NO TO EXERCISE MARKETING

By PHIL JOFFE

They think that they can fool everyone by bringing over all sorts of alternative ways to exercise, one more ridiculous than the next. But fitness conscious enthusiasts out there should not fall for their theatrics.

Gyms and health clubs have established themselves all over the world, providing the facilities to enable their members excellent opportunities to achieve higher levels of physical fitness, necessary for good health.

However, there seems to be a frenetic and unsubstantiated belief that something ‘new’ must be provided regularly. There is a false perception that gym members are easily jaded and constantly needing ‘the latest’ fads in exercise classes. On the contrary, the average person training wants a good workout, directed by certified group-instructors who know what they are doing. They want to choose classes that fall into recognised categories: cardio-vascular workouts, at different levels, aiming to move participants and raise heart-rates to develop stamina; strength-building classes that use resistance exercises, with weights, to condition, tone and shape the body; calming yoga and Pilates sessions for balance, coordination and flexibility.

Annually, agitated marketers over-spend for the privilege of introducing something ‘new’ from America, the home of marketing hype and hot air. Pound classes came from America last year (but, so also did their new president, Trump). The ads proclaimed, “The world’s first cardio-jam session, inspired by the infectious, energising and sweatdripping fun of playing the drums!” Pound claimed it combined “conditioning and strength training with yoga and Pilates-inspired movements”. It announced the “powerful brain-boosting, stress-relieving effects of drumming, improving your rhythm, timing, coordination, speed, agility, endurance and musicality”. Using lightly weighted plastic Ripstix (patented drum sticks), participants pound away, crossing stix, hammering the floors, banging away as they move under the direction of the chief drummer. Perhaps, for the older clients, they will introduce a “Click” class, using lighter knitting needles?

Claims were made that participants “dropped 20 pounds in weight”, “completely changed my body shape”, “brought out my inner rock star!”

However, gimmicks do not a good exercise class make. The claims are often inflated, and already, at my home club attendance has fallen sufficiently for the Pound classes to be THE THOUGHTFUL EXERCISER SHOULD COMBINE A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT TRAINING ROUTINES

cancelled, replaced with less trendy, but more reliable forms of exercise that do not require the paid-for plastic accessories.

Another bad marketing gym ploy is trying hopelessly to combine every element of physical fitness into some suspect, new mutant class. A few years back, the ‘new’ Barre class was trumpeted; it would combine the grace of the ballet dance, with the balance, alignment and flexibility of yoga and Pilates. However, few instructors in gyms have any ballet training, and to believe that one can yoke together disparate skills in the hyped claim that all goals of complex physical fitness can be met in a hybrid class is a shaky endeavour. Most Barre classes, too, have vanished off the timetables.

In a similar vein, the gyms, over the years, seeking trendiness, have launched kickboxing classes, developed from three separate disciplines, martial arts, aerobics and boxing. Instructors, untrained in the martial and fighting arts, are unleashed upon the unsuspecting, mixed groups of house wives, students, and the general population, who are then put through routines of high-intensity, approximate-combat moves. This not only disrespects the labour and discipline of years of hard training that the dedicated martial artist undergoes, but also heightens the risks of injury to the enthusiasts, who have not endured the specialised training needed to execute safely, real kicks or blows, under full control.

To achieve improvements in all the elements of physical fitness – cardiovascular, muscle strength and endurance, flexibility, balance and coordination – the thoughtful exerciser should combine a number of different training routines, over the course of the week, to attempt to meet all these needs.

Ignore the hype of the gym-marketers who are regularly on the brink of launching another hyperbolic class from the USA, that pretends it will meet every fitness element in less than one hour’s sweat!