Why Personal Training is Necessary?

(Used with permission from the ISSA – International Sports Sciences Association)The Office of the Surgeon General released its Report on Physical Activity and Health in1996. The report strongly supports the role of physical activity for good health andprevention of major health problems. The National Institutes of Health released a ConsensusStatement on the importance of physical activity for cardiovascular health. The HealthyPeople 2000 objectives list physical activity and fitness as the first of twenty-two priorityareas. The American Heart Association included physical inactivity and low fitness levels asprimary risk factors along with smoking hypertension and high cholesterol.Unfortunately even with the resounding benefits of physical activity and fitness being toutedand reported, America is currently undergoing an obesity epidemic with twenty-five percentof Americans still remaining sedentary. This would equate to one out of four Americans stillbeing sedentary. To make matters worse, the federal resources and funds for physicalactivity have lagged far behind other aspects of health. Health and physical education in ourschools are a low priority and are often the first programs to be cut in schools.Consider the following as well. Americans spend more than $600 billion dollars annually forhealth care. This meteoric figure translates into an expenditure of almost $3,000 for everyindividual in the entire population. Regrettably, this financial commitment neither has shownsigns of abating, nor has it produced totally acceptable results with regard to treating a widevariety of chronic health problems.Attempts to identify the factors which have been major contributions to this virtual epidemicof medical problems have produced a litany of probable reasons why such a large number of individuals are so apparently unhealthy; poor eating habits, a sedentary lifestyle, stress,poor health habits (i.e., smoking), ad infinitum. At the same time, a number of studies havebeen undertaken to identify what, if anything, can be done to diminish either the number orthe severity of medical problems affecting the public. These studies have providedconsiderable evidence that exercise has substantial medicinal benefits for individuals of allages.Two of the most widely publicized efforts to investigate the possible relationship betweenexercise and disease were longitudinal studies, each of which involved more than 10,000subjects. Several years ago, in a renowned study of 17,000 Harvard graduates, RalphPaffenbarger, M.D., found that men who expended approximately 300 calories a day; theequivalent of walking briskly for 45 minutes, reduced their death rates from all causes by anextraordinary 28% and lived an average of more than two years longer than their sedentaryformer classmates. A more recent study conducted by Steven Blair, P.E.D., of the Institute of Aerobics Research in Dallas documented the fact that a relatively modest amount of exercise has a significant effect on the mortality rate of both men and women. The higherthe fitness level, the lower the death rate (after the data was adjusted for age differencesbetween subjects in this eight-year investigation of 13,344 individuals). An analysis of theextensive data yielded by both studies suggests one inescapable conclusion … Exercise IsMedicine!Accepting the premise that regular exercise can play a key role in reducing your risk of incurring a medical problem and in decreasing your ultimate costs for health care is a criticalstep. Despite the vast number of individuals who lead a sedentary lifestyle, the need for andthe value of exercising on a regular basis is an irrefutable fact of life (and death). For

example, Paffenbarger concluded after a detailed review of the results of his long-terminvestigation that not exercising had the equivalent impact on your health as smoking oneand one-half packs of cigarettes a day. Fortunately, with few exceptions, most people aretoo sensible to ever consider ravaging their health by smoking excessively. Unfortunately,many of these same people fail to recognize the extraordinary benefits of exercise inpreventing and treating medical problems.Any listing of the medical problems and health-related conditions that can be at leastpartially treated and controlled by exercise would be extensive. Among the most significantof these health concerns and the manner in which exercise is thought to help alleviate eachcondition are the following:?

Allergies. Exercise is one of the body's most efficient ways to control nasal congestion(and the accompanying discomfort of restricted nasal blood flow). ? Angina. Regular aerobicexercise dilates vessels, increasing blood flow— thereby improving your body's ability toextract oxygen from the bloodstream. ? Anxiety. Exercise triggers the release of mood-altering chemicals in the brain.? Arthritis. By forcing a skeletal joint to move, exercise induces the manufacture of synovialfluid and helps to distribute it over the cartilage and to force it to circulate throughout the joint space. ? Back Pain. Exercise helps to both strengthen the abdominal muscles and thelower back extensor muscles and stretch the hamstring muscles. ? Bursitis and Tendonitis.Exercise can strengthen the tendons— enabling them to handle greater loads without beinginjured. ? Cancer. Exercise helps you maintain your ideal body weight and helps keep yourlevel of body fat to a minimum. ? Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Exercise helps build up themuscles in your wrists and forearms— thereby reducing the stress on your arms, elbows,and hands.? Cholesterol. Exercise will raise your level of HDL (the "good" cholesterol) in the blood andhelp lower your level of LDL— the undesirable lipoprotein. ? Constipation. Exercise helpsstrengthen the abdominal muscles, thereby making it easier to pass a stool. ? Depression.Exercise helps speed metabolism and deliver more oxygen to the brain; the improved levelof circulation in the brain tends to enhance your mood. ? Diabetes. Exercise helps lowerexcess blood sugar levels, strengthen your muscles and heart, improve your circulation, andreduce stress. ? Fatigue. Exercise can help alleviate the fatigue-causing effects of stress,poor circulation and blood oxygenation, bad posture, and poor breathing habits. ?Glaucoma. Exercise helps relieve intraocular hypertension— the pressure buildup on theeyeball that heralds the onset of glaucoma.? Headaches. Exercise helps force the brain to secrete more of the body's opiate-like, pain-dampening chemicals (e.g., endorphins and enkephalins). ? Heart Disease. Exercise helpspromote many changes that collectively lower your risk of heart disease— a decrease inbody fat, a decrease in LDL, an increase in the efficiency of the heart and lungs, a decreasein blood pressure, and a lowered heart rate. ? High Blood Pressure. Exercise reduces thelevel of stress-related chemicals in the bloodstream that constrict arteries and veins,increases the release of endorphins, raises the level of HDL in the bloodstream, lowers yourresting heart rate (over time), improves the responsiveness of your blood vessels (overtime), and helps reduce your blood pressure by keeping you leaner.? Insomnia. Exercise helps reduce muscular tension and stress. ? Intermittent Claudication.Exercise helps improve peripheral circulation and increase your ability to tolerate pain. ?Knee Problems. Exercise helps strengthen the structures attendant to the knee— muscles,tendons, and ligaments— thereby facilitating the ability of the knee to withstand stress. ?Lung Disease. Exercise helps strengthen the muscles associated with breathing and helps