| About John Miller | Miller Health | Fit and Healthy Online |
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THE NEW FITNESS CENTRE |
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PREAMBLE The time has come to develop a range of health, fitness and wellbeing services, both individual and group, which attract more and more unfit and unhealthy people into fitness centres.
The aim is to corner a market currently considered the preserve of the highly protected medical/pharmaceutical industry.
There are strong philosophic and practical reasons for doing this.
INTRODUCTION The future is bright for the organisation which
This is the challenge that the LA organisation may well be ready to step up to.
There are signs that we are entering the post junk medical era. In the grand history of medicine this era amounts to less than a pixel on a flat screen, a moment in time that has had it's day.
The success of immunization and antibiotics has perverted the course of modern public health policy. What's happened is that current medical practice is driven by the belief that all body system dysfunctions, including those that are personally generated through lifestyle neglect can be treated by a magic medical/pharmaceutical bullet.
But we know this is a nonsense.
Firstly, more and more people are becoming dysfunctional, not through a lack of pharmaceuticals but by their own hand.
Secondly more and more people are being prescribed medications that do not restore poor function to good. Their degree of dysfunction is bring maintained by their medication. The medical solutions are not working.
The growth of an expanded range of health services in fitness centres has the potential to accelerate the rate of decline of the junk medical industry.
This is the challenge.
Decline of one industry
DYSFUNCTION When we talk about 'poor health', it becomes easier to grasp the concept when we define it as 'body system dysfunction'. Most of the diseases that plagued the country 100 years ago have disappeared. The current illhealth epidemic relates not so much to 'diseases' that come out of the blue, but rather to lifestyle-induced dysfunctions. They're private rather than public health issues.
Consistently good public health policy over the last 100 years has removed a lot of the diseases and created the foundation for good health - a foundation that most people seem reluctant to build on.
This foundation of good health as supplied by our governments is about as good as you can get - clean water, deep drainage, immunization, education, health inspection, building standards, affluence ...
Our hospitals are about as good as you'll get too. Watching any of the myriad hospital programs on TV attests to the great work done in hospitals.
But in this country, at least, hospitals are continually under attack - principally because they can't cope with the demand for their services, stimulated by people who are in dreadful shape and Government manipulation of market forces.
The paradox, of course, is that whenever governments throw more money in the direction of the medical industry, they stimulate demand for services it provides.
Stimulating the growth of fitness centres into the broader health market will not only lower demand for medical services but will save governments huge amounts of money.
So it's not public health we have to worry much about, most of that worry is done for us. On the contrary, it's our own private health we have to worry about and if we don't, the symptoms of dysfunction ultimately rear their ugly head.
I can think of three principal categories of dysfunction (obviously there's more) ▪ metabolic ▪ musculo-skeletal ▪ psychological.
With the metabolic dysfunctions I', not sure what the underlying problem is, but I do know that a good physical activity program (along with a good diet and a stress management program) can fix most of it up.
With the musculo-skeletal dysfunction I know that a good strength and flexibility program will get the body back into better alignment.
With the psychological dysfunctions, I know that people who have a good aerobic exercise program feel better than those who don't. The research tells us that a 12 month aerobic fitness program is better than a 12 month Prozac program.
So what's the cause of the problem? Basically it's people in poor shape due to a sedentary lifestyle, poor diet, lack of personal resilience, toxic environment ... Or it could be due to laziness, ignorance, stupidity or attachment to the comfortable way of life!
Anyway, what ever it is, people are in bad shape and getting worse.
They're at the left hand end of the health, fitness and wellbeing continuum a graduated scale from excellent to dreadful.
The good news about this is that if personal lifestyle choice is the major cause of the problem, then personal lifestyle choice can be a major influence in the solution - not junk medicine.
There is a huge business opportunity for any organisation which mobilizes fitness centres to seriously target the poor-health market - to make fitness centres an automatic first choice for people who want to improve their health and fitness.
A justification for this move into the health arena is the self-evident truth that poor condition can't be fixed in surgeries, pharmacies or hospitals.
In the real world, primary health care should be the care you give yourself; secondary health care should be the care you get from a fitness centre. If all else fails, tertiary care is the care you'll get from a physician. Instead primary care is currently the preserve of the GP.
THE EMERGING MARKET The market is here, like a new mine waiting to be developed.
The need has never been greater, more and more people are in poor shape.
The opportunity has never been more promising.
There is a trend. More and more discerning people are making the decision to keep themselves fit. More and more people over 60 are going to fitness centres. They go because they feel better, their back feels better, they sleep better, they've got more energy and vitality.
THE CONUNDRUM Does the fitness industry tackle the medical industry head on for customers or does it work with the medical industry to gain referrals.
I'm not sure.
There will be no sweeter business objective than to break the medical/pharmaceutical monopoly on health care.
The fitness industry will be able to market and promote itself unfettered by medical and pharmaceutical industry advertising constraints.
To date the weight of countervailing opinion in the debate - fitness centre or surgery - has been heavily weighted toward the surgery. This is principally because the debate has been monopolized by the medical industry. Public health policy has been hijacked by the medical industry.
To date, the monopoly hasn't been tested. The health academics are subservient to the medical industry monopoly; happy to work with them to achieve medical industry objectives, not fitness industry objectives. The people working in the industry have been bowed by the weight of 'superior' qualifications and power of the medical industry. It's like trying to bring down a religion.
The fitness industry doesn't have a strong academic basis, it's a grass roots movement. On one hand not having academic heavies sharing the heavy lifting is a weakness. On the other hand the industry comes unshackled by the dead hand of academia with it's dependence on medical and pharmaceutical industry largess for research and silver service dinners - the back slapping, palm greasing, head turning, ho-hoing and brown nosing that's the hallmark of the academic world.
The fitness industry is a vibrant and dynamic industry, one of the very few dominated by young people. The fitness industry isn't having the problems attracting staff that the greying medical and pharmaceutical industries are. We're not flying in Urdu-speaking fitness practitioners from Pakistan and Ethiopia to staff our fitness centres. On the contrary. It's one of the few industries attracting youthful, enthusiastic staff. It's a key indicator of industry viability.
In the last 50 years, the history of political success has been skewed toward the grass roots movements that turned small fires into prairie fires; of David's toppling Goliaths.
General practitioners Currently the medical profession has its head turned almost exclusively toward 20th Century pharmaceutical solutions for 21st Century lifestyle problems, working on the premise that every dysfunction can be cured by a drug. Of course we know this is not true; most of the pharmaceuticals for the common body system dysfunctions mask symptoms without restoring poor function to good. In fact as people are duped into taking more and more drugs they are in fact becoming unhealthier.
This is a challenge.
Physiotherapy Like the medical industry, it's probably time for the fitness industry to tackle the physiotherapy and chiropractic industries head on. Improving strength and flexibility stands as the key to maintaining good body alignment - not the rub down, crunch, hot wheat bag and electric shock.
Dieticians It's likely that the fitness industry will benefit more from a close association with the philosophy of naturopathy than by a close association with the dietician's industry. Natural healing has a lot going for it. The dieticians are locked into big business - their associations being the recipients of favours from key sectors of the junk food industry - particularly confectionery (Nestles), flour and sugar (Kelloggs) ...
Psychology A psychologist in every fitness centre sounds good, but in practical terms, arming fitness practitioners with life coaching skills will probably be just as useful and more cost effective. Fitness practitioners certainly don't need a masters degree in rats and stats to understand the essential psychology behind exercise adherence and over-eating to be supportive of the health, fitness and wellbeing objectives of their clients. People who make the move to attend a fitness centre just want the assurance that they'll be competently supported in setting and achieving goals.
Most people don't need psychoanalyzing, they just need someone to lead them in the direction of their dreams and support them on the journey.
If we need anything we need more philosophers to clarify out thinking about what we need to do to live fit, healthy, rich and fulfilling lives.
THREATS The fitness industry can expect a backlash from the medical, pharmaceutical and allied health professions as they wake up to the threat.
On the other hand their heads may well be turned so far that by the time they wake up the fitness industry Trojan Horse will be well and truly inside the walls of the health castle.
The universities will move heaven and earth to apply the academia brake (as they have done with teaching and nursing), with staff being required to present themselves with higher and higher qualifications to work in the industry. Higher qualifications means higher wages, means higher fees, means less customers, means less profitability for fitness centre proprietors.
The fitness industry must resist all moves by universities to collar the workforce education side of the business. All that will do is cut off the supply of enthusiastic young people of average intellect who have a passion for the industry. Entry to the industry will be decided by tertiary entrance score ranking and nothing else. That's the last thing this industry wants.
On the other hand there is an opportunity here for current fitness education providers.
The other threat is government regulation which will start with qualification boards chaired by university professors, followed closely with bureaucrats in grey cardigans wandering around with clip boards.
OPPORTUNITY There is a faint glimmer of hope that some people within the medical industry will actually encourage their customers to go to fitness centres, but don't count on it. Treat that as a bonus.
There is the likelihood that the fitness industry will able to paint the medical industry into a corner. The medical industry won't be able to deny the benefits the fitness industry brings to society. And maybe, just maybe, over-worked doctors will eventually have to concede they'll die on the job unless their customers become fitter and healthier.
The strategy is then to treat the medical industry not so much as an enemy but as a competitor for the health dollar; to work with them on some issues whilst vigorously competing for the last slice of health industry market share.
That competition will be based on price and service; on outcomes not inputs.
Governments will be forced to see the benefits of a growing fitness industry as they struggle to support a bloated and ineffective medical/pharmaceutical industry. They can't keep up with the supply of doctors now, let alone in the future. As a society we can't afford to have the medical industry soaking up more than 10% of GDP. It's a cost, not an investment.
The fitness industry will know it's arrived when governments recognise that primary healthy care starts in fitness centre, not a surgery.
OUR PHILOSOPHY It's a big ask in our culture expecting to stay healthy without keeping fit. It's an even bigger ask expecting to get better by having someone do something to you; sooner of later you have to do something to yourself.
PERSONNEL Personnel in fitness centres are increasingly becoming better educated. This is a workforce not yet recognised by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare as being involved in the health industry.
In the main these people are passionate about what they do - they have a commitment to helping people become fitter and healthier.
They form the basis for the successful transition of fitness centres into health and fitness centres
Whilst they may not acknowledge it, they are, in many instances better educated on matters relating to the treatment of metabolic, musculo-skeletal and psychological dysfunction than doctors. They are more aware than physiotherapists of the value of strength and flexibility exercises in treating musculo-skeletal dysfunction.
What they currently lack in expertise can quickly be made up by the specialist education programs tailored by the LA organisation to qualify people for this work.
A move into the health arena will provide fitness practitioners with an expanded career pathway.
And lets face it, you don't have to have a tertiary entrance score of 99 to provide regular folks with good, sensible health, fitness and wellbeing advice. You don't have to have a medical degree to take someone's blood pressure., their aerobic fitness, strength and flexibility, or send them off for some basic pathology tests - glucose, cholesterol ... - and then interpret those results.
You don't have to have a masters degree to coach people further along the road to better health, fitness and wellbeing.
In fact the community is waiting for an industry group who will make an assessment of their current health status, set them a program and supervise their workouts.
THE ROLE The fitness industry is uniquely involved in charting a new direction in health care.
THE PROGRAMS The programs will be tailored to suit people with the three major body system dysfunctions
- metabolic - musculo-skeletal - psychological.
1. Individual assessments
2. Exercise prescription
3. Individual and partner programs - aerobic exercise - strength training - flexibility
4. Group programs - the Complete Workout
5. CrookBack Clinic
4. Hourglass Diet
5. Lifestyle coaching
THE HUB With these programs, all based on sound evidence and supported with enthusiastic and well educated staff, the fitness centre promises to be a hub of health, fitness and wellbeing activity in our communities.
EDUCATION Keeping fitness practitioner education out of Universities is probably a good idea. Once universities get there hands on fitness practitioner education they will suck it into the medical vortex, base their theories on selective evidence generated by medical research and spend most of their time on research rather than teaching.
VALUE ADDING The value added to fitness centre businesses by this move stands to be significant. If it gets the support of governments the value will be even further increased. The reasons why government may be involved is because of the effectiveness of fitness centre programs in restoring and maintaining good health - and the lower cost, compared with medical and pharmaceutical treatments.
CONFIDENCE You'd be forgiven for asking why this hasn't been done before.
Ten years ago you might have said we didn't have a well educated professional group running fitness centres and programs. You can't say that now.
This is an industry that's growing because the community respects the expertise of fitness centre staff. It's not rocket science.
The confidence that comes with a dramatic increase in the number of people being employed in the fitness industry is growing; the confidence that comes with an improvement in fitness industry standards of education is growing; the confidence that comes with fitness industry financial success is growing, to the point where the stars are now in alignment for the fitness industry to confront the medical/pharmaceutical industries head on.
The result for the fitness centre industry; grabbing more health industry market share.
The result for customers; health, fitness and wellbeing.
The result for governments; less expenditure on junk medicine.
The fitness industry is busting for as new challenge.
This is it.
HOW DO YOU DO IT? The simple answer is to
THE PROGRAMS To view a short synopsis of some of the programs, click on the links on the left hand side of this page.
THE CLINICS Click here for a prιcis of Health, Fitness and Wellbeing Clinics of Australia.
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