emotional and motivational issues in the uk health and fitness industry

EMOTIONAL &

MOTIVATIONALISSUES IN THE UK HEALTH

AND FITNESS INDUSTRY

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

THE MAJORITY OF OUR BAD HABITS WITH REGARDS TO DIET AND EXERCISE ROUTINES STEM FROM EMOTIONAL AND MOTIVATIONAL ISSUES.

On a daily basis we are bombarded with articles on the latest fitness and diet crazes, images of morbidly obese children and scarily thin celebrities.

Girls as young as 5 are being treated for anorexia and a quarter of the UK adult population are now classified as obese. We are a nation that is worryingly obsessed with the way we look.

Most of us spend our days sat at a desk opting for a fast food, processed lunch as it’s ‘easy.’ Our lives are now so busy that many people struggle to find time for exercise and healthy eating, and if they do, they opt for faddy routines that more often than not result in failure and disappointment. In general, many of us struggle to find the motivation to make any significant lifestyle changes.

The majority of our bad habits with regards to diet and exercise routines stem from emotional and motivational issues, which have become part of a much wider culturally rooted problem. Understanding these emotional and motivational issues is the first step in addressing society’s poor attitude to dieting and fitness. By addressing these issues and combining improved access to knowledge with technological advancements, we can start to get our nation’s health back on track.

To gain a deeper understanding of the issues facing those in the health and fitness industry and how we can overcome them, we have interviewed Ian Male, a fitness and wellbeing expert currently working as a personal trainer for Greenwich Training.

EMOTIONAL AND MOTIVATIONAL ISSUES IN THE UK HEALTH AND FITNESS INDUSTRY 2

Q1

IN YOUR EXPERIENCE,

WHAT ARE THE MAIN

BARRIERS TO LIVING A

HEALTHY LIFESTYLE?


Lack Of Time

Most of my clients lead incredibly busy lives, with work dominating the majority of their time, and any spare time taken up with domestic chores. This lack of free time results in high stress levels, leaving them feeling demotivated and in need of an indulgence. This finds the majority of us opting for a night in front of the television or at the pub, understandably finding it an infinitely more appealing prospect than a dimly lit basement to run on a treadmill for an hour.

Likewise, the prospect of slaving away in the kitchen once they finally head for home sees them taking a detour to the supermarket and its array of ready-made-meals or ordering a takeaway. This also results in prolonged elevated cortisol (the stress hormone) release, which carries with it a whole raft of health implications.

Lack Of Money

Through talking to health club members, most see eating healthily as a more expensive option than the aforementioned processed foods, which can be cheaply produced and sold. Couple that with the convenience factor and a wealth of misinformation both on food labelling and in the mass media, and you have a seriously flawed food culture.

With regards to exercise, many people feel it is a luxury that they simply cannot afford. That said, despite the current economic climate, health club membership has actually risen across the UK over the past 5 years. The combination of local councils running subsidised schemes, and a heightened awareness of the potential benefits of exercise has led to an increase in people signing up to get fit. But the majority of these people will fail to actually attend their new health club after the first month, when a lack of time, visible progress and motivation combines to override their best intentions.


THOSE WHO DO NOT FIND TIME FOR EXERCISE WILL HAVE TO FIND TIME FOR ILLNESS. - Edward Stanely

Lack Of Knowledge

To understand why people are not getting the correct advice and information we need to look at where that information is obtained. In the overwhelming majority of cases it is either from the mass media or the government. The problem with this becomes clear when we analyse what drives the selection of information.

The mass media are not motivated by scientific data or results, but simply which diet or exercise protocol will gain the most traction with the public and sell the most magazines/draw the most website views and click-throughs. Their bottom line is profit, not our health and wellbeing. Our society seems to place a greater importance on how people look than their health and wellbeing. As a result people are often driven to try ‘fad’ or ‘celebrity’ diets in order to gain results quickly, more often than not leading to yo-yo dieting. In a recent poll the average 45-year-old admitted to trying no fewer than 61 diets. This is an alarming illustration of the pressures people feel, but equally shows that the majority of us are prepared to make an effort. More importance should be placed on health-related goals such as lowering body fat or gaining lean muscle rather than chasing a certain physique. It is the health and fitness industry’s responsibility, along with the government, to educate people and give them the safest methods to exact long-term improvements in their health and wellbeing.

A lot of my clients seem to aspire to celebrity figures of one sort or another, and while it’s great to have these inspirational physiques to motivate us, quite often they are an unrealistic goal for the individual or, particularly in the case of females, an unhealthy example exhibiting excessive weight loss which comes with a raft of health issues all its own.


THE SADDEST ASPECT OF LIFE RIGHT NOW IS THAT SCIENCE GATHERS KNOWLEDGE FASTER THAN SOCIETY GATHERS WISDOM - Isaac Asimov

The issues with using the government as a source of advice couldn’t be more different. Our knowledge of the human body is increasing incredibly quickly, with hundreds of thousands of peer-reviewed studies published every year on a variety of topics. Graduating medical students are often told “half of what we’ve taught you is wrong, however at present we don’t know which half”. In other words, you will need to keep reading and learning in order to offer people the very best advice and treatments. Unfortunately one of the characterisations of large companies and governing bodies such as the NHS is that any changes to policies or official guidelines take years to implement, resulting in out of date or inaccurate advice in most cases.


IN A RECENT POLL THE AVERAGE 45-YEAR-OLD ADMITTED TO TRYING NO FEWER THAN 61 DIETS

Q2

SO WHAT IS THE

RESULT OF THIS LACK

OF KNOWLEDGE?


A lack of results closely followed by an understandable lack of motivation. When people fail to see or feel an improvement, they will simply revert to their previous habits.

Every year 50% of us make a New Year’s resolution, however 88% of us fail in sticking to it. A huge factor in this is boredom. At first heading to the gym each week or eating a healthy breakfast is a fun and interesting change, which we feel highly motivated to continue with. However over time we come to see it as a chore, and find ourselves increasingly tempted to break our new regime. This usually coincides with a drop off in results compared to those observed in the first few weeks.

The best way to combat this is to ensure that we are still seeing and feeling results, but the human body will only change as a response to a stimulus. This means that to improve any aspect of your fitness, you will need to push your body out of its comfort zone. By doing this you create a strong stimulus, and a more dramatic response from the body. However, after approximately six weeks the body adapts and is able to perform the tasks you are asking of it. This leads to something called the plateauing effect, where progress slows or stops altogether unless the stimulus is changed. A good training plan should always be periodised to avoid this, however it is an element missing from the majority of exercise plans available through the aforementioned sources.

90% of our immune system lies in our digestive tract, however simple dietary changes, which can heal a huge proportion of modern afflictions, are routinely overlooked in favour of prescription medication. Time and time again I prescribe dietary changes and supplementation for my clients, and see their symptoms for conditions such as crohns, irritable bowel syndrome and arrythmia disappear completely within six months. They are able to avoid surgery, or greatly reduce the number of prescribed medications and in some cases stop them altogether.

Put simply, the most efficient way to effect a permanent improvement in health is to improve the quality of the information provided.


Q3

WHAT ISSUES DO YOU

COME ACROSS ON A

DAILY BASIS THAT

INHIBIT PEOPLE FROM

FOLLOWING A DIET OR

FITNESS PLAN?


No matter the individual, making the decision to contact a personal trainer represents a major decision, and almost always results from a significant change or event.

This pivotal moment or tipping point is usually quite informative and can often be used to determine the underlying motivations and goals of the individual. The following are issues that I encounter on a daily basis, and while they don’t all apply to everyone, I believe several different factors apply to most people, rather than one single issue. Determining which of these will illicit the biggest response is key to gaining the best results in the quickest time with the minimum of perceived effort.

Emotional

• Self-confidence - This can be a powerful reason for joining a health club or working with a trainer, however at the same time it can be a barrier as well. Quite often I meet with prospective clients who see the initial consultation as daunting, and worry that their physical limitations might lead them to be judged in some way. Many people have so little self-confidence that they feel they need to improve their fitness before enlisting a trainer, which is incredibly counter-productive. Other people realise that becoming healthier or transforming their physique will give them more self-confidence. It is part of my job as a fitness professional to ensure that the client feels encouraged and supported rather than bullied into exercising, as negative associations lead to sub-optimal results, with the focus on how they’re perceived rather than the exercise itself, and a fear of failure.

• Lack of willpower - Similar to the issue with exercise participation, clients will often fall off the wagon and binge on unhealthy foods after following a nutritional framework for a few days. This can happen for a variety of reasons, and if these can’t be identified before, then it is very important to spot them and ensure we take measures to avoid them going forward. Again it is possible to adjust goals according to the individual, for example some


people find it easier to go cold turkey and completely overhaul their exercise and eating habits, where others prefer to make small changes gradually over time.

• Peer pressure - While most people associate peer pressure with our formative school years, peer pressure plays a huge part in every aspect of our lives, especially our exercise and eating habits. The habits and decisions of individual’s will be greatly influenced by the people they work with, as they spend the majority of their waking hours with them. If everyone else is heading to the gym before or after coming into the office each day, you are far more likely to do the same. The same is true if the majority of your colleagues lead sedentary lives. These pressures don’t only come at work though; both friendship groups and family members influence people’s decisions, so this can be a huge factor to consider when setting goals.

• Body image - I would say that altering or maintaining body composition accounts for around 90% of people who exercise. This can be a difficult issue for two reasons. Firstly, weight loss is incredibly hard to achieve through exercise alone. Many people struggle to come to terms with the fact that they need to eat healthily as well as exercise regularly, with good nutrition actually having more of an effect than exercise on weight loss. If gaining muscle is the goal rather than dropping pounds, this is far harder to achieve, requiring on average three relatively intense sessions of resistance training coupled with strict nutrition to gain results. Secondly that how people see themselves in the mirror is often different to how they actually look. This is why before-and-after photos or measurements are always useful tools, as they give you ammunition to support the progress that some clients may struggle to see.

• Nutrition - British society has an increasingly unhealthy relationship with food, with more and more people using it as a crutch to improve their mood or state of mind. On one hand we make unhealthy choices when we’re depressed or feel we deserve a treat, for example eating an entire tub


NO ONE CAN MAKE YOU FEEL INFERIOR WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT - Eleanor Roosevelt

of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream if we’ve had a tough day at work. This issue is exacerbated by the availability of huge quantities of the processed, unhealthy foods on various promotions in every supermarket up and down the country. On the other hand, more people are skipping meals and not eating sufficient amounts because they feel they’ve gained weight or need to lose weight to feel better about themselves.

Motivational

• Mentoring - As mentioned earlier, having a personal trainer who you see regularly acts as a powerful motivator for most people, however for those who can’t afford this a lack of motivation is the single most common reason people fail to continue exercising.

• Goal setting - By creating targets or goals that are pre-agreed with my clients and achievable, we create a reason for them to stay committed. Some great examples of this are any upcoming events such as a family wedding or holiday, or performing a body-weight pull-up for the first time. After this has been achieved it is important to re-evaluate and set new targets.

• Plateauing - The majority of people who make a significant change to their exercise and/or eating habits will see an immediate and obvious change which acts as a fantastic motivator. However after a few weeks or months these results can plateau as the body adapts and becomes used to the changes. Again at this point we re-evaluate and establish new goals, and change something in order to give the body a greater stimulus, for example switching the focus of you exercise sessions from weight loss to strength gain. This kick-starts the body and ensures the client sees continued progress, which in turn motivates them.

• Competition - A common tactic employed by health clubs and weight-loss companies that can really drive participation and improve people’s performance is establishing competitions or leaderboards. In my experience everyone loves to see their name in lights, and that innate sense of competitiveness can really drive people to push themselves and exceed their own expectations and goals.


The key with all these motivational factors is striking the right balance and understanding that everyone is an individual. Where some people will love competing with a workmate to get the quickest 5k time or lose the most weight, others will find the idea incredibly intimidating, so it is always important to make these things optional.


OUR GREATEST WEAKNESS LIES IN GIVING UP. THE MOST CERTAIN WAY TO SUCCEED IS ALWAYS TO TRY JUST ONE MORE TIME - Thomas A. Edison

Q4

HOW CAN

WORKING WITH A

PERSONAL TRAINER

HELP TO OVERCOME

MOTIVATIONAL

ISSUES?


When working with a personal trainer or nutritionist people are far more likely to see results, and when they do they are also far more likely to continue exercising and making healthier choices.

Fewer than 25% of regular gym users achieve the goals they set out when they join. Of that 25%, over 90% work with a health and fitness professional. In my personal experience there is one overriding factor though - motivation. In the majority of my clients simply knowing that they have an appointment with me in the diary motivates them to stay on track. Of course it helps that they have expert advice and knowledge on hand, but nothing can beat the knowledge that they are going to be held to account for any poor choices they’ve made. This social pressure, which is created entirely from within, is the key to gaining results and permanent improvements in health.

However the vast majority cannot afford to pay a personal trainer or nutritionist, so have to rely instead on quick-fix workout programmes and ‘fad’ diets, which unfortunately set unrealistic targets and normally yield poor results. With this in mind, I believe the best way to alter and encourage people to lead healthier lives is to give them access to as many of the benefits of working with a personal trainer as possible without the financial costs. While this might sound unrealistic, a huge step could be taken simply by educating people and giving them the knowledge to make the most of their efforts. Positive results drive continued participation both in individuals but also in their friends, family members and colleagues, creating a healthier society over time. In business the Pareto principle states that in the majority of cases, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. I believe this could also be applied to the nation’s health problem; by identifying the most effective methods used by personal fitness trainers and replicating them, it would be possible to educate people on the best ways to improve and maintain their health and in turn the health of their families.


FEWER THAN 25% OF REGULAR GYM USERS ACHIEVE THE GOALS THEY SET OUT WHEN THEY JOIN

Q5

WHAT ROLE DOES

TECHNOLOGY PLAY IN

INCREASING

MOTIVATION AND

SUCCESS LEVELS?


I believe technology has a huge role to play in curbing the obesity epidemic and associated illnesses. Smartphones and the Internet, when utilised correctly, offer an incredible platform to revolutionise the way we stay healthy.

Both hardware and software such as Nike+ and Zombies, Run! have already found success through creating an online community where likeminded individuals can meet and push each other to excel and gain great results.

Nike+ uses motion sensors or the accelerometers found in smartphones to monitor and measure a users’ activity levels, earning them “NikeFuel” which can be shared via social networks and used to earn trophies or complete challenges. With over 11 million users it is proving a huge success and illustrates people’s receptiveness to new and innovative ways of exercising.


NIKE+ DASHBOARD NIKE+ DEVICE SELECTION

Zombies, Run! goes further with the gamification aspect than any other app and illustrates technology’s potential to combine exercise and gaming to improve participation and results. This downloadable smartphone app plays out a developing story where the user is being chased by the undead between music tracks, prompting an interval-training style of training. As the user completes runs they collect supplies like ammunition and medicine which can then be distributed by the user on their home computer in a Sim City-style platform game.

From a nutritional standpoint, things are far less advanced. Most apps focus solely on calorie counting - an incredibly inefficient and old-fashioned method of monitoring food intake. One of the most popular apps of this type is My Fitness Pal, which allows users to log the amount of calories consumed each day, and the amount of calories expended through exercise. They have an incredibly extensive database of most widely available foods, coupled with a relatively simplistic system that calculates calorie expenditure based on your weight, age, and the type and duration of exercise. While calorie counting does tend to yield reasonable weight loss results, it is by no means the most efficient method and is rarely sustainable, meaning people usually put the weight back on once they reach their target weight. It also places no importance on the correct proportions of nutrients, and makes no effort to actually educate people what to eat.


ZOMBIES, RUN! DASHBOARD ZOMBIES, RUN! INTERFACES

If you show people how to eat a clean, non-processed diet then the body will begin to work correctly, releasing hormones to limit your food intake and rendering calorie-counting obsolete. I believe the key here is to give people less choice, and to provide them with a weekly shopping list and a set menu, based on their likes and dislikes. By gaining more information about each user, it would be possible to generate a food and meal plan specifically tailored to give them the most efficient route to their target.

In my experience people are far more likely to follow a rigid meal plan or selection of suitable recipes than a rough set of principles. By saying to someone “if you eat exactly what I’m telling you to, when I’m telling you to for the next four weeks, you will see huge improvements in your body composition, guaranteed” you are making a commitment to them, which in turn motivates them to make the same commitment in return.

There are hundreds of other health and fitness apps currently available, its even a category all of its own in Apple’s AppStore!

However no-one has managed the complete solution yet - an online community where both diet and exercise can be tracked easily and accurately, with engaging gamification aspects combined with expert knowledge and advice which users can access easily and instantly.


Q6

WHAT ARE YOUR

FINAL THOUGHTS?


We need to acknowledge that there is no miracle pill or fitness programme that will help us become fit and healthy overnight.

Some people will simply not be willing to put in the work to get where they need to be, and for many it is a long road back to a truly healthy body composition. I would argue that by identifying the people who are willing to make the effort and focussing all our energy on helping them, we will see far greater results than by trying to help everyone.

I have trained many individuals, from a bride-to-be who lost 3 stone over 4 months, to experienced marathon runners who took over an hour off their previous best time. This has shown me that while every case is different, one thing is constant; everyone is motivated by something or someone, and if you can harness that drive and set achievable goals then almost any client can and will get the results they want.


ContributorIan Male

Ian is fitness and wellbeing expert currently working as a personal trainer for Greenwich Training.

“I’ve been a Personal Trainer for over 3 years, working at various different gyms around London. For me, the key to keeping fit and staying fit is making exercise enjoyable, it shouldn’t be a chore.”

[email protected]

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