FITNESS SAFETY
Top Five Reasons to Make Fitness Safety
Priority No. 1
by JoAnn M. Eickhoff-Shemek, Ph.D., FACSM, FAWHP
aking steps to help ensure the safety of fitness participants is
T the no. 1 responsibility of all fitness managers and exercise
professionals. Too often, injuries occur that could have
been prevented. This new column will focus on specific strategies
that will enhance fitness safety. This first column, however, describes
five major reasons why fitness safety needs to be the top priority.
REASON NO. 1—SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN THE
NUMBER OF EXERCISE/EXERCISE
EQUIPMENT INJURIES
Injury data are tracked and categorized from a sample of hospital
emergency room departments throughout the United States via the
National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. To determine the to-
tal number of injuries, estimates are calculated from the actual data.
In the category of Exercise/Exercise Equipment, there were 264,921
injuries in 2007 and 498,498 injuries in 2018—an increase of almost
90% (1). These data do not reflect the number of injuries that did not
involve a visit to a hospital emergency room, which would likely be
far more. These data also do not include sport injuries such as foot-
ball and soccer injuries. To reverse this trend, a concerted effort is
needed. For example, injury prevention education needs to become
a priority throughout the exercise profession, e.g., academic prepara-
tion, certification preparation, and on-the-job training.
REASON NO. 2—LEGAL AND MORAL DUTY
All fitness managers and exercise professionals have a general le-
gal duty to provide reasonably safe facilities and programs for their
participants. Reasonably safe means taking precautions to help
prevent foreseeable injuries (minor, major, and life-threatening) and
death. The failure to take such precautions can lead to costly negli-
gence claims and lawsuits. To fully understand what these precautions
are, it is important to first recognize the many legal liability exposures
(situations that can create a risk of injury) that exist in fitness facilities
and programs. This is best achieved by obtaining a working knowl-
edge of the law, legal liability, and risk management.
Moral duties—doing what is right—are often reflected in a fitness
facility’s core values such as ensuring the safety of participants and
Volume 24 | Number 1
providing high-quality services. For core values to be effective
and meaningful, the facility’s leadership team needs to (a) be sure
all staff members are aware of these values and why they are im-
portant, (b) practice and uphold them when making decisions,
and (c) integrate them into the facility’s culture (2). The Hippocratic
oath states among other things—first, do no harm. This is an im-
portant ethical code for all exercise professionals to follow. Taking
steps to help ensure the safety of participants is not only the top
legal duty but also the top moral duty.
REASON NO. 3—FEAR OF INJURY OR REINJURY
A fear of injury may be a significant barrier to exercise, especially
among those with medical conditions who could benefit a great
deal from regular physical activity. For example, individuals with
diabetes have reported fear of injury as a barrier to physical activity
more often than with those without diabetes (3). According to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, injuries are a leading
reason people stop participating in physical activity (4). These indi-
viduals likely stop exercising because of a fear of another injury.
To meet the many national initiatives to increase and maintain
physical activity among Americans, exercise professionals need
to realize that some individuals may have a fear of injury or rein-
jury. One way to help new participants overcome these fears is to
emphasize, during the fitness facility orientation, how the facility
has made fitness safety a priority, e.g., provides and enforces safety
policies, hires only credentialed and competent exercise profes-
sionals, and follows industry safety standards and guidelines.
REASON NO. 4—LITIGATION AVOIDANCE
Everyone knows we live in a litigious society and that negligence
lawsuits can be very costly and create negative publicity. However,
these are not the only concerning outcomes of litigation. It is impor-
tant to realize the significant amount of time and emotional distress
experienced by the defendants (exercise professionals and their em-
ployers) after a lawsuit is filed by a plaintiff (injured party). It may
be several years before a negligence lawsuit is settled out of court
or goes to trial. During this time between the filing of the lawsuit
and the decision to settle or go to trial, called the discovery phase,
the defendants will have many tasks to complete. For example, they
will likely have to (a) prepare answers to a set of written questions
(interrogatories) sent by an attorney of one party to the other party,
(b) provide testimony (e.g., answer many questions from the plain-
tiff’s lawyer under oath), and (c) produce various documents of
www.acsm-healthfitness.org 37
FITNESS SAFETY
evidence such as injury reports, preactivity screening forms, waivers,
exercise equipment inspection records, emergency action plan,
etc. In one case (5), the defendant produced more than 750 pages
of documents in response to all the discovery requests. Preventing
injuries from occurring in the first place is the best way to avoid
the many negative consequences of litigation.
REASON NO. 5—HARM BEYOND THE VICTIM’S
When a fitness participant is injured, obviously the physical and
emotional harm suffered by the victim is of utmost concern. Some-
times the victims fully recover from their injuries, but sometimes
they do not. Those that do not often have life-long limitations
and disabilities that have a significant, negative effect on their
quality of life. Fitness managers and exercise professionals need
to seriously consider this negative effect experienced by the vic-
tim but also those close to the victim. This is best expressed by
the following quote from safety advocate, George Robotham:
“A health and safety problem can be described by statistics but
cannot be understood by statistics. It can only be understood by
knowing and feeling the pain, anguish and depression and
shattered hopes of the victim and of the wives, husbands, parents,
children, grandparents and friends…” (6).
“A health and safety problem can be described
by statistics but cannot be understood by
statistics. It can only be understood by knowing
and feeling the pain, anguish and depression
and shattered hopes of the victim and of the
wives, husbands, parents, children,
grandparents and friends…” (6).
Fitness managers and exercise professionals will also have to
live with the fact that the victim’s injury occurred under their
38 ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal ®
watch. This can be emotionally distressful for them as well, espe-
cially if the injury was preventable.
1. National Electronic Safety Commission (NEISS). U.S. Consumer Product Safety
Commission. [cited 2019 July 26]. Available from: www.cpsc.gov/LIBRARY/neiss.
html.
2. Cancialosi C. Two ways to ensure your corporate culture and values align. Forbes.
July 20, 2015. [cited 2019 July 2]. Available from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/
chriscancialosi/2015/07/20/2-ways-to-ensure-your-corporate-culture-and-values-
align/#3fa9fcd46e31.
3. Huebschmann AG, Crane LA, Belansky ES, Scarbro S, Marshall JA, Regensteiner
JG. Fear of injury with physical activity is greater in adults with diabetes than in
adults without diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2011;34(8):1717–22.
4. CDC Injury Research Agenda 2009-2018. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. January 2009.
[cited 2019 July 2]. Available from: https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/21769.
5. Jessica H. v. Equinox Holdings, Inc. N.Y. Misc: LEXIS 1215 (N.Y. Sup. Ct.; 2010).
6. Brown D. 14 quotes to strengthen your safety culture. Safety management in-
sights, Basicsafe. August 7, 2014. [cited 2019 July 2]. Available from: http://info.
basicsafe.us/safety-management/blog/14-quotes-to-strengthen-your-safety-
culture.
JoAnn M. Eickhoff-Shemek, Ph.D., FACSM,
FAWHP, professor emeritus, Exercise Science
at the University of South Florida and presi-
dent of the Fitness Law Academy, LLC, is
an internationally known author and speaker.
For more than 35 years, her teaching and
research have focused on fitness safety, legal
liability, and risk management issues.
Dr. Eickhoff-Shemek is the lead author of a new textbook,
Law for Fitness Managers and Exercise Professionals:
Minimizing Liability and Maximizing Safety, that will
be published in 2020.
January/February 2020