Content and structural requirements
Fitness and health studios benefit from the implementation of health sports courses.
This was reported on in the last issue (2/2014, pp. 154-155). In order to strive for serious and sustainable cooperation with health insurance companies in the field of prevention and health promotion, the offer of health-oriented exercise programs is a prerequisite. In addition to the specific qualifications of the course instructors, these programs in particular must meet special requirements. Why and which requirements are in demand is described below.
In recent years, there has been much discussion about the health benefits of sport. Generally speaking, sports activities have the potential to promote the health of those who participate in them. However, in most cases this happens more as a kind of "accidental" product. However, the main goals of most sports are not to improve and maintain health. For many sports participants, motives such as improving performance, changing their figure, learning a sport or fitness activity, or even the pure joy of exercise are the main focus.
Highly structured health courses
However, if the primary goal is to improve health - and the importance of this goal increases with age - it must be structured as follows:
■ concrete (by means of specific content)
■ targeted on the basis of defined goals and reflected methods
■ for defined target groups
■ comprehensible and repeatable, i.e., based on written manuals.
Accordingly, programs should be highly structured and, moreover, demonstrate their effectiveness in studies.
An example
The following example illustrates the need for goal orientation, structuredness, and effectiveness/control: a soccer coach who wants to move up from the 2nd to the 1st league with his team will certainly not conduct just any training with his players in the hope that by chance exactly those skills will improve that are still deficient. On the contrary, he will adapt his training exactly to the deficits of his players. The effectiveness of the training will be tested in every game.
The same requirements must be placed on health sports programs. Preservation and improvement of health or certain components and parameters of health (e.g. physical, psychological, social) must not be a "product of chance", but the targeted result of the respective program.
Health sport programs are thus interventions that are tailored to specific target groups, fixed in writing as well as practically tested and, as far as possible, evidence-based, and systematically aligned with the six core objectives of health sport.
The core objectives of health sport were developed by the WHO as a result of the health policy paradigm shift: Away from an exclusively disease-related orientation to comprehensive health promotion (New Public Health) developed in the German sport and health system. The DOSB, the DTB, the statutory health insurance funds and also the health sciences are guided by the core objectives listed below in the context of health sport.
6 core objectives of health sport
1. strengthening physical health resources, in particular the factors of health-related fitness, endurance, strength, stretching ability, coordination and relaxation.
2. strengthening psychosocial health resources, in particular knowledge of action and effect, self-efficacy, mood, body concept, social competence and inclusion.
3. reducing risk factors, especially those of the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems.
4. coping with psycho-somatic complaints and states of discomfort.
5. building attachment to health sport activity.
6. improving physical activity conditions, including by building cooperative networks in accessing and continuing health sport activity.
Structure and content
To realize these core goals, the structural design of health sport programs is based on the FITT recommendations for individuals with a previously sedentary lifestyle (see e.g. Brehm, Pahmeier & Tiemann 2011):
F = Frequency: once per week,
I = Intensity: moderate exertion,
T = Time: 90 minutes
T = Type of Exercise: 7 sequences Intervention.
7 sequences of health sport
1. introduction
2. Attunement and warm-up
3. Endurance
4. Strength, stretching and coordination
5. Relaxation
6. Wind down and conclusion
7. Information (usually integrated into another thematically appropriate sequence)
The sequences can be clearly identified in all programs, but are focused on with varying intensity depending on the focus and target group. The individual course lessons are described in detail and meticulously planned in a trainer manual. The advantages for the course instructor are obvious. Since he or she is required to adhere to this schedule, there is no need for time-consuming preparation. After a course leader training for the execution of the respective program, the course leader is able to start the course lesson without further preparation after a short introduction to the given procedure. Pre-prepared participant materials (used in the information sequence) also facilitate the implementation of the lesson.
The InWeit Studio program
This program has been explicitly designed for the general conditions of fitness studios, physiotherapy practices and rehabilitation centers. It incorporates the latest findings on strength training and the importance of equipment-based, systematic fitness training.
The target group is healthy people who have not yet taken part in sports or fitness training, or those who want to get back into it after a long break. However, initial physical complaints and corresponding states of discomfort are not exclusion criteria.
In terms of content, this program closes the gap between the requirements of health insurance companies and the wishes of fitness providers:
In order to meet the requirements for health sports described above, the program is based on the core objectives and structurally takes up the FITT recommendations.
The is a 12-week group course that offers a varied program that utilizes strength and cardio equipment as well as small equipment in addition to an equipment-free workout. Currently, an equipment-only class is not covered by health insurance. However, by combining free exercises and sequences without equipment, the InWeit Studio program offers the opportunity to do at least a certain amount of training on fitness equipment.
Iris Pahmeier and Jessica van Steegen
Source: F&G
Image Source: #46908428 © Robert Kneschke / Adobe Stock
Published on: 1 September 2014