Exercise - Free Fitness Library
Why do people start exercising and then drop out?
Many women start a programme and drop out within six weeks. Overweight women avoid exercising publicly or drop out of class after a short while for two main reasons: they worry about what other class members think of them and they feel embarrassed as they cannot move as gracefully or dynamically as the teacher and other competent class members. They worry about what they will wear before the class starts and they feel they are continually judged.
The class may be great, exciting and fun with a motivating, qualified instructor but they quit because of their body image.
This client may not be overweight, she could have a very feminine figure with thighs and a slight tummy yet totally lacking in self-esteem. She feels ugly and her body image is unacceptable to herself. Yet she feels trapped as she doesn't have the will power and patient it takes to tone and shape her body.
We, as teachers, are at fault. Our beliefs that exercise is for all, whatever race, age, shape or size, is not reaching those markets. Our classes are not catering for all needs. Why? It is because a vast majority of us are insecure and have low body image and self-esteem. We are distorting the healthy image of the women today. For a class member to overhear a teacher discuss their own figure for example, "I feel really fat - I've been pigging out recently", is terrible. The class member looks at the instructor and sees an amazing, firm, sleek body and then looks at herself and thinks "If the instructor feels like that I don't have a hope in hell". We are forgetting what it is like to be a total novice. Apart from having the courage to come to class and being totally unfit, the thought of revealing one's body shape is terrifying. I have often heard women saying that they will start exercising once they have lost weight. Why is the diet business larger than the fitness business? Women feel compelled to diet before they do anything new of exciting in their lives. The wish to lose 5lbs before a special events forces weight loss to be instant.
Your class members are bombarded with concepts of slimming in everyday life from magazines and TV advertising to shopping in a supermarket where packaging is labelled as "Low calorie","Fat free" and "Low fat". The images the mind and eye take in only enforce the unobtainable and distort one's body image.
The media has never helped the fitness profession as the public only see the body-beautiful image, promoting every product from clothes to celebrity exercise videos, with the video season in full fledge, rarely does the consumer realise that the body of the celebrity and instructor is usually obtained by exercising 2-3 hours daily for a long period of time. Celebrities such Ruby Wax and Dawn French are a comfort for most women, but are they being asked to present in an exercise video, No! because their body image is wrong.
When Princess Diana spoke at a conference on eating disorders in 93, the press loved it and created the suitable hype that they felt was necessary, disappointed that she did not personally admit to any eating disorder. Yet there was no positive advice on how to overcome any eating disorder, improve one's body image or any guidelines as to what is a normal, healthy, beautiful image. The press did not take the opportunities to help educate. So it's up to us to be the lifestyle educators but before we can educate, we need to understand the problem within ourselves and the public.
In the fitness and sport industry a vast majority of females world wide are involved in potentially harmful exercise due to their quest for the ideal body image. Many instructors feel pressurised to maintain low body fat levels of 17% and less, suffering from eating disorders, amenorrhea (when your periods stop) and are creating the foundations for osteoporosis. There is major concern within the industry, so much so that now the American College of Sports Medicine is calling for in depth research and education awareness for all fitness and sports professionals.
At the world IDEA press conference last June. Peter Davis, the chief executive director of IDEA asked me for my opinion on how to reach the public. As the industry as a whole feels it is teaching the converted.
Through the experience of my Sunday Mirror events when we have 7000 public not fitness enthusiasts coming to our yearly events. The resource information we gather is tremendous. The public love normal looking presenters, not always the Hardbody type. They want to see a healthy, fit, firm person that they can relate to and be motivated by. The teacher has to be an obtainable image.
Yet this will only happen when the teacher is not competing within him/herself to be a total hard body. The teacher has to be educated that it's alright to carry some weight and not train too hard. For hours on end, or teach twenty five classes a week and diet.
This is not a statement to tell you to indulge in saturated fats and to stop training but we do need to re-assess ourselves, our eating and exercise habits, and aims in life. Not only for our own self-esteem and body image but also to understand how the public feel. Then one may be able to help and expand one's clientele - not lose them. The following may personally help to change your attitude, about your own body image.
What do you want out of life...a family
1. A healthy pregnancy cannot be maintained without a body fat level of 27%! (professor Morris of Obstetrics, West London Hospital). Most pregnancies occur when a woman relaxes about diet and exercise. Many aerobics teachers are trying to conceive: take a tip from professor Morris and enjoy life. Allow yourself to have hips and a bust. Eat a balanced healthy diet allowing the right fats in your diet.
When you're older, do you want a healthy strong body or osteoporosis
2. Osteoporosis is associated with thinness as oestrogen is produced in the ovaries and in fat tissue. As fitness teachers we must be aware that maintaining low body fat levels can lead to osteoporosis. Aerobic champions have been known to suffer from osteoporoc stress fractures. Have your diet checked out by a dietician to see if it is adequate for your training needs and maintaining a healthy body. You are a health educator but are you training your body for one of the worst diseases of our time, take preventive action now through your diet to prevent osteoporosis.
There are times when one desires instant weight lose and taking diuretics is common
3. Taking diuretics to rapidly remove fluid from the body with the aim of losing weight quickly for muscle definition is dangerous. If the body is dehydrated one will suffer lack of muscle strength, cramps, dizziness, headaches and nausea. We all know female bodies retain water due to the monthly cycle. This gets worse as we age yet who notices this weight gain, only you.
Learn to accept ageing gracefully. Do you really have all the hours in the day to train
4. As we age we lay down more fat cells, our metabolic rate slows down and lean body tissues diminishes. Every time you are pregnant the body lays down more fat cells, therefore maintaining an extremely low body fat as we enter our 40's is hard. It is normal to be slightly heavier. Women who have more than one child especially at a maturer age have a harder time maintaining their ideal weight, be a little kinder to yourself.
CHECK LIST
TRY to answer a straight Yes or No to the follwoing question to see how you feel about your body.
Part I - is related directly to how you feel.
How do you see your body image? Yes/No
Are you happy with your shape or would you make changes if possible? Yes/No
Do you feel guilty all the time about what you eat or how much you eat? Yes/No
Do you continually talk about diets and encourage class members to diet? Yes/No
Do you eat erratically? Yes/No/Sometimes
Do you plan your eating and think of foods as 'good' or 'bad'? Yes/No/Always
Do you tease when you see someone enjoying a 'bad' food? Yes/No
Do you feel alone and isolated from fellow teachers? Yes/No
Do you criticise your body and eating habits? Yes/No
Are you a secret eater, eating what you want when no one can see you? Yes/No
Do you always look in the mirror whenever you pass one? Yes/No
Do you only feel good when you lose weight? Yes/No
Do you assume that everyone wants to be thin? Yes/No
Do you only praise people when they've lost weight? Yes/No
When you have a lazy day with no training or teaching, do you eat a lot? Yes/No/Sometimes
Do you think about food when relaxing? Yes/No
Do you like yourself? Do you accept praise? Yes/No
If you've answered Yes to most of the above, you need to re-assess your ideas of healthy Body Image, you may want to discuss this with fellow workmates or seek specialist help.
Part II - is related your attitude towards your class members
Have you studied nutrition and diets, are you able to give sensible advice to your class members? Yes/No/Not Yet
Do you talk positively to all class members whether they are fat, unattractive, shy or unfriendly? Yes/Always/Sometimes
Do you understand the weight related problems that occur with PMT, age and motherhood? Yes/No/Some of them
Do you encourage spontaneous praise and compliment your class members? Yes/No
Do you allow for off days when you need to rest and eat more? Yes/No
Do you keep abreast of all the diet trends and analyse them, asking whether they are medically safe? Yes/No
Have you considered the long term effects of dieting on yourself or class member? Yes/No
Do you allow yourself to eat anything without any pangs of guilt? Yes/No
Can you eat anything in front of friends, family, partner? Yes/No
Are you collecting educational information on healthy eating for your members? Yes/No
Have you information available where your class members can seek help over eating disorders? Yes/No
Do you understand and cater for different clients you are dealing with from the aerobic animal to the total novice who stands in the back row and will never ask directly for help? Yes/No
Do you communicate with your class members and announce that anyone who wants to, can discuss their exercise programme after class? Yes/No
Remember a new comer to class does not trust you yet, they won't come to you and say how they feel straight away! Do you approach them especially if they seem stressed? Yes/No
If you have answered mainly Yes to the above, you are helping to educate but remember to practice what you preach in your own life. Keep the whole issue of the perfect Body Image in proportion, start to cater for plus size class and promote your health facilities to a wider maket.
P.S. Watch out for the new Synergetics workshop on Body Image and the plus size market at City Fitcamp in June 1994.