Greedy Gyms Make You Fat!
The obesity epidemic is spreading across the UK at an alarmingly rapid rate. Recent reports suggest we are the fattest nation in Europe with 62 percent of females and 65 percent overweight in 2005, but what or who is really to blame for this current poor health crisis?
In the past people were active enough in their daily lives to burn the necessary calories to maintain a healthy weight. We now have an office-based culture in which people remain static for the entire day. Combine this with the invasion of technologies that no longer require us to move – cars, washing machines, remote controls, escalators, even automatic doors, and it is inevitable that we need to add some kind of physical activity to our daily lives.
The Gym industry has gradually made us believe that this is the only form of exercise available. This puts a halt to many of our good intentions to get fit; “I need to exercise, but I hate the gym…guess I’ll do nothing instead.”
Those that falsely accept that the ‘gym-only’ myth, are bullied into paying huge monthly membership fees, only to receive an insufficient service, such as poorly paid, inadequately qualified gym staff that sit in a corner assuming that keep-fit novices know all there is to know about safe and effective exercise techniques.
Without support and advice the lonely gym journey then gets tedious. Then, results are not achieved and reasons to attend are forgotten. Before long, it’s a repeat of the cycle – “guess I’ll do nothing instead,” yet this time the fees continue to fly out of the bank account, without a word from the profit-guzzling establishment. Lucky for them, room for new gullible members that do not attend. Unlucky for us, our waistlines expand.
A revolution of the gym industry is needed. Forty percent of the most qualified instructors leave the industry each year due to poor pay and prospects. Wages need to be raised to keep the qualified people that actually motivate, educate and support people on their journeys to a healthier lifestyle. Either that or the government needs to step in to develop exercise alternatives.
Other nations with lower levels of obesity have solutions outside of the gym such as Brazil with outdoor exercise stations on the beach, China, with streams of people practicing early morning Tai Chi or Holland with a multitude of pushbikes lining the streets.
If you are paying for a gym membership, either make sure that you attend on a regular basis, or just cancel it. There is just no need to throw money away, making the gyms profits fatter if the inactivity of not attending is doing that to your waistline! Try an alternative exercise type instead.
Enjoyed reading this article. Thanks Marc
Ryan