Finally, those federal bureaucrats in charge of our collective health have devised an exercise program we can live with. It involves minimum sweat, no body-fat analysis or heart-rate checks and, best of all, it’s Lycra-free.
After loads of marketing and research, the Atlanta-based U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently unveiled a new nationwide fitness campaign that is constructed around how people actually behave, not how they’re supposed to. Even as we sit, Illinois public health officials are devising strategies to improve the blood circulation of the 33 percent of Illinois adults who had the guts to admit their idea of exercise is walking over to put their Dove Bar wrapper in the trash.
This is the CDC’s first attempt at coaching the adults of America in how to improve their health through physical activity. In fact, Uncle Sam has offered few specifics on how active adults should be; the majority of what the federal government has had to say on exercise involves measuring the fitness levels of the nation’s Internet-addicted youth. (Remember the torturous flexed arm-hang or the 50-yard “dash” in the President’s Council on Physical Fitness test?)
But last year’s Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health convinced the CDC that they were on to something here. It showed that even “a moderate amount of physical activity” has significant health benefits, including reducing the risk of heart disease or diabetes. No mention of exercise or fitness or athletic performance in their new package.
This was something, experts realized, that they could sell to the public.
So these feds–whose Washington, D.C., counterparts lead the nation in idleness (surprise), according to the CDC’s extensive analysis–have developed a health campaign aimed at merely trying to get us to leave the couch to change TV channels.
In a nutshell, the campaign promotes the health benefits we can achieve without changing out of our work clothes and donning some sort of support undergarment.
For example, take a 10-minute walk at lunch–and don’t go so fast that you can’t hold a lively, gossip-filled conversation while doing so, says Jeff Sunderlin, the Illinois Department of Public Health official in charge of physical activity programs for the state.
And we ask: Is there any other way to walk?
“It’s about looking for opportunities to be active within the framework of your everyday life,” said Dr. Michael Pratt, acting chief of the CDC’s physical activity and health branch. “Taking a little extra time to walk around the neighborhood with your kids. Washing your own car instead of taking it somewhere to be washed. Doing a little bit of work in the house or garden.”
Even better, the campaign is targeted at people who are getting a workout just thinking about working out. The CDC labels those merely thinking about becoming physically active as “contemplators” and those whose new bike is sitting in the garage after a couple tryouts as “preparers.”
Seems their first aim is just to awaken us to the notion that there is another option to taking the elevator up a floor.
“You do not have to be a star athlete or join an expensive gym to receive health benefits from physical activity,” said CDC Director David Satcher.
Instead, Satcher and his team want us to get off our bums–park the car farther away in the mall parking lot; follow the kids around the zoo instead of sitting on a park bench. They want us to rack up 30 minutes of such physical activity each day, five or more days a week.
Whatever happened to Arnold Schwarzenegger as the nation’s physical fitness model? In the George Bush era, Arnold illustrated the importance of a fierce workout by flexing on the White House lawn with peppy types such as Mary Lou Retton.
“The years of being at the far end of the spectrum in terms of the zealot approach to exercise has turned so many people off,” Sunderlin said. “Years ago, we’d chide people and say, `If you’re not in your sweat clothes, it doesn’t count.’
“This (new) notion of physical activity is a different bird,” Sunderlin said. “How do you change a behavior? So many people in this state, 60 percent-plus, are in a sedentary category, and every year that’s creeping up. We’re not talking about getting people to any level of Olympic performance–we’re talking about getting them off the sofa.”
Trying to boost the adrenalin in little ways throughout the day is the most realistic approach for the campaign’s time-crunched audience of 73 million adult Americans. Most of those are women between the ages of 18 and 45, educated, middle-income and likely to be married, working and raising children. Two-thirds are trying to lose weight.
Few of the adults in focus groups and interviews conducted by the CDC considered themselves in the category of rugged or athletic. Rather, they categorized themselves as interesting, friendly, caring, mature, fun, smart, honest and content. One wonders if the two categories are mutually exclusive.
These wise folks saw exercise as time-consuming, boring and, of course, physically painful. On the other hand, physical activity hit them as fun. Apparently, they were thrilled to learn that something like carrying a laundry basket through every room of the house fights osteoporosis.
It turns out seemingly minor activities such as picking up a week’s worth of dog doo in the back yard actually helps lower our risk of high blood pressure and colon cancer.
“The campaign is acknowledging that the science tells us there is more than one way to be physically active. Moderate activity provides the same benefits as exercise activity does, just not as much benefit,” Pratt said.
The idea of “physical activity” as an area of study is new. The CDC formed their branch on the topic just a year ago.
In Illinois, the Public Health Department for the last few years has been pushing the concept of changing people’s behavior as opposed to demanding they adhere to some prescribed regime of 50 pushups and 100 situps a day, for instance.
Much about exercise has to do with developing better habits. That’s why those youngsters who failed the president’s fitness test in elementary school are likely those same adults who can’t seem to keep their New Year’s exercise resolution until Valentine’s Day. How do you permanently divert someone from the “Up” button so that they head for the stairs instead?
A key concept behind promoting physical activity, says the CDC, stems from research showing we are all on a continuum of readiness to change our ways; the range begins at being completely hung over all the way to the Martha Stewart model of disciplined, sustained behavior.
Across the nation, health and community groups are using such information to plan events and promotions to attack our particular forms of inertia. The events range from a before-work walk in a downtown area to outdoor dancing lessons.
The idea is to catch people’s attention by boosting their self-confidence (Yes, you can move your hips without dislocating them) and setting small, specific goals (It’s not that far to walk to the Dairy Queen).
This campaign is made for us fellow Americans. But take heart, if we maintain our flawless record and fail at this latest benign scheme, the feds’ next exercise model might take us to an even lower denominator: rotary-dial telephones.
