PECTIVE
REFLECTIONS OF INDUSTRY LEADERS
The CEO of Fitness Australia asks , should fitness professionals be able to provide nutritional advice to clients ?
WORDS : BILL MOORE
L et me invite you to check in for a
moment on the amazing fitness landscape that we ’ ve all contributed to creating over the past twenty years or so .
Participation in structured exercise has grown from around 9 per cent in the mid-nineties to around 16 per cent today , effectively almost doubling in twenty years . And all the projections are telling us that it will continue to grow at around 6 per cent per year up to 2020 , clearly the driver in Quadrant ’ s recent acquisition of Fitness First Australia , Jetts and Goodlife .
This level of investment , and the confidence in the fitness industry that it demonstrates , should reassure all of us , particularly when investors are having to look far and wide for growth opportunity .
We have done an amazing job of commoditising fitness . A large section of the population are either current or lapsed gym goers or well versed in structured exercise . This commoditised landscape has allowed for the growth of 24 / 7 franchises that now form the majority of new gym offerings . The 24 / 7 clubs could never have existed twenty years ago when there weren ’ t enough people with adequate gym experience to walk into a facility and be sufficiently conversant with the equipment to exercise safely , nor to represent a commercially viable target market .
Yet as a community we are fatter and bracing ourselves for the ‘ tsunami ’ of diabetes and other chronic illnesses that face us due to poor exercise , nutrition and lifestyle choices . Have we really had so little impact on the health of Australians , despite our meteoric growth in fitness services ? With more trainers , more facilities and more awareness than ever before , are we just getting fit people fitter ?
The quality of our offerings , with 25,000 trainers registered at Fitness Australia , all of whom are required to keep up with their continuing education , is higher than ever before . There are more facilities with more available opening hours across more fitness modalities , yet the ultimate goal of a measurable positive impact on the overall health of the community continues to elude us .
The other piece of the public health puzzle is nutrition , and while the nutrition message is getting through , there is still a lack of understanding in the community and a growing plethora of poor food choices available . There is a reasonable argument that the delivery of nutrition advice by trainers to their clients could contribute to correcting this situation . Currently , Cert IV level qualification constrains trainers to providing generic advice based on the Australian Dietary Guidelines , which in itself is entirely reasonable .
However , as most people walk into a gym looking for body composition change , there is an expectation from the community that trainers should be able to offer more qualified advice , that a more tailored approach should be part of the package . This is partly due to trainers having historically offered quite prescriptive nutrition advice , even though doing so is outside the scope of practice as described in the Fitness Industry National Training Package .
Clearly something has to change , if for no other reason than the wider issue of insurance , whereby Professional Indemnity Insurance isn ’ t going to cover someone who gives advice that they aren ’ t qualified to give .
So here ’ s the challenge – do we lift the quality of the nutritional advice offering to meet the market by upskilling our trainers , or do we continue with the laissez-faire and try to bring trainers working outside the scope ( i . e . most of them ) to heel ? In a climate of continuing improvement in the skills of our trainers and enhanced outcomes for their clients , the former presents an attractive proposition .
Further , trainers are in the unique position of seeing their clients frequently , sometimes two or three times a week . This enables them to have a finger firmly on the pulse not only of what their clients are eating , but also of their headspace , and to give support accordingly , support that may well include referring them to an allied health practitioner . This talks to the lifestyle change that is necessary for lasting healthy eating and exercise practices .
Currently most trainers are delivering nutrition advice outside of the National Training Package scope of practice and there is inherent risk in this situation . We need to rise to this challenge , and quickly .
Bill Moore is CEO of Fitness Australia , the peak national fitness body . A key figure in the development of the Australian fitness industry , he has owned numerous health clubs and co-created the Michelle Bridges brand . fitness . org . au
6 | NETWORK SUMMER 2016