A history of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) poses a set of challenges for the fitness professional working with this population. Clients affected by AUD can benefit greatly from working one-on-one or in a group setting, however, specific medical co-morbidities must be considered when designing programming for and working with individuals in this population.
“Hey, Hun, is it cool if we push our moving date to March 1st?”
That was the question I raised to my wife Shani when notified that my presentation had been accepted for the first ever TEDx at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii. We were scheduled to move from Queens, NY to Charlotte NC the weekend of the event. Turns out a trip to Hawaii was about the only thing that could postpone our relocation.
The theme for the TEDx event, perhaps ironically, was 20/20 Vision; How to Create a Better Future. Clearly the irony lay in the global pandemic, political, and civil unrest that broadly defined the last year. Still, and arguably highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the issue of fitness and quality of life takes precedence. What can we focus on and strive for with respect to health and well-being? How do we implement real, sustainable change in access to fitness programs for different populations?
In the daily grind of life, it can be challenging – between doctors appointments, grocery shopping, meal prepping, upkeeping your home – to prioritize what benefits your wellness and wellbeing. Things like enjoying healthy meals, making the time to go out for a walk, maybe even taking an art class – these activities take deliberate effort, planning and determination to find, coordinate and attend.
Everyone in the industry knows how tough 2020 was regarding work, planning, staffing, and getting by. While many in the industry look to digital and video health programs, the integrity and growth of the fitness industry by no means will mean that health clubs will be a thing of the past (Segran – 2021). On the contrary – clubs will play a critical role in changing the face of healthcare in the United States – which is also on life support. The recent article by Elizabeth Segran in Fast Company states that many Americans will forego health clubs in favor of other types of exercise. She states that 59% of Americans won’t return to health clubs. This may be 59% of current health club members, and not the 65% of Americans who don’t belong to health clubs.
Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) may not be the first condition that comes to mind when discussing chronic conditions where exercise can provide substantial benefit. Yet, there is considerable evidence to support the idea that exercise therapy can prove quite beneficial in recovery from AUD Approximately 17.6 million Americans are diagnosed with alcohol addition or dependence each year. Likewise, AUD, like eating disorders, is a chronic condition that must always be managed as relapse occurs in 60-90% of patients (Brown et al.,2009).
I became interested in cardio exercise routines and memory several years ago when my older students began to tell me that their memories seemed to improve after they took my class. I was teaching mostly cardio exercise routines in those days. I started with simple steps and built up to a pretty complex routine. There has to be a connection I thought, between the physical movement, making your brain learn this routine, and improved memory.
We know how important it is to manage and control our body weight to remain at the recommended weight for our health. But did you know that if you’re a sedentary adult who weighed the same today compared to 10 years ago, could actually mean that you’ve gained fat mass? Physically inactive people can lose as much as 3% to 5% of their muscle mass each decade after the age 30. Even if you are active, you’ll still have some muscle loss. As a result, if your weight has remained the same for the past 10 years especially when you’re not physically active, you’ve probably lost muscle mass and gained fat mass instead. This progressive loss of muscle mass is called sarcopenia.
You and your business are probably spending too much time competing in the “red ocean”.
You need to get out of the red ocean and head to safer waters.
I know what you are thinking… What is a red ocean vs. a blue ocean?
This concept comes from the book, Blue Ocean Strategy, and it is important to understand for career growth.
“Red oceans represent all the industries in existence today. This is the known market space.”
This is the market for generally healthy, “fit” clients.
“As the market space gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced. Products become commodities, and cutthroat competition turns the red ocean bloody.”
Sound familiar in your journey to find clients?
“Blue oceans, in contrast, are defined by untapped market space, demand creation, and the opportunity for highly profitable growth.”
“In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set.”
So what does this mean for you?
The red ocean in health and fitness is going after the 15% of the population who is generally healthy and looking for fitness solutions to get fit or lose some weight.
This 15% of the population is looking for great glutes and great abs and benefit from any basic fitness program…
…AND EVERY SINGLE FITNESS BUSINESS IS MARKETING TO THEM.
Hence, it’s the red ocean.
So, What’s the Blue Ocean?
The blue ocean, on the other hand, consists of the millions of people with existing conditions like arthritis, Parkinson’s, or Multiple Sclerosis, for whom the great glutes and abs programs aren’t appropriate
This group is not currently being bombarded with marketing messages about fitness.
These people are in need of fitness services delivered by a specialized professional (which you can become) who understands their condition AND knows how to make programs specific to their needs.
It’s time to start swimming in the blue ocean and get away the “cutthroat competition that turns the red ocean bloody.”
Learn more about the “blue ocean” by watching this free presentation from MedFit Classroom, The New Blue Ocean: Capitalizing on the Opportune Space Between Fitness and Medicine. Industry veteran Phil Kaplan discusses this important topic and how you’ll benefit from targeting this untapped market.
Several years ago, I was enrolled in a school program where we looked at the relationships between fitness, education, and leadership practices, when combined, can help further the role of health adherence and outcomes in our society. It was during one of our cohort modules that we studied something called Attribution Theory, which fundamentally explored why people BLAME their inability to do something on nearly anything but themselves. I immediately thought about my personal training clients and why they may not be doing exercise on their own outside of our training sessions. The myriad of excuses was diverse and came with the ease of well-rehearsed prose.
“I didn’t have enough time.”
“I would have but my laundry wasn’t done, and I didn’t have any clean clothes.”
“I had family in town.”
“…a work thing…”
“… an after work thing…”
“…travel”
“…shopping”
“…busy”
“…my kids…my husband…my wife…”
My goodness!
Blame is a protective mechanism that allows us to fail at a directive and to attribute it to something or someone other than ourselves. It’s a way of massaging the ego a bit by diverting attention toward something outside of our control. These attributions are not limited to the person providing personal reasons for not doing something. Onlookers in this person’s life may have an attribution of blame from a different perspective that explains why someone else did not accomplish an exercise task.
“She’s too lazy.”
“He just isn’t prioritizing this.”
“It must not be that important.”
According to Bernard Weiner, the father of modern-day Attribution Theory, that may not be true. Weiner suggests that the individual’s belief for not doing something may be more important than the actual reason. Their perception of why they cannot achieve something is valuable for the medical fitness professional to understand and address.
For instance, a client may state that they do not have enough time to do their workouts outside of your personal training sessions. That is their attribution or what they blame as the reason they cannot make it happen. However, you as a fitness professional with a different set of values and life contexts may think that we all have the same number of hours in the day, so the “no time” excuse doesn’t cut it with me. You would never be so blunt, though that may be a dialogue that you likely played out in your head. It is well researched and cited that guilt and shame do not work, so what are some ways that the fitness professional can help to elicit constructive behavior change in their fitness clients – especially outside of your time together?
I did my doctoral dissertation on Attribution Theory, and more importantly, Attributional Retraining. I was not only interested in learning why and toward what people attribute blame, but how I could help someone see their attributions as fluid and not fixed. It is one thing to understand motivations behind blame. It is another thing to recognize those limiting attributions, deconstruct them, and develop strategies to retrain the blame.
In an upcoming webinar, I discuss attribution theory and break down original research on the attributional retraining process. There are four major components that support attributional retraining. We will discuss these components and the peer-reviewed research that supports fitness professionals by identifying and readdressing BLAME. I invite you to join me and MedFit Classroom in our presentation of BLAME: The Excuses Clients Make for Not Exercising and Solutions to Retrain Their Behaviors.
Rick Richey, DHSc, MS, LMT is a national and international speaker, providing solid evidenced-based education for personal fitness trainers, sports medicine practitioners, and strength and conditioning coaches to better assess clients, prevent injury, enhance performance, and reach goals for their clientele.
He is the owner of Independent Training Spot in NYC, where he provides personal training, wellness coaching and orthopedic massage, and the founder of ReCOVER, the world’s first recovery studio. He is a senior faculty instructor for the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) and adjunct faculty at the California University of Pennsylvania.