Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 28, 1995 TAG: 9502280068
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JIM WARREN KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Joggers lined the roads; aerobics classes were overflowing. Svelte specimens in leotards and Spandex were pumping iron and wearing out their StairMasters.
The whole fitness movement seemed to promise we'd soon be a nation of slim, hard bodies. Cardiovascular heart disease would be only a bad memory, and everybody would have buns of steel.
But somewhere along the running track, we stubbed our collective toe. Recent reports say Americans are flabbier than ever and getting flabbier all the time, and young people may be the flabbiest of all.
Cardiovascular disease still takes 90 lives a day in Kentucky and Indiana. And Louisville's Jewish Hospital recently built the nation's 16th-largest heart-lung center, at a cost of $45 million, to treat those who'll be struck down in the future.
So, whatever happened to the fitness movement?
There never was one, says Bryant Stamford, an exercise physiologist at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.
``If a movement is defined as participation by a large segment of the population, then the fitness movement never happened,'' Stamford said. ``It was an illusion.''
Lots of people start on exercise programs, fitness experts say, but many drop out, often before they get any of the benefits of physical activity.
Says Stamford, ``The best research I've seen suggests that no more than about 8.2 percent of the population bought into the fitness movement as billed - that is vigorous physical activity three or four times a week.
``The other 91.8 percent basically said, `I'll take a bye on that; I'm not interested.' ''
That might explain how, after more than a decade of emphasis on fitness, 58 million Americans are at least 20 percent overweight, according to estimates of the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But how did we get the idea everybody was out there vigorously exercising in the first place?
Partly, the experts say, it was the news media - all those magazine covers, TV shows and advertisements about marathon runners and exercise equipment. Also, they say, the relatively small number of people who were exercising were highly visible, pounding the streets on foot or on bicycles.
All that tended to make it appear that huge numbers of people were running, lifting, puffing and sweating their way to good health.
In reality, just the opposite was happening, according to various government reports. For example, the percentage of teen-agers who are overweight hovered around 15 percent throughout the 1970s. By 1991, it had jumped to 21 percent.
In 1990, the U.S. Health Department set a goal of reducing the percentage of overweight Americans from 25 percent to 20 percent by the year 2000. Federal officials now doubt that goal is attainable.
``What's sustaining the fitness illusion today is the magazines, the advertisements, the sale of shoes and fitness gear and in-home exercise equipment,'' Stamford said. ``Those are all billion-dollar industries, and they are very sensitive to keeping the notion alive that if you're not exercising you're the only person on your block who is not.''
What went wrong with fitness?
In Riggs' view, many people jumped into the world of physical exercise without really thinking about what was involved or the commitment that would be required.
``What you see every New Year's is that people make resolutions, `I'm going to work out, I'm going to get fit.' They join a fitness center, they work out for two months and by March they quit. They take on too much, they didn't know what they were doing, and they just fizzle out.''
Stamford blames the fitness movement for driving many people away from exercise.
``The biggest mistake on the part of the movement was in telling people it was all or nothing. You had to follow the dogma, exercise hard, hit that target heart rate and keep it there for 20 or 30 minutes. Unless you did it that way, you were wasting your time.''
Hard-core fitness enthusiasts were willing to buy into that philosophy, Stamford said. But most people simply were unable or unwilling to make that kind of commitment. So they gave up on exercise altogether.
Donna Denniston, manager at Shape's New Dimensions Health & Fitness Center in Lexington, agrees.
``What the gym industry has to do to keep people coming back is to provide a more relaxed atmosphere, be more service-oriented,'' she said. ``You can't slam people into buying cars today. And you can't slam people into buying a health club membership anymore.''
A key mistake, in Stamford's view, was the fitness movement's tendency to ignore those who, while unwilling to sweat through 6 or 8 miles of roadwork a day, were interested in getting regular moderate exercise.
``What should have happened was that the mega-dose exercisers, the 8.2 percent, should have embraced the 30 to 40 percent who were interested in light sporting activities, gardening, walking. If you'd done that, you would have had nearly half the population to work with.''
That also would have broadened the spectrum of physical activity, possibly attracting many of those in the remaining 50 percent of the population who didn't exercise at all, Stamford contends.
And the experts say that's unfortunate because the latest medical studies show significant health benefits can be gained from moderate physical activity.
``The average person really doesn't need to work out three or four times a week,'' Riggs said. ``A little bit of exercise can be significant for someone who hasn't done anything.''
And while the moderates were bailing out of the fitness movement, Stamford noted, advertising was pushing a diet heavy in junk food, fast food and fat. And for many people there was little information about the value of exercise and good nutrition to balance all the junk-food advertising.
The ultimate answer, Stamford contends, is education to make sure the public understands the importance of getting adequate exercise and eating a proper diet.
Trouble is, he contends, such education is not being widely offered.
``The reason is there is no profit in educating the public. But there is a tremendous profit in having the public continue to eat the way they are. And there is tremendous profit in doing bypass surgery, not in preventing it.''
by CNB