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Barriers to Exercise

Why we exercise

April 24, 2013
Barriers to Exercise, Behavior Change
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How would you respond if I asked, “Why do you exercise?”  Would you pause and ponder?  Would you say “because it feels good”?  Or would it be something along the lines of “I exercise to extend my life”?  Most of the responses I have been given over the years fall into two general categories, those of “Because I am training for something” and “I want to lose weight.”  Rarely do people respond that they exercise to extend their lives.  This may be a thought in the back of their minds, especially if, for example, a family member has been diagnosed with heart disease and their is a strong family history of this condition.

This thought of heard disease lurks in the back of my mind as both maternal grandparents died due to heart disease and my mother has a few heart issues over the years.  I also think about the Alzheimer’s my father battles.  Will my exercise help stave off both?  In the far reaches of my mind, I hope so.  However, if I am honest with myself, this is not what drives me to exercise.  My drive comes from a lifelong battle with weight.  This battle is what most likely led me to my profession and my interest in why we eat.  Yet more on the surface, this battle is the force behind my exercise patterns.  Exercise does make me feel good, I get down without it.  I like to practice what I preach and it is easier to encourage others when you actively take part.

These were my thoughts as I saw the question posed to Gretchen Reynolds this week in the New York Times:  If I do 30 minutes of cardio exercise six days a week, would increasing it to 60 minutes a day be twice as good for me?  Her response intrigued me.  The answer all depends on the definition of “good.”

In her response, Ms. Reynolds, whom I enjoy reading and have high respect for, focused on lifespan as the definition of good.  Studies are cited that state those exercising moderately live just as long as those who exercise obsessively.  Bump your workout from 15 minutes a day to 30 minutes a day and you only see a 4% increase in lifespan.  So it would seem doubling your workout time doesn’t give you much bang for you buck.

However, is there another way to look at it?  Double your workout time from 30 to 60 minutes and you will burn more calories, perhaps leading to more meaningful weight loss provided you don’t eat more (we will present work out of our lab next month at the American College of Sports Medicine Meeting that shows when people exercise vigorously, they overestimate their calorie expenditure by nearly 20%, thus the idea of eating too much when you exercise more).  You’ll also simply move more and sit less.  And we know how important moving, even just standing, is.

So it all depends on the definition of “good.”  Why do I exercise?  So I can eat more and maintain an edge in my battle with weight.  Why do most people exercise?  Weight related responses reign supreme.  Perhaps by taking an active role in our health and moving as much as we can, we gain something more that immeasurable increases in lifespan.

Great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great…

April 19, 2013
Barriers to Exercise, Behavior Change, Scientific Studies
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Perhaps it’s my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents fault that at times I am not motivated to exercise.  Perhaps it is my ancestor’s gift that I battle that amotivation and continue to exercise.  Why some people choose to be active and others choose not be is the never-ending question in my discipline.  One can be given a fantastic exercise program to follow, can even hire someone to guide you through it.  Yet, if we are unmotivated and choose not to do it, the program is no good.

Gretchen Reynolds, early this week in the New York Times, highlighted a fun study on motivation and exercise.  Albeit it rats a telling story is told.  Rats were put in a cage with a wheel and their activity was tracked for one week.  The most active females and males were bred together, as were the most inactive varieties.  This was repeated through ten generations.  The end product were a set of rats that loved to exercise and a set that loved to sit.  The exercising rats ran ten times as much as the couch potatoes.

Then the dissection began.

Surprisingly, the two groups of rats did not differ much in body composition (muscle and fat) and the lazy rats were only a touch heavier.  The differences lay in the genes:

“The scientists compared the activity of thousands of genes in a specific portion of the brain that controls reward behavior, or the motivation to do things because they’re enjoyable.  They found dozens of genes that differed between the two groups.  The rats’ decision to run or not to run, in other words, was being driven, at least in part, by the genetics of motivation.”

Wow.  Thanks great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandpa, you gave me the will to succeed.  Or at least the will to fight.

Those that came before us impact us.  In a powerful way.  We know this.  This can be a blessing and a curse.  We shouldn’t look backwards and say it’s their fault we don’t exercise, although tempting.  Rather, in our unmotivated moments, we should challenge them and say, “Here we go!”

The genetics of motivation.  Fascinating stuff.

Happy Friday.

 

Use the force, Luke.

February 20, 2013
Barriers to Exercise, Scientific Studies
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Many years have passed since I last watched a Star Wars movie. A huge fan of the original three, which I believe we’re episodes IV, V, and VI (had to look that up), they left me behind at Jar Jar. However, I seem to remember an iconic line that someone in the movie said: “Use the force, Luke.” Obi Wan? Yoda? They were prescient. I can hear many of you say, “Duh. They were Jedi Masters.” I’m ok with that.

Upon salientdictates return from abroad I’ve written a couple of posts focused on a recent article detailing how no data exist on common presumptions regarding obesity and weight management. This article appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. On Monday I made the case for small environmental changes and weight loss and the reasons that supporting data may exist to the standard we want them to exist. Yet.

As a physiologist I have been trained to believe in, and ask for, data. As an exercise physiologist I have espoused the theories of specificity (Want to run a marathon? Your training needs to include running and a lot of it), and overload (You just push past your perceived limits to achieve improved performance. Think intervals.). I’ve told people that cardiovascular exercise is better for weight management than lifting weights. Data support these positions. However, I have always been interested in people and people aren’t data. They transcend data. Asking “why?” is a challenging question and that is one reason I love asking it. Why do people yet? For a million reasons that apply themselves differently to every individual differently on any given day. Try developing a research project that can handle that kind of data.

This morning I read David Brooks’ New York Times column on where data misses out:

Data struggles with the social.
Data struggles with context.
Big data has trouble with big problems.

The answers to why we eat and why we exercise the way we do lie in each of the realms above. No research, no matter how carefully done, is universal in its application. As I look up from my customary position on the exercise bike at my local fitness center I see the two women who religiously join me at 3:30 am to exercise. They are on the same two StairClimbers each day. Every day. I want to scream “Mix it up!” I know there is another woman behind me on the treadmill. She will walk off and grab water at 4:11 am. She does it each day. I hope she is in training to walk. As for myself I rotate between my stationary bike and elliptical. I should do more, at least that’s what the data says. However, as with the women on the StairClimbers and treadmill, I have found something that works for me. For me. Not for the average (+/-), but for me. I’ve lost weight doing what I do. I’ve kept weight off doing what I do. My mind is calm doing what I do. I look forward to what I do. For me it’s so much more than cross training or getting my heart rate in zone 3. My journey around why I eat and why I exercise is is emotional, psychology, physical. Data doesn’t get that.

The recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine states small changes don’t make a difference. That no data exists on setting small goals. That weight doesn’t necessarily need to come off slowly. That is what the data says. I’m not data and neither are you. Have a routine that works for you? Go with it. I may ask you why you do what you do, and you can do the same with me. An acceptable answer would be: “It’ complicated. It just works for me.”

Let the force guide you to what works for you. To guide you to what you enjoy, what motivates you, what keeps you from eating handfuls of chocolate chips that you found underneath the coffee behind the frozen strawberries in the freezer. Thank you, Yoda. Obi. Darth. Whomever you might be.

I will continue to understand why and I hope you do to. Carry on.

Monkey see. Monkey do.

October 3, 2012
Barriers to Exercise, Children, Exercise, Scientific Studies
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At the end of an article appearing in this morning’ s New York Times the following statement is made:

“Kids naturally love to run around and play,” Dr. Booth said. “But they’re just not doing it as much now. And we don’t know why. So what we really need to understand is, what’s happening to our kids that makes them quit wanting to play?”

A fascinating question and it is asked in the context of new research showing that structured fitness interventions for children don’t make kids more active. Whether the fitness interventions are providing 90 minutes of vigorous activity or 30 minutes of moderate exercise it seems that kids do what their parents do: sit when they’re done. They compensate. Just worked out? Time to sit. Sound familiar? Our friends at the University of Copenhagen demonstrated the same thing in adults. We exercise, we sit. The more we exercise, the more we sit. At least we’re equal opportunity, giving fitness and obesity both a fair shot at grabbing us.

Across the board the children’s total time spent in physical activity increased by an average of only 5 minutes, in some studies even less, when they were part of a children’s exercise program. Why? How could this be? A suggested theory, in addition to increased sitting as compensation, is that the interventions took place when the kids would have been active on their own (i.e. after school). This thought suggests that rather than increasing activity levels by introducing new and fun things to do the interventions simply changed how the kids were being active. If kids are being active let them play. On their own. By themselves.

Both theories, increased sitting and simply changing how kids are active, are plausible. My guess is both are at play. No pun intended. The question remains, why don’t fitness programs for kids increase activity levels?

“It’s a really difficult problem,” said Frank Booth, a professor of physiology at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

At least Dr. Booth is honest, however, we need to solve it. Dr. Booth suggests we need to identify the appropriate time for the interventions (I say during math class, children will remember their arithmetic more readily), and also calls us as parents out (Thank you!) stating that moms and dads can encourage leaving of the couch by “subverting” their children’s desire to sit . I’m all for subversion.

This leads us to the eternal question of parenthood, what’s the best way to trick our kids? Whether it be getting them to eat their broccoli, to go to bed, to stop crying in the aisle of Target, or to be more active, how do we do it? Hmmmm.

“A welcoming setting may also be key…the most important determinant of how much the youngsters moved — or didn’t — was their local built environment. Children with more opportunities to be outside, in a safe, well-designed space, were more likely to be outside, romping.”

Say what? I will not let my kids ‘romp.’ That is just not right! Oops focussing on the wrong word.  I digress, I’ve got it now, you mean if we create safe and fun opportunities for our children to be outside, they’ll actually do it? They’ll go play? Whoa. Let me get this straight, if I change the built environment by turning off the tv, they won’t watch it? They’ll go play? Earth shattering.

Does it really surprise us that kids sit after they exercise? We do the same thing. Monkey see, monkey do. Whether you agree with Charles Barkley or not, we are all role models. If we go outside our kids will to. Want to know the best way to not have our kids sit on the couch in front of the tv? Don’t have a couch in front of the tv. Change the built environment. Have you ever rearranged the living room only to discover on your first attempt at laying down post-rearrangement that you can’t get comfortable andsee the tv? Note to self: don’t rearrange the living room based on tv accessibility and viewing comfort. You’ll just lay down more and watch nearly five hours of television (average American viewing habits). And so will your kids.

I have a wall hanging, a picture of kids playing in the leaves, that was stitched for me by a babysitter when I was young. “Let them play and they shall have their wisdom.” That was 1975. My babysitter was onto something. I wonder if she was secretly an exercise physiologist?

Still struggling

August 28, 2012
Barriers to Exercise, Behavior Change
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I’m still struggling a bit with Dr. Pontzer’s research on the Hadza that I highlighted yesterday. I spoke briefly with some friends in the field and they to can’t get their understanding wrapped around this one. Again, not discounting it, rather, thinking hard about it.

One thought that crossed my mind was that comparisons shouldn’t be made between the Hadza and us. Those of us in the west have watched as our activity levels have dropped off for the past century while the Hadza have been incredibly active for time immemorial. Rather, maybe we should compare those westerners that are active to those who are not. What would activity and inactivity look like then? I have to believe that if I run 5 miles per day my metabolism looks different that the person that sits at their desk all day and doesn’t think about moving.

In this morning’s New York Times Jane Brody discusses how we need to change our perspective as to why we exercise. Long term benefits such as weight loss don’t seem to sustain most of us when trying to maintain an exercise regimen. rather we should focus on the immediate such as happiness and stress relief. Always good to think about why. Why, why, why. Remember Simon Sinek? In Ms. Brody’s article she states, “Study after study has found that, without major changes in eating habits, increasing physical activity is only somewhat effective for losing weight, though it helps people maintain weight loss and shedding even a few pounds, especially around one’s middle, can improve health.” You won’t get an argument here from me. Weight loss mustbe about activity anddiet. This supports one aspect of what Dr. Pontzer was sharing: it’s the food. He also states, “Physical activity is very important for maintaining physical and mental health, but we aren’t going to Jazzercise our way out of the obesity epidemic.”

Jazzercise I will not. Legwarmers frighten me. Exercise I will. Makes me feel terrific. Right nowhere, it doesn’t matter why you exercise. Find what sustains you and ride that horse. And if you’re on that horse, maybe you can catch up with the Hadza.

Just what the doctor ordered

August 20, 2012
Barriers to Exercise, Behavior Change, Exercise
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Last week I wrote about what may happen if doctors began prescribing exercise as medicine.  We all know the benefits of exercise and as our knowledge progresses we become more adept at getting the type, amount, and intensity of exercise right for people that want to take this pill.  Too often, however, physicians aren’t prescribing it.  In an article dealing with medical apps in this morning’s New York Times Lee Perlman, managing director of a company developing a system whereby doctors can prescribe apps says, “It is intuitive to people, the idea of a prescription.”  And herein lies the crux of the situation.  No matter our station in life we listen to the doctor.  Yet doctors don’t always give the best advice.  (Check out these pieces on testing what we think we know and ADHD).  No fault of their own, physicians don’t receive much training in medical school around exercise.

Here we are talking about prescribing apps that help monitor everything from how many steps you take to counting calories to monitoring your blood glucose levels.  This technology fascinates me.  We still need to prescribe exercise.  There are two key words there:  exercise and prescribe.  Those of us without MDs cannot prescribe much of anything, in the sense that people understand the term.  Even with a PhD in exercise physiology, a MD trumps me when it comes to whom to believe in the world of health.  I am not bemoaning that fact, there is way more in the world of health that I don’t know compared to what I do. Physicians do tremendous work.

What would happen if you walked into a doctor’s office and they said, “Get 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise, but before you do, go see this fitness professional.  Here is your referral and prescription for exercise.”  That would be amazing.  People would have a prescription in hand, and in a beautiful world that prescription is covered by insurance, and off they go to meet their fitness professional.  Exercise advice without support is likely to do nothing, as history shows us.  Exercise advice with support from a fitness professional may be a different story.

We need to move and we need the help of physicians to do it.  As the American College of Sports Medicine states, “Exercise is Medicine.”  In the healthcare arena we all need to work together, patients included.  Until this time comes, I encourage everyone to get up and move.  Stand up for 5 minutes.  Walk around the block.  Do what you are capable of doing.  Who knows, by the time you get moving maybe everyone else will catch up.

The Deconditioner

August 17, 2012
Barriers to Exercise, Behavior Change, Exercise
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The Grim Reaper. The Tooth Fairy. They exist. Those silent figures that walk into our lives and affect our bodies. Our selves. Some more than the others. I’d like to add another. The Deconditioner. He’s not nice. He’s mean. Rather than coming to us at one specific time, as if to collect a soul or a tooth (preferably the latter), the Deconditioner visits for a moment and leaves. Comes back, leaves again. Comes back for a bit longer, and leaves again. Only after leaving traces of his presence (and yes, the Deconditioner is a he, no woman is this cruel, strike that, I can think off few, you decide.) and letting those traces accumulate, once she has you firmly in his grip, does she stay for good (confused as to gender yet?). When the Deconditioner has taken up residence in your home that’s it. You’ve done it. You’re inactive.

On the NPR Health blog “Shots” Michael Joyner discusses the rationale for quantifying lack of exercise in a medical diagnosis. He makes a strong and valid point. “The entire medical research industrial complex is oriented towards inactivity. Insurance companies will reimburse patients for pills and for diseases related to inactivity, but rarely for gym memberships. Physicians really need to start defining the physically active state as normal,” says Dr. Joyner, a physiologist at Mayo Clinic. I love that last point: physicians really need to start defining the physically active state as normal. Wouldn’t that be something? Here’s how that would look:

Patient: Morning, Doc.

Doctor: Good morning, patient. Your chart says you are 310 lbs and that you stand 5’10.

Patient: I’m big boned.

Doctor: Understood. However, you are also a Type II diabetic and your joints hurt.

Patient: No bother. I’m Norwegian.

Doctor: Understood. Still, you’ve got a serious condition we in the medical community term “Type O Deconditioning.” This can be very serious if left untreated.

Patient: Type O Deconditioning? I’ve never heard of that. What does the O stand for?

Doctor: The O? Doesn’t stand for anything, I made it up so as to impress you with my command of Latin medical terminology. Makes me sound smart and distant so that you become too intimidated to ask questions. Forget that. Type O Deconditioning is also known as being inactive, i.e., you’re a couch potato.

Patient: I’m Norwegian, I already told you that. My people like potatoes. We like bland.

Doctor: Couch potato. I said you’re a couch potato.

Patient: Oh.

Doctor: Type O, actually.

Patient: I see. Well, give me some pills and I’ll be on my way.

Doctor: Not today. New research shows that exercise is medicine and if you take a daily dose of it your diabetes will be controlled, maybe even reversed, and your joints will feel better. On top of that, you’ll lose weight and a whole host of good things happen just by standing up. 

Patient: Does exercise come in pill form?

Doctor: No. Here is my prescription. Take a daily dose  and call me in a month.

Ok, even if we could classify inactivity as a medical condition as Dr. Joyner suggests we still have a ways to go in improving the system. We’ll get there. Most physicians know relatively little about exercise. They need to know more. Patients know relatively little about exercise. They need to do more. Those of us in the exercise field know relatively little about how to truly motivate people to activity. We need to know more. However, we can learn. We can do.

Get a daily dose of activity today. Go for a walk. A run. Stand up. No one really wants to see the doctor and more importantly, no one wants a visit from the Deconditioner. Scary.

Where’s my flashlight?

Note:  Dr. Joyner’s original commentary was published in the August 1, 2012 issue of the Journal of Physiology.  You can access it here.  

Luke

June 15, 2012
Barriers to Exercise, Exercise, Food Rules
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Luke got me thinking this morning.  No, not Darth Vader’s son, but rather the late Tim Russert’s son, Luke Russert.  Seems he is following in dad’s footsteps in the news realm and was guest hosting “Way too Early” on MSNBC this morning.

The show’s regular anchor, Willie Geist, does an excellent job of keeping his viewers awake and engaged.  And I must say young Luke (not ready to call him Skywalker yet) did a nice job filling in.  He made a comment near the middle of show as they went to break: “And for those of you exercising this morning, go faster during the commercials.”  I started to think of framing and how we say things in regards to exercise.

Yesterday I had students in a class I teach complete 20 minutes of high intensity interval training.  They had two options:  Go hard for 30 seconds, recover for 30 seconds, and repeat 20 times or go hard for 15 seconds, recover for 45 seconds, and repeat 20 times.  The difference in the two is the intensity.  You can go harder for 15 seconds than you can for 30.  I encouraged and challenged them to truly put the pedal down when they were supposed to.  Red faces abounded.  Some pride showed up too.  There was the inevitable “Those were the longest 30 seconds of my life” comments hanging about, but for the most part the students felt good about what they had accomplished.

Rather than framing yesterday’s exercise as High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) which sounds scary in and of itself, what if I had followed Luke’s advice and said, “Go faster during the commercials.”  Classic.  Setting the stage and expectations without scaring them.  Defining the terms without needless anxiety.  I am ready to call Mr. Russert “Skywalker” now.  A bit like Occam’s razor, sometimes the best answer is the simplest.  Afraid of high intensity exercise?  I won’t tell you that you are doing it, I will simply tell you to go faster during the commercials.  I won’t tell you that you are doing a good ab workout by acting as if you are putting on a tight pair of pants (sucking in your gut and standing tall) ten times a time, rather I will simply tell you to act like you are putting on a tight pair of jeans ten times a day.

Today is Friday and that means it’s Food Rule Day.  Being that Luke set the stage for us so nicely this a.m., let’s go with it:

Go faster through the commercials.  A metaphor for life as well.  Get past the junk, the difficult stuff, so that you can enjoy the rest.  Watch television if you must, but make it worth your while.

Finally, Happy Father’s Day to those dads out there.  Nothing is better than being “daddy.” You have my permission to have an extra cookie.  Enjoy.

Even though…

June 7, 2012
Barriers to Exercise, Behavior Change, Exercise, Scientific Studies
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Yesterday I mentioned that I have a difficult time keeping my routine when I travel.  Everything from airplanes making me hungry (did you know they could do that?) to the little voice in my head saying, “It’s only a week, you’re on vacation, have the fries.  Have the fries again.  Repeat.  Please”  At least the little man is polite when he speaks to me.  I am working hard to change some habits such as snacking, always needing dessert. sitting when walking into a conference session.  However, some of these habits are so engrained I don’t even think prior to doing them.  Ah, the definition of habit.

Last week I could feel the conscious battle going on in my head with respect to food and exercise.  I knew I was in a  new environment, I knew I was making some changes to my routine (and more than a few poor decisions), yet I didn’t, or wasn’t able to, stop myself from making those choices.  Why, in light of everything I know and talk about am I powerless to change my routine when I travel?  Research study alert.

The article I brought up yesterday in relation to physicians not altering their practice even though new information tells them to struck a chord with me.  Seems that physicians are trained to rely on their training to a fault.  New research suggests limiting the number of pap smears women receive, using sigmoidoscopy for colon cancer screening, and not using the PSA screen for prostate cancer. In his article, Dr. Peter Bach calls this “do less recommendations” and doctors are not good at that.  Physicians practice the way their mentors taught them.  One physician’s philosophy is passed down to another and a cycle, or a habit, is created.  When new information comes along physicians find it difficult to incorporate because it goes against their training (and they may not want to seem fringe).  Thus, change is slow and limited.

Why don’t we change habits even when new science, research, and information tell us we need to?  Why do some teach their classes the same way they taught them ten years ago, one year ago?  Why, in political elections, do people vote against their own best interests?  Why do I find it so hard to accept high intensity interval training?  Why can’t I eat well in San Francisco even though all the science leads me to keeping my routine even when I travel?  Habits?  Possibly.  Those darn habits are hard to change.

Behavior change is difficult and time consuming work as we need to think moment by moment.  Last year an article was published in Scientific American that discussed behavior change in relation to weight loss.  (The concepts discussed can be applied to any behavior change but in this case the article centered on obesity).  Get past readiness to change, transtheoretical models, and what have you, and here is what the article shares, we need to do four things for meaningful change to occur:

1.  Have an initial assessment.  We need to evaluate where we are so we know where we are going.

2.  Self Monitor.  Record things, write them down.  How much and what we eat, what we think.

3.  Shift behavior.  Make small changes throughout your day, your work, that add up.

4.  Find support.  Share your thoughts with someone you trust and be accountable.

Shifting behavior, it was easy until that point.  Habits and I just don’t get along.  However, if you look at those four concepts and practice them, maybe change is possible.  Initially I can see how this strategy would help with bodyweight and the like, however, it takes me a minute to see how this could even change doctor’s attitudes towards their practice.

What if a physician did want to change their practice based on evidence?  Might they not be able to assess their current thinking on the matter, monitor their practice, shift their behavior when appropriate, and enlist the help and advice of other respected physicians?  I am not a physician and don’t play one on TV but maybe, just maybe, this strategy would help create change.

I need to employ the above four steps in my life more than I do.  Hard, hard work.  Let’s see what happens.

Yes!

May 31, 2012
Barriers to Exercise, Behavior Change, Exercise, Scientific Studies
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Exercise may be bad for you. Hard to get past that headline in yesterday’s New York Times. Compound that idea by being in attendance at the annual American College of Sports Medicine Meeting (ACSM) where over 5,000 researchers, professors, and students all tout the benefits of exercise and I am experiencing some cognitive dissonance. More on this in a bit, we have more pressing (and fun) matters to discuss.

Yesterday the ACSM conference opened with hundreds of sessions and presentations to chose from. Over 1,000 where in attendance for a keynote lecture on physical activity and bone health. Fascinating. When I walked into the hall there were rows and rows and rows of chairs as you’d expect. The speaker was at one distant end while three large screens dotted the front of the hall. As I sat down I noticed a large gap in the rows of chairs as if the people arranging the hall had simply run out. I paid it no mind. Each session I walked into, whether a large hall or smaller room, had this gap. “They don’t know how to set up a room here in San Francisco,” I thought to myself.

Could I have been more obtuse and defined the stereotype I so loudly rail against?

Into an an afternoon session I went, this time a smaller room. Again the gap was there, so I decided to stand. Get that? I decided to stand. Actually, my decision was made for me as the chairs were full. “I think it’s great they gave people places to stand at each session,” I heard the person standing next to me say.” I simply paused, looked down at my feet and giggled. Engaging my standing friend in a conversation I soon discovered that the ACSM planned it this way, to have standing room available at every session. Brilliant. Wow, did I feel silly.

I have a standing desk at work, I exercise regularly, and I tout the benefits of standing at every turn with my students and anyone who will listen. Sitting is bad. Yet when I walk into a conference, a conference on health, fitness, and exercise no less, my habit is to walk into a room and find a chair. And to mutter complaints under my breath when I am forced to stand against the back wall because everyone has taken an aisle seat and I don’t want to fall over them to get to the oodles of empty middle seats. Here is ACSM practicing what they preach! Stand up during a session! Get off your butts! Yes! This is why I giggled, I was so focused on my habit that I didn’t see the change in seating arrangements as planned. For someone who spends a lot of time thinking about built environments and how they influence behavior, I had to giggle.

I giggled even more when I watched others come into the sessions to discover no more chairs. Now that I was I in the know I could act superior to those not yet enlightened. The last session of the day for me was a discussion of core assessment for runners. As people filtered in and the seats filled, the gap was a desert. No one would venture to the land that chairs forgot. Then, one brave soul did it. He walked into no man’s land. And sat down. On the ground. Within two minutes the entire empty space was full. Of people sitting. On the ground. Some complaining about it. I wonder how many people will sit on the ground for the sessions involving inactivity and the dangers of sitting? We exercise folk aren’t the brightest bulbs.

My guess is that some people will now fall back to the article that’s mentioned at the top of this post and say “I sit because exercise is bad.” Some new research, it seems, has found that about seven percent of the population that exercise experiences an adverse response to a marker of heart disease (i.e., insulin levels, HDL cholesterol, etc). Claude Bouchard and William Haskell are luminaries in our field, as are others quoted in this article. I’m not questioning their science. However, I bet both Dr. Bouchard and Dr. Haskell are bothered by the title of the article. Catchy though, isn’t it? They are here at the conference maybe I will track them down.

One suggestion from the article intrigues me. “If we are going to think of exercise as a therapeutic intervention, like all interventions there will be adverse effects,” he (Dr. Michael Lauer) said. Point well taken. I had never thought of this this way and my guess is many at this conference haven’t thought that way. There are some risks to exercise and they are still being ferreted out.

Conferences such as the ACSM meeting always make me think. They rev me up, charge me with new information and insights. I’ll share more in the coming days.

Stand up and go exercise.

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