Find Trends in Your Profession
I. Introduction: As waistlines continue to expand in the US so have health care costs. In an effort to slow rising healthcare costs, improve performance, and increase productivity, employers implement workplace wellness programs. Workplace wellness programs can include a number of components, such a health assessments, nutrition services, health education, and stress management. However, since a large percentage of preventable healthcare costs can be attributed to weight related conditions, a large focus of most workplace wellness programs is on fitness and physical activity. In an effort to get employees moving, employers have been including wearable fitness devices as part of their workplace wellness program. Shortly thereafter companies began to market more even more wearable fitness devices. More recently, the Fitness Industry is also incorporating the use of wearable fitness devices with their programs. Given the growing use of these devices and their expense, it begs the question whether these devices are effective at increasing activity, if they encourage long-term behaviors, if they engage individuals that are not already physically fit or otherwise healthy, and if they actually reduce health care costs.
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Findings:
A. Top Trends of the Fitness Industry: This paper explores the trends of the Fitness Industry (NAICS Code 713940). The top trends in the Fitness industry include promoting new exercise modalities to include: mind/body exercises (such as Tai Chi, Pilates, and Yoga); appropriate exercise modalities for the aging population; and programs designed for children. In addition, there is a trend toward opening upscale fitness facilities at luxury hotels. Finally, there is also a trend for large corporations to offer worksite health programs which including promoting fitness through the use of wearable fitness devices, which will be addressed in this paper.
B. Important Emerging
In the article “Fitness Culture: A Growing Trend in America by Sheila McClain, it speaks in detail why American have increased their interest in health and fitness. Sheila conducts a comprehensive research of the subject and provides strong statics and information from others. Since, we are an age of technology and everyone is more involved in learning we have learned that fitness matters and is a key link to good health.
Employee wellness programs, also known as a “worksite wellness program”, are programs that are designed to promote and support the health, safety, and well being of a company’s employees. Wellness programs are meant to improve the health of the staff, their morale, and in turn also help improve their productivity. There are many components that make up employee wellness programs, for example; Health Screenings, Health Fairs, Fitness classes, Smoking cessation classes, and even wellness issue workshops. Employers have begun adopting these programs in hopes of helping their employees while they are at an age when health interventions can still help transform their long-term health choice. This paper will focus on trends found between employee weight and productivity, and the impacts these could have on a business overall.
The people in the workplace can be categorized into two groups: the employer and the employees. The employees work for their employer and in turn, the employer has the duty and responsibility to ensure that the minimum safety requirements are met. However, employers are not required to provide health insurance benefits to their employees. More often than not, providing health insurance benefits is very costly to the employer and in an attempt to mitigate the costs, employers’ encourage employee participation in various healthy lifestyle programs and initiatives as well as providing incentives for their participation in such programs. These kinds of actions are not always met with enthusiasm, some find it unreasonable to be expected to do so on their own time to change their lifestyle to suit their employers.
The founder of Crossfit, Greg Glassman, has made “possibly one of biggest fitness trends in the world” (Wang, 2016). As it has been introduced to over “120 countries,” it has given other fitness centers such as the Rock Island Fitness and Activity Center a run for their money (Wang, 2016). I, myself, was involved in the Crossfit community and very easily became hooked to the workouts, meal plans, and the overall mindset of program. When becoming a member at a Crossfit gym, individuals gain all of the benefits and more that you would if you were to belong to a gym such as the RIFAC. Crossfit is such a popular trend in today’s world because the workouts are already designed and a meal plan is provided. In a sense, this Crossfit membership allows individuals to do little to no work. This corporation has caused many Americans, including myself, to switch from the normal gym setting and jump on the current Crossfit trend. As Glassman had previously stated, Crossfit has "broken the back of the fitness industry" (Wang, 2016). When I started doing Crossfit, I kept my membership at the Rock Island Fitness and Activity Center, but to no surprise only attended the Quad City Crossfit Motown. If this community of Crossfitters continues to grow as rapidly as it has over the recent years, it could continue to become a huge threat to facilities like the Rock Island Fitness and Activity Center. If enough people were to switch their memberships to fitness centers like the RIFAC, YMCA, and Planet Fitness to local Crossfit communities the amount of money these fitness centers would lose could put them out of business. Due to everyone’s interest in Crossfit, they would not be making enough money to keep their facility safe, up to date, and appealing for all of their amenities. The Rock Island Fitness and Activity Center would not be able to treat all their risks because of the loss in business and lack of money. As I
There is a need to adjust to a workforce that is increasingly diverse. Diversity is not only determined by traditional categories such as age, race, and gender. Diversity also includes generational differences, lifestyle, work style values and differences, employment expectations and goals, learning styles and abilities, educational levels and technological sense. In order to build a successful workforce for the future, adaptations to the vast array of differences in applicants and employees is a challenge to be recognized and addressed in the workforce action plan. With efficient occupational health services and smart occupational health personnel this can be achieved. Competitive industries invest more on workforce as they are well aware of its implications. This proactive approach of organizations impact both direct and indirect cost to industry. This clearly indicates that healthy organizations are more likely to be successful as they are more skilled of retaining workforce who is healthy in all aspects including physical, mental and psychological capabilities. I will conclude this document with a statement by Employees Benefit Journal Ann 2004, offering your workforce a full behavioral health program is one of the wisest decisions you can make to increase workplace wellness and
There are a substantial number of policies in place in hopes to reduce obesity rates as well as encourage active living. However, there seems to be a large gap between why the policies are implemented in hopes to achieve a set outcome, and the knowledge of appropriate and effective steps to go about producing the desired change. Additionally, while there are policies in place with the intent of reducing obesity rates, there are few to none that with the intent of promoting active living within the workplace.
During a football playoff game, your is driving down the field to score, when the quarterback’s ankle gets stepped on by another player. The athlete, the player, the coach and the fans are all counting on the athletic trainer to get that player ready to go back into the game. The athletic trainer would need to help get the player back on the field if possible.This is why I would like to be an athletic trainer. Athletic trainers specialize in areas of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, assessment, and rehabilitation. With this degree my choices of employment can be numerous from working with a sports team to in the healthcare field.
The everyday health and fitness individual has the availability to track running, walking, sleeping, daily movement, and lets you set goals and challenge previous records. This group of individuals accounts for 128 million possible sales and are going to be in the best shape of their lives to take advantage of the fitness capabilities the Apple Watch has to offer. These active tech savvy students or business individuals can dress the watch up or down, and still keep track of fitness goals. The available apps for the Watch will help individuals keep notes, update events in personal calendars, check stocks, pay with Apple Pay, send and receive emails, and improve efficiency of tasks throughout the day while working out (Apple: The Watch Reimagined,
We live in a world that is constantly bounding forward. In that push for innovation, working long hours often overshadows what it takes for a person to maintain a healthy lifestyle. How can we expect to advance as a society if we are not taking care of our own health first? In order to achieve successes beyond what we ever have before, it is necessary for every person to be operating at maximum capacity. Companies that implement nutritional plans and allow their employees to exercise during work hours see improved health of their workers, happier employees, and a spike in business productivity. There is always a presence of the drive to “be better” in business, and this can only be grasped if every individual takes the time to address the basic
...nt. Wellness programs in workplaces have also become increasingly popular. These programs have not only demonstrated to be clinically effective but also cost effective. Companies are willing to invest to improve their productivity and decrease insurance cost. These programs will continue to grow in all fields and will require the need for more ND’s to participate. Promoting these programs can only lead to positive improvements from a patient to a corporate perspective.
Black, Tamara. 2008. Exercise and Fitness in a U.S. Commercial Gym.Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International.
With the health care costs reaching high number there is no wonder we have a large number of absenteeism. So many wait to the last possible painstaking work day to decide to see a doctor about their aliment, and all of that could be prevented. Preventing oneself to have to take time off from work is one way to keep costs low. There are so many areas that need to be addressed when it comes to what is going to slow us down as a company. According to estimates by Dr. Jaime Claudio(1991), a corporate wellness consultant for Health Plus, a provider of health-care insurance, a comprehensive eating awareness and weight- management program designed to improve long-term habits could generate an 80% reduction in the incidence of potential problems caused by obesity in the workplace. These problems include hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, and diminished work efficiency. Obesity is not the only eating disorder that is a problem, there is bulimia and anorexia. Smoking, drinking, substance abuse, and stress are problems that are brought into the workplace and stop productivity. We have to be aware of issues that are there but are not usually thought of as an illness.
All in all, the rise of the fitness industry has impacted almost everyone in America, whether it means being more health conscious, body conscious, or fitness-a-phobic. This new fitness movement, if it continues growing at the rate it has been, will keep coming out with innovative ways to motivate the unmotivated into leading more active lifestyles. Ultimately this will lead to an American public that enjoys longer, healthier lives.
Another large debate in the issues and impacts of obesity is the responsibility of employer’s. Especially for those whose obesity comes from a sedentary lifestyle. Or perhaps need the preventative measures of keeping obesity at bay. A hot topic on the rise is whether or not employers should be mandated to give employees a work-out period in their schedule. The employers could offer employee’s incentives for utilizing resources (a company gym, discounted memberships, and dietician, walking a company track) and by using the resources keep costs low. Though initially it could be costly to take on the responsibility to offer extra incentives to employee’s it could offer long term potential savings. (Villareal, Apovian, Kushner, and Klein 2005) Those whose companies offer various programs and actively engage in them express more happiness, productivity, a greater quality of life, and overall better health. Better health allows for employee’s to serve their employers better. They use less sick pay, keep insurance premiums low, and are more likely to be in tune with their daily job. So while the initial cost may be high, the long term financial gain of a happy, healthy, productive team is hard not to invest in!
Workers of every organization need to embrace the culture of living a healthy lifestyle rather than implementing specialized health programs and insurance plans (Goetzel, 2012). Coca-Cola Company initially perceived health and well-being as only integrated into the safety programs that employees are given. The company needs to distinguish between health and wellness from safety concerns. Many governments have encouraged wellness programs through the Affordable Care Act; this raises the legal limits on the penalties imposed on the employees by employers for the health-contingent wellness plans (Baicker,