I believe yesterday was the first day I’ve ever truly taken notice of the obesity epidemic in first person. Clearly, after the chain of events took place in my life yesterday, my eyes are wide open to this awful problem.
Not that I didn’t recognize obesity as a true epidemic prior to January 3, 2012, but yesterday was different. It was kicked off by an early afternoon interview with Chuck Runyon, the CEO and co-founder of Anytime Fitness, a top fitness franchise. Chuck and I decided to spend the vast majority of our conversation discussing his new book, “Working Out Sucks,” which he churned out with assistance from Brian Zehetner, MS, RD, CSCS, and Rebecca Derossett, MSW.
When I asked Chuck why he wrote his book, he couldn’t go deep enough into how horrible our world has gotten in terms of obesity. His view was that the vast majority of people that are born into this world are born with the ability to exercise, they simply choose not to. He sees this as worst situation because there are so many people that are born without the choice to exercise — people that are restricted to wheelchairs or can’t get out of bed. But, Chuck is a realist and he’ll be the first person to tell you that working out does in fact suck.
I believe it was my conversation with Chuck that set my brain in motion and had me recognize every bit of obesity I came across on Jan. 3. After the interview I even looked at myself and forced myself to hit the gym twice as hard. Because, the more I looked around, the more I realized that obesity may be the epidemic, but so many of us continue to just half way engage in physical fitness — even when we hit the gym five days a week.
After my interview with Chuck I stumbled upon the Entrepreneur.com Top 500 Franchises for 2012. You can find the short article on our website that gives you all the fitness franchises that broke into the list. Anytime Fitness happened to do really well with massive expansion in 2011 — they jumped from #18 to #11.
However, as awesome as it was to see five fitness franchises in the top 500, it was equally as disheartening to see the top 10, and I don’t mean Hampton Inn, which topped the list. I’m more concerned about 7-Eleven, McDonald’s, Denny’s Inc., Pizza Hut Inc. and Dunkin’ Donuts. It simply proves where America’s priorities stand. They are more wrapped up in finding a quality hotel and fast food than sweating for even five minutes at some of the quickest and cheapest gyms in the world.
This continued to disturb me after I left the office last night and went to see a college basketball game with a friend. It seemed like each person that walked up past our seats had a bigger and bigger bucket of popcorn. I watched this young girl, couldn’t have been more than 14 years old, down an entire bucket of popcorn during the first half. One individual was struggling to sit down in one of the seats because they simply couldn’t fit. The seats were big enough that I was practically lounging with my foot propped up on the seat in front of me.
We continue to battle through the stereotype that gyms are for the super fit, but the truth is, the super-fit are restricted to the courts and fields which professional athletes play. The rest of us, probably struggle with something each and every day in the world of fitness.
I remember Herschel Walker telling ESPN that he grew up a chubby kid that got picked on every day. However, I remember my dad telling me when I was a young kid, the stories of Walker. He seemed like a myth even in real time. I was told no one wanted to tackle him because he would beat them to death with his legs as he churned on down the field. Now, I don’t want to work out with Herschel Walker and do his 1,000 pushups and sit-ups a day. But, I can get into the gym five days a week and get out some cardio and strength training. I can realize that Herschel had to make an extreme shift in his life at one point to end up as the Herschel Walker we know today.
Although, we have to convince the world that they don’t have to be a Herschel Walker; or a Mike Tyson, Aaron Rodgers, Hines Ward, Kobe Bryant or Metta World Peace (Ron Artest). Typical people just need to feel good. The physical and psychological problems that arise with obesity are devastating and as fitness professionals, you should know them all like the back of your hand. We need to remember a day when we didn’t have fitness in our lives, when we didn’t know what it was like to exercise everyday, or have the desire to do anything active if it didn’t involve a burger and fries. We need to remember those days so that we can relate the experience to the average person in our society — even if it has never been as extreme.
Fitness needs to take a radical shift in the average person’s mind. What is now perceived as six-pack abs and the absence of all things tasty in ones diet, must transform into walking, jogging and strength training a few days a week; only eating burgers once a month, or just slowly cutting down the portions. You need to convince the average person that given six weeks, if they follow some basic guidelines, they will feel so much better. And, when they begin their basic, six-week experiment, don’t kill them. Slowly introduce people to exercise. Help them understand that fitness doesn’t mean looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger, it just means feeling good and enjoying life in a way that they probably did as kids, before they started putting weight on.
I know it seems so much easier in my mind than it is in real life, but something has to be done. I know I used to realize how big of a problem obesity was, but I feel like for the first time in my life, I’m really seeing how it is devastating our society and ruining the lives of people everywhere.
Tyler Montgomery is the Editor of Club Solutions Magazine. Contact him at tyler@clubsolutionsmagazine.com
