SSPEL Newsletter: Research and Scholarly Activities

Friday, July 08, 2005

Conference material is available through the REACH Groups website (here and here), and would interest anyone concerned with health, physical activity, and nutritional issues. Rather than ‘repeat’ and ‘regurgitate’ conference presentations I have approached my evaluation by noting some thoughts and reflections on my experience:

- The potential for sport to create change and stimulate communities is huge. Arriving in Liverpool during the Euro Cup Final was an interesting experience! From the eerie quietness of the half time despair to the car tooting, street dancing, infinite high of the final score just showed how sport can touch people.

- How do we promote health and physical activity? Where do the responsibilities for health lie – do you shake your head silently at the obese individual sat in McDonald’s, shaming their lack of will power. Or do you curse the government for allowing our society to develop the out of town sprawl, meekly following American mall culture. Can the individual be expected to change without addressing the ‘toxic’ environment in which we reside?

- Is the healthy option and adopting positive behaviour change a straightforward question? ‘Stone age genes in a space age environment.’ – do you crave that energy dense, sugary snack and you put off that run/swim until the last possible moment, or tomorrow, or never? Instead of the moral recriminations and couch potato label try thinking about it in a different way – based on our evolution then biologically you have made the right choice if coffee and donuts win over the gym. In the genetic sense the right choice is to conserve energy, and take on board those nutrients when available – remember it now takes ‘conscious cognitive effort’ to maintain the energy balance, and in today’s speeding society this is more a complex issue than will power alone.

- Delivery of the health and physical activity message? Firstly, if the experts can’t agree on what to tell the public, whether it be from debating the reality of the obesity time bomb to how much PA is enough for health, then why are we surprised when the reaction of the masses is indifference? Secondly, even when communities want to change and recognise there is a problem, identifying the means of driving through that change at a local level is a nightmare. The number of regional – local government organisations, quangos, charities and businesses involved is a minefield. Who delivers what, from which pot of money is astounding to the professional, let alone the community. How can we network better to produce a ‘visible one stop shop’ that the public can access to find the help they need?

- Getting people more active – how do we sell our health and physical activity message? We have to recognise that our interest, and involvement in sport and exercise is ‘weird’. The majority of the population don’t take part – do we understand the marketplace in which we are trying to operate? What is our competition? What are the aspirations of the communities in which we live – we value sport but do they? Society currently operates at very slick level – maybe we should look at why companies like McDonald’s are so successful. How have they achieved such global success, after all they have made millions selling ‘food’ that is essentially low in quality and nutrient value. Learning from big business, and considering the branding of a lifestyle package maybe essential if we are to get sport and health identifiable with cool. Maybe if we found out what turns people on and made our message fit that we might stand a better chance.

Hope these reflections make some sense! I am happy to discuss the presentation content if people are interested – attended two workshops; firstly, SHOKK approach to commercial health and fitness, secondly, North West Physical Activity Task Force – regional local relations is it working?

Phillippa Lowton.