwards, as I am walking to the parking lot I see them joyful, many struggling to walk to their vehicle but with a joy on their countenance from the swim fitness experience.  These few people have found relief from the torture of being overweight and inactive.  These people have experienced their muscles activated, their heart rate increase, their oxygen levels increase - they know exercise is a wonderful experience.  Additionally, they have learned that their bodies will thank them continually over the next 24 hours.