The Blackboard
(May 2003)

 “Health Bites”
By Ron Jones, MS

This month I’ll offer a few brief “health bites” on things in the news lately.  Here are some hotties that should be interesting:

Exercise & Weight Loss: Exercise is good for “keeping weight off” once you lose it but not very good for “getting weight off.”  Exercise itself doesn’t really burn that many calories.  For example, if a reasonably fit person exercises “hard” for 60 minutes, studies show they burn about 600 calories per hour.  That’s cool, but a McDonald’s Big Mac Meal is 1,470 calories.  Do the math!  A little exercise just doesn’t stack up compared to high calorie junk food and excessive portion sizes.  So keep working out (Exercise has MANY benefits beyond burning a few calories!), but if you have a significant amount of weight to lose realize that you need a more holistic “wellness” approach that includes eating lower fat and healthier food in the appropriate portion sizes.  Also, most American adults are overweight and don’t exercise for the recommended 30 minutes a day.  These overweight and unfit people would not be able to safely exercise at a “hard level” for 60 minutes in the first place.  Example—maybe only 100-200 calories is burned for an hour of exercise.  That Big Mac Meal is looking even more intimidating!

Exercise & Water:  Mary Sanders and WaterFit (www.waterfit.com) at the University of Nevada in Reno have some nice research and results on training seniors to improve balance—“in the water.”  How can you improve balance in the water? The water gives a person some extra safety without the fear of falling.  They can lean out and challenge their core muscles and functional balance threshold without falling on the ground—thus the water is more supportive of their body weight.  Sanders had significantly better results training seniors for balance in the pool as compared to the ground.  More water classes are being offered today for exercise, balance, and even arthritis therapy.  Pools are cool—check them out whether in a formal class or doing your own thing!

Exercise & Coaching: There has been a new movement the last few years towards “coaching.”  Coaching is much more holistic than personal training.  Wellness coaching is a specific type of coaching that focuses on fitness AND health issues.  “Wellness” is a balanced approach to health.  Take our first health bite of exercise and weight loss—if you are working with a personal trainer that can only “count reps” but has no formal education in wellness and behavior change psychology, then your exercise isn’t going to do much for taking off the weight you are trying to lose if you’re eating poorly.  Wellness coaches go further to explore your barriers to exercise and healthy eating.  Wellness coaches help you find solutions and create realistic and planned systematic goals towards improving your health.  The most professional wellness-coaching program today is through a company called Wellcoaches.  Wellcoaches personnel (www.wellcoaches.com) must have a health-related degree and nationally recognized certification before beginning a 10-week licensing course specific to “wellness” coaching.  On-line coaching is hot today because people are too busy to even drive to the gym.  They can work with a wellness coach on the phone and via Internet video camera to get personal coaching right in their home.  The coaching is personalized—not just repeated “sets and reps” by an uneducated personal trainer.  You might want to check out “coaching” if the exercise-only grind just isn’t cutting it anymore.

Next Month: Youth sport programs!  47 million kids are in U.S. youth sport programs today.  Are your kids being coached properly?  What philosophy of coaching is being used on your kids? Read next month to find out how to keep your kids movin’ in sports while having fun!

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