Gyms won’t solve obesity crisis

Encouraging people to work out in gyms several times a week will never be the answer to the obesity epidemic, says a sports psychologist.

Encouraging people to work out in gyms several times a week will never be the answer to the obesity epidemic, says a sports psychologist.While extreme activity might be useful for some, a better method was to select more moderate forms of activity that fitted into daily life.”We did not have gyms . . . in previous generations. In some senses, they are a very artificial way of trying to help people to get more active,” said Stuart Biddle, professor of exercise and sports psychology at the Loughborough University.Biddle said part of his research had been to investigate barriers people erected to stop exercising.”Often life events get in the way of taking exercise. One woman could not get started at all — she needed her daughter to go with her. One man got a new job which involved physical activity and quit the exercise program.”Life fluctuates for us all. Structured exercise like going to the gym is very easily disrupted for many people,” Biddle said.(Source: The Calgary Herald, April 2004)