Fitness Trends

The annual worldwide survey by the American College of Sports Medicine into fitness trends, shows the growing demand for educated and experienced fitness professionals claimed the top spot for the fourth consecutive year.

The survey, now in its fifth year, was distributed to ACSM-certified health and fitness professionals worldwide and was designed to reveal trends in various fitness environments.

The top ten fitness trends predicted for next year are given below.

A Fitness programmes for older adults. As the baby boom generation ages into retirement, some of these people have more discretionary money than their younger counterparts. Therefore, many health and fitness professionals are taking the time to create age-appropriate fitness programmes to keep older adults healthy and active.

B Strength training. Strength training remains a central emphasis for many health clubs. Incorporating strength training is an essential part of a complete physical activity programme for all physical activity levels and genders.

C Children and obesity. With childhood obesity growing at an alarming rate, health and fitness professionals see the epidemic as an opportunity to create programmes tailored to overweight and obese children. Solving the problem of childhood obesity will have an impact on the health care industry today and for years to come.

D Personal training. More and more students are studying sport and exercise science, which indicates that students are preparing themselves for careers in allied health fields such as personal training. Education, training and the possession of recognized qualifications for personal trainers has become increasingly important to the health and fitness facilities that employ them.

E Core training. Distinct from strength training, core training specifically emphasizes conditioning of the middle-body muscles, including the pelvis, lower back, hips and abdomen - all of which provide needed support for the spine.

F Exercise and weight loss. In addition to nutrition, exercise is a key component of a proper weight loss programme. Health and fitness professionals who provide weight loss programmes are increasingly incorporating regular exercise and calorific restriction for better weight control in their clients.

G Boot camp. Boot camp is a high-intensity structured activity programme modeled after military style training and led by an instructor. Boot camp incorporates cardiovascular, strength, endurance and flexibility drills in both indoor and outdoor settings.

H Functional fitness. This is a trend toward using strength training to improve balance and ease of daily living. Functional fitness and special fitness programmes for older adults are closely related.

I Physician referrals. Physician referrals partner medical and health and fitness professionals to allow the simple integration of exercise into patients’ lives.

Detoxify the Mind

The new year is traditionally a time when people reflect on the past year and make plans for the future. It provides a perfect opportunity to make meaningful changes which can improve our mental health - or “detoxify the mind”, as some describe it. This process can help us to draw a line under the difficulties faced in the previous year and start the new year afresh.

The central idea behind detoxifying the mind is to actively challenge the negative thoughts - or “cognitions” - that build up and affect the way we view ourselves and our lives. It encourages people to look back and learn from their experiences and then move forward in their lives.

Some people are more susceptible to viewing things in a negative way than others, but everyone can benefit from taking steps to free themselves of the past hurts and worries that continue to live with them. Remember that it’s normal to be upset sometimes and to have difficulty with aspects of your life. But normal troubles become toxic when they dominate your thoughts, preventing you from making the most of the opportunities you are presented with.

There are several steps individuals can take to help themselves. One way is to look back over the past year and write down the things that happened that were troublesome or upsetting, the events that caused you adversity. Try to recall the worries you had. Look at the list. Rather than focusing on the negative aspects of the problems, how did you cope with them? What could you have done differently and what did you do that was good? When there were problems, or you found it difficult to deal with something, what ways could you have reframed the situation to make it easier to deal with?

There are bound to be some events that were out of your control, but what is central to this method is developing the understanding that there are helpful and unhelpful ways to react to most situations. How you choose to react to adversity is what is important - much more than what actually happened.

Now make a list of all the things that went well for you last year. Don’t just rely on your memory, particularly if you’ve had a difficult year, as you will fail to recall many good events. Systematically look back over diaries or calendars. Note down achievements, things you did that you enjoyed, that made you happy and brought happiness to others around you. Accept that some things were difficult, but admit that there were good times too. Try to learn from the difficulties and how you coped with them, rather than letting them cast a shadow over the next year.

Make your New Year’s resolution something positive - aim to start or do something new, rather than give something up. I’m a great fan of volunteering. It can provide structure, as well as getting you out of the house to meet new people. It also challenges you in unexpected and different ways and can give you a tremendous sense of self-wort. Learn something new and boost your confidence by showing yourself what you are capable of achieving when you put your mind to it.

Remember that looking after your physical health will have a direct impact on your mental health. Eating well and exercising are important but so is avoiding alcohol, which is a depressant, particularly if you are prone to low moods. In the short term, alcohol may well provide respite from negative feelings, but in the long term, it only makes them worse.

 People often have emotional baggage which impacts on their day-to-day functioning, but which they can do little about because it’s in the past. A difficult childhood or resentment over the way a relationship ended, for example, can easily become something that defines someone, rather than being just a difficult or upsetting episode that they can move on from.

If you find yourself bogged down by negative thoughts and emotions and battle with low mood, remember that depression is a treatable condition and is not your fault. Ask for help - this isn’t being weak; it’s taking a positive step to taking back control of your life. Your GP can help by referring you for talking therapy, such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). There are a number of good books available which can help reframe the way you think about situations and help you tackle problems. Mind Over Mood: Change How You Feel by Changing the Way You Think, by Christine Padesky and Dennis Greenberger, is an excellent and very popular self-help manual based on the CBT model, with the aim of helping you think more positively. For baby-boomers, there is a great guide in making the most of life called Too Young to Get Old by Christine Webber. So good luck and have a happy and healthy new year.

Healthy Food?

A THE shelves of every supermarket are packed with probiotic yogurts that can supposedly ease constipation and fend off infections, butter substitutes that claim to reduce cholesterol, tomato extracts said to keep skin looking young while warding off cancer, infant cereals enhanced with micronutrients essential for development, and so on. Have food companies taken on a higher level of morality or are there other motives for this concern over the health value of their produce?

B Food companies have taken to trumpeting the supposed health and nutritional benefits of their products for several reasons. Such products may appeal both to health-conscious buyers and to people who know they eat unhealthily, but hope that some vitamins here and some probiotics there might compensate for the junk. Best of all, from the food companies’ point of view, these “functional foods”, which blur the line between foods and drugs, hold out the promise of higher margins and faster growth. In western Europe sales of functional foods grew by 10.2% a year between 2006 and 2009, for example, whereas sales of packaged food grew by 6.3%. That is why Nestlé, the world’s biggest food company, is making a big bet on functional foods as a source of future growth.

C All this has attracted the attention of regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. They are concerned that some of these health claims may be misleading or unsupported by evidence, and are tightening the rules. On October 20th America’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it would overhaul the rules for nutritional claims on food labels and issue new standards early next year. It has already rebuked General Mills, the maker of Cheerios, a popular breakfast cereal, for claiming that it is “clinically proven to lower cholesterol”. The European Food Safety Authority is also cracking down, requiring companies to back up health and nutrition claims with scientific studies. Hundreds of applications submitted to its scientific panel have just been turned down. The panel has decided that there is not enough evidence to claim that, for instance, heather helps you sleep, dried cocoa extract helps you lose weight, quinoa makes your hair grow and Jerusalem artichokes make your gut healthy.

D Many in the industry are howling that these rules are heavy-handed, given that most of their products are perfectly safe and that some health claims go back decades or more. Demanding expensive studies to justify such claims will stifle innovation, they argue, and tilt the playing field against smaller firms, which will be unable to afford them. Surely, they say, firms that find profit in adding iron, iodine, zinc and vitamins to their products, or cutting levels of high-fructose corn syrup or saturated fat, ought to be applauded, not denounced. Many food brands started off as a means of reassuring customers that products were trustworthy. The desire to defend their brands gives food firms a strong incentive to ensure that their products are safe.

E The situation now however is that food companies are claiming their products provide specific benefits-not merely that they are safe to eat. Ordinary folk cannot tell whether health claims made by food marketers are scientifically valid, so there is a case for regulatory scrutiny of such claims. What’s more, even though it is difficult to imagine someone being harmed by eating too much breakfast cereal or yogurt, say, there is a risk of harm if health claims made about functional foods encourage people to see them as substitutes for drugs or lifestyle changes they may need. A few helpings of vegetables will do more good than any probiotic yogurt.

 F A lesson from the drugs industry is that industry-funded studies have a clear tendency to produce results that please their sponsors. So food companies should have to register all studies and publish even those with unfavorable results. Clear guidelines on labelling are also important. To its credit, the FDA recently proposed rules that would force food companies to publish all the important components of their products on the front of their packages, rather than picking out the healthy ones and keeping quiet about the fat, salt and sugar.

G The industry’s claim that greater scrutiny will kill innovation is off the mark. Those firms making misleading claims will suffer; those prepared to invest in proper scientific studies to back up their supposed breakthroughs will benefit. And in pharmaceuticals, smaller firms seem to be more innovative than bigger ones. If food companies wish to make the sorts of claims about their products that pharmaceutical companies do, they must be prepared to submit to similar scrutiny. Extraordinary claims, after all, require extraordinary evidence.