Personal Fitness Professional - September 2008 - (Page 12)

OM C J Creating altruistic and proﬁtable youth ﬁtness programs By Brian Grasso H T U O Y ING AT B O ITY ES B Editor’s note: This article is the ﬁrst in a series that outlines steps and key concepts for the trainer who has the desire to tackle the youth obesity epidemic. Youth obesity has become the epidemic of note throughout society. Countless governmental bodies, independent organizations and mainstream media outlets are constantly revealing statistics and projections related to this problem. According to several sources, the youth overweight/obesity numbers exceed 30% of people under the age of 18 in the United States and are expected to rise towards the 50% marker by 2010. The numbers and trends within the United States echo what is happening on a larger scale worldwide. Other nations such as Australia and Canada have reported increases in youth obesity as high as 10-20% in certain age demographics over the past decade. While this topic remains a tragic one and in certain need of attention, there seems to be much in the way of discussing the problem and very little in terms of what truly needs to be done. to an inappropriate lifestyle devoid of activity. So obesity is not the problem — inactivity is. And while this perspective change may seem insigniﬁcant, I can assure you that to truly ﬁnd success when working with clients, your number one goal must be to ﬁnd the core root of the problem. Moreover, contemporary youth ﬁtness programs are widely considered unsuccessful because of their lack of attention towards the actual problem and creating its corresponding solution. I say that because we have an industry obsession with attacking the superﬁcial realities. When our clients ask for weight loss, we place them on calorie-restrictive diets and put them through the torturous demands of an intensityﬁlled training routine. When that weight loss is required in a time-expedient way, we go to extreme measures and create boot camps based around enacting military-style workouts that serve to ‘shed the pounds’ all that much quicker. But what we are missing is that these interventions serve to attack the superﬁcial nature of the quandary. They are trying to ﬁx the sneeze. By not addressing the mental, emotional and lifestyle realities that brought our clients to this place to begin with, we are almost guaranteeing A Comprehensive Solution We need an action plan that will assist kids and families in ridding themselves of the burden that has virtually crippled our youngest generation and even lead to a vernacular shift in medical terminology. Type 2 diabetes, for example, used to be referred to as ‘adult-onset diabetes’ until it became a common illness diagnosed in thousands of children due to their overweight concerns. More importantly, we must peel back the layers and ascertain what the true cause for concern is: Is obesity really the problem, or is it the symptom of a greater matter? When you become ill with a cold, do you ever treat the sneeze? Probably not. I imagine that you have never gone to your doctor when ill and informed them that you have been sneezing and, therefore, require some kind of ‘anti-sneeze’ medication. You recognize that sneezing is a bodily response to an infection and results because of mucus buildup. In that, the infection is the core problem and root of the concern. The same can be said for youth obesity. The obesity factor is nothing more than a bodily response SEPTEMBER2008 · WWW.FIT-PRO.COM 12 http://WWW.FIT-PRO.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Personal Fitness Professional - September 2008

Personal Fitness Professional - September 2008 Contents Letter from the Editor, Writers Adding Pilates and Yoga to Your Clients' Workouts Combating Youth Obesity Prescription for Success NEW! The Balancing Act Technical Necessities Product Profiles Current Controversies Mark Your Calendar Coaching Your Client's Diet Life Coaching 101 Exercise Spotlight Product Profiles New on the Market [Spotlight] Gregg Miehle

Personal Fitness Professional - September 2008

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