Winning The Mental Battle of Physical Fitness and Obesity | Ogie Shaw | TEDxSpokane

thank you exercise is important heart disease cancer diabetes one of the things they all have in common is that they can be affected by

obesity

the first recorded heart attack in this country was in 1896. in 1896 in this country you had to exercise to go to the bathroom we all lived on farms but we got smart we started building machines to help us do our jobs we moved to cities and started pressing buttons for a living and pressing the wrong button could really create a lot of stress and we started to notice that the people are starting to die from blocked arteries from the korean war half of the soldiers with an average age of 19 killed during that war showed significant blocked coronary arteries 1956 the eisenhower administration had a big meeting in washington dc the military was noticing something strange that was beginning to happen.

It happened that it was becoming increasingly difficult to find young Americans who could pass the induction

physical

exam for the military. They wanted to find out who to blame, what the problem is. They did research in public schools and some researchers had conducted

physical

fitness

tests involving the ability of our students. at the middle school and high school level to do what they call functional movements, just everyday things that you might have to do in your job or in your life, like you know, can you bend over and touch your toes? You know it at 16 years old.

You should be able to put your toes in your mouth. We thought it was the dumbest idea anyone had ever come up with to test kids'

fitness

because we thought kids were fit just because they were young. 57.8 of our children did not pass that test. He said that can't be right if that's true, we have the least fit children in the world and people that's just not possible, so they decided to test the children and give it to the children in Europe, seven percent fail. and everyone buys that test. around the world couldn't find another group of kids on the planet that had anywhere near a seven percent failure rate on that test, a 57th favorite on that test, he came back and started what eventually became the Presidential Council on Fitness physics and sports for 40 years.

Now, everywhere, someone has been trying to get you and your kids into exercise programs and then we came up with another brilliant idea: why don't we check how fit we are? 40 of us still enthusiastically avoid exercise, fifty percent are exercising and Still in terrible shape, about ten percent of Indiana University students measure the fitness level of four million. children between the ages of six and seventeen and find themselves in the middle of all this exercise fuss. 57 of our children still fail physical fitness tests and fitness leaders. They say they are worse now than 30 years ago. We are finding children from 14 to 19 years old with 40 blockage in the coronary arteries.

What used to be called adult-onset diabetes does not appear in children between 4 and 10 years old. They say we are raising the first generation that will have a shorter life expectancy than their parents or grandparents. This has never happened before in our history. The state of Oregon has the highest

obesity

rate of any state. Western Iraqis are being our public schools. destroyed due to budget cuts and the first thing we always cut is physical education. They formed an Oregon health policy commission to tell us how to solve this problem. They released a 65-page report that basically said we don't know, but they said these behaviors. are substantially affected by the influential adults in their lives, parents, grandparents, and teachers, efforts to address childhood obesity in Oregon will not be successful unless they also include interventions that influence the healthy eating and physical activity behaviors of adults. and of the children, now that they spread this message. it went down a little bit in his final draft, but the idea was how many of you get all the exercise you need and if not, why not, the two most common objections are: what do you think is number one?

I don't have time all the time. We asked them I don't have time number two and this surprised me how often they stayed and how boldly they said I'm too lazy to do it even when I have time or the way a guy in South Carolina said it, I swear to go to the college, I would never sweat again, let's just call it a lack of motivation, but every time we in the medical and fitness field have been bold enough to ask why you don't, you have been incredibly honest and you have been incredibly consistent, you have said two things over and over, and over and over, I don't have time and I don't know how to stay motivated to exercise, and you'd think every medical and fitness leader who cares would do it.

I've scheduled a national convention somewhere, walked into a big room, and said, let's solve these two problems. It's never happened as fitness leaders, we're not trained to deal with it, I don't have time and I don't know how to stay motivated. To exercise I almost changed my major to the University of North Carolina when I heard some guys in California tell my wife that exercising is taking a bath, disconnecting and fighting the current, what we are taught to say is yes, you have They make exercise fun. I hear it's everywhere, make it fun, make it friends for the last 39 years.

I have included over 10,000 Americans in exercise programs and I am here to tell you that I have learned a lot about exercise, one of the things I have learned is that if what you are doing to exercise is fun, I guarantee that you are not doing it right, there are physiological requirements that must be met in order to benefit from your exercise program, whether you like it or not, the intensity and duration. The frequency of your exercise is more important than whether it is fun or not, it should work all the muscles in the body, the cardiovascular system, flexibility, muscle balance, muscle strength and there is no single activity or exercise that we know of that works adequately all over your body if you don't sit down and design a total body workout, that's not going to happen so how do you solve this problem well?

I met dr. mark angel dr. mark angel holds a dual professorship at middle tennessee state university in murfreesboro a dual professorship in the department of psychology and health and human performance, wrote a paper in which he conceptualized a new specialization in fitness that he was going to call applied exercise psychology , which would have been what I majored in if it had been around when I was in school, but basically what he had done is I wrote an article in the uh sports psychology board magazine explaining what he saw as a justification for this new specialization in fitness and explaining the problems he saw in physical fitness and it reflected almost exactly what I have been talking about for over 30 years. to the point where I wanted to meet this guy, so I flew back to Nashville, drove to Murfreesboro, looked him up in his office, walked up to him and gave him a big bear hug and said, "you're my hero." , and called security and, uh.

No, no, that didn't happen, but I explained to him what he was doing and he was very grateful for that and he has a new book and he promised to send me a new copy which I haven't received yet, but. What he basically said is that this fitness problem has more to do with our

mental

failings than our physical failings, it's more about your head and your attitude than your body. He said you can't just decide to exercise and have it sustain you throughout the rest. rest of your life then your brain is going to fight you you say I'm going to start an exercise program your brain says what are you doing haven't we been down this road? look, look at your dog but he says that to win the

mental

ticket and it's difficult a guy said he got in his car he decided to go to the gym he arrived at the intersection the traffic light turned red he said it was a sign he turned around and returned home, but if you can win the mental

battle

for five years in a row you will never go back to your previous sedentary lifestyle but you have to keep it up How do you win the psychological

battle

associated with getting good exercise?

Simply put, the lifestyle you become has to become a habit. Now we know that instead of exercising every day, excuse me seven days or three days a week the way we were taught to exercise seven days a week or according to American university sports medicine, exercise most days or every day, I said thank you. I've been saying that for over 30 years. I find that it is easier to exercise every day than to do it three days a week. Three days a week gives you too many decisions. Monday Wednesday Friday Tuesday Thursday Saturday can I skip the day and double?

See you tomorrow friends, if you are negotiating whether to exercise or not, it's over. Do your exercise first thing in the morning. They are 300 more likely to do this than at any other time of day because they have more control over their schedule. First thing in the morning than any other time of the day, try to limit your workout time to 20 minutes or less. The more time you spend exercising, the less likely you are to do it and the more likely you are to get injured. We will maintain it. to do it anyway and then work against resistance if you worked against resistance you get tired faster now the most important rule in exercise physiology is called the overload principle it says that there is no benefit to any exercise program until you get tired the problem It's as you get tired the fitter it is, what happens to the amount of work you have to do to get tired increases in public schools, they did studies with high school kids and they have to do as many push-ups as they can every day until they If you get tired, do that.

Every day for a year, kids who could do five push-ups on the first day after year, but are doing between 100 and 120 to reach the same level of fatigue that gave them five on the first day, are talking about something big. boredom of the league, even if you have time, then we said we'll just go on a diet, well friends, the fastest way I know to get fat is to diet, never diet another day for the rest of your life. Eat for nutrition, never eat to lose weight, and never make any changes to the way you eat that you are not willing to make permanent.

Now there is much more. I want to talk about nutrition, but due to lack of time, let's focus on physical fitness today. So seven days a week, the first day in the morning, plan to spend about 20 minutes or less and then work against resistance so that as you get fitter, you don't waste more time, work against more resistance, So how do you do it right? I was talking to the university Rotary club in Seattle and one of the members came up after I finished and said I'm one of the editors at Apprentice Hall Publishing. We are the largest publisher in the United States.

We have a waiting list of people who want it. When it comes to writing books about exercise, no one tells us how to stay motivated, and what you told us here today makes more sense than anything I've heard anywhere in the country. We wrote a book for my company on fitness motivation and I said sure it was 30 years ago and I still haven't gotten motivated to do it, but what I said was that the problem with fitness is that we don't know what fitness is and The reason we don't know what fitness is is because there is no such thing as generic fitness.

Fitness is a specific activity until you define what you are trying to get in shape for. The term has no meaning. I've coached Portland Pioneers and I've coached the Seattle Seahawks. I have trained real estate agents and I have totally trained plumbers. different approach to fitness depending on what I'm trying to do in that fitness program, so what's the most universal appeal I can make for physical fitness? And I came to the conclusion that this health exercise is considered the best medicine in America today and beats almost everyone. Prescription medications in the country in terms of their overall impact on our health, from colds and flu to cancer, are affected by exercise, but you can't just pay lip service to the idea that there really are have to do it, so how much physical condition do we have?

What do I need to be healthy? I said no problem, I'll go to the experts. I went to the Portland Medical School library to see how fit you have to be to stay healthy and, for the most part, I couldn't find virtually anything written on the subject - some information on aerobic exercise, but other than that There was nothing there, so I went and talked to physiologists I knew and read about them and told them.I asked your definition of physical fitness and there are already tests and standards that have been established. I looked for the components that could make up total fitness, but no one packaged it up and said this is the level of fitness I wanted to have, so that's exactly what I did.

I met what I maintain was a level of physical fitness sufficient to stay healthy and for 14 years I took my definition to medical societies and university physiology departments trying to get anyone to disagree with me and to date I found no disagreement in an item on my exam, so I turn it into a business that still continues in Beaverton. Oregon and then I wanted to take it even further for the general public, so I started searching for speakers and started teaching the general public how to measure their own fitness so that we are enough to impact their health, both physical and mental. the path and the test that you will think you will have a copy of later, since this is your test that you can do at home.

I want you to be flexible enough to sit on the floor with your legs straight and reach at least five fingertips wide. inches beyond your toes, most men can't touch your toes, some of you haven't seen them in five years, why is flexibility so important? Because one of the main reasons for not showing a job in the United States is that my back hurts. Back pain in America today can be traced back to people with tight back muscles caused by weak stomach muscles because you sit a lot when your stomach muscles go on vacation, your back muscles have to work Overtime, you tense up, you bend over to pick up a pencil. and you will work out for six weeks, strengthen your abdominal muscles and stretch your lower back and 85 of an 80 to 100 billion dollar problem will diminish or disappear completely, but none of you can strengthen your abdominal muscles by taking pills to finish, you have than to exercise.

I love. have sufficient cardiovascular endurance to be able to climb up and down on a 16 and a quarter inch chair or stool or an eight-inch ladder for three consecutive minutes take your pulse for 15 seconds and multiply the beats by four if your pulse is higher than 144 beats per minute for men or 156 beats per minute, uh, 156 beats per minute for women at a pace of 60 on the quarter inch, you just failed the test and 75 of the people in this room, if you're typical, won't pass that test. Many of you runners are not in good cardiovascular condition, but no one has been able to explain to you that that test will do it and it's not my test, I didn't make it up, it's available to be used by the research community to ultimately track your body fat A lady started a 15 mile per week jogging program with light weight training in hopes of losing weight, she gained eight pounds but dropped six dress sizes because muscle is heavier than fat and takes up less space.

This is a skinfold gauge that I have been carrying everywhere every time I speak for over 30 years. Measures subcutaneous body fat. Half of the body's fat is stored directly under the skin. I can pinch the thickness of the skin on the upper back and thigh for men, on the upper arm and waist for women I can tell you fairly accurately how much body fat you have women should not have more of 20 percent men no more than 15 if you have more than that you tend to be more prone to everything from colds and flu to cancer and, by the way, for you researchers, this is the Sloan formula that I'm using to estimate body fat and I'll be happy to stay at the end of the day and do body fat percentages for anyone who wants to do it.

The fastest way I know to clear the room and if you don't have full gauge skin, keep track of your body shape If you're losing inches but not losing pounds, what are you losing fat? And that's a good thing. track your shape for men, you should at least lower your track your waist if you're losing body fat, you almost always have a drop in waist measurement for men, excuse me, for women, it's the hip measurement track I've found that if you're losing body fat, there's almost always a drop in your hip measurement, so your body gives you the information you need to motivate you, but you need to know how to read your body.

This is something we should do. I've taught you in grade school and we haven't had to pay a major price for it as a nation, and finally, don't forget to include exercise in your busy schedule. Three basic things you want to remember when doing number one. I want you to do it. exercise every day I want you to exercise first thing in the morning do it every day first thing in the morning 20 minutes or less and then work against resistance, but here are the motivational principles that say I want you to define what the fitness until you come to an agreement on what you are trying to do, you are in big trouble, two, then I want you to measure fitness, measuring fitness is a way to identify what the need is, focusing on the need is what it motivates you to do it and take it seriously and three, I want you to reward fitness, it's not that important to get recognition for doing it.

I have found that one of the most effective reward tools I have found with fitness is the belief that you are intrinsically doing something that will affect your health, it is the most powerful reason to exercise, but beyond that, here is what comes in number two, small sticky stars and paper certificates. Some of the top executives at Oregon State have had to rearrange their schedule to get their next star this all works well so define fitness measure fitness and reward fitness thank you