Multi-stage fitness

The multi-stage fitness test, also known as the bleep test, beep test, or shuttle run test, is used by sports coaches and trainers to estimate an athlete's VO2 Max (maximum oxygen uptake). The test is especially useful for players of sports like football, hockey, or rugby.

The test involves running continuously between two points that are 20 m apart. These runs are synchronised with a pre-recorded audio tape or CD, which plays beeps at set intervals. As the test proceeds, the interval between each successive beep reduces, forcing the athlete to increase velocity over the course of the test, until it is impossible to keep in sync with the recording.

The recording is typically structured into 23 'levels', each of which lasts 60 seconds. Usually, the interval of beeps is calculated require a speed at the start of 8.5 km/h, which increases by 0.5 km/h with each level. The progression from one level to the next is signalled by 3 rapid beeps. The highest level attained before failing to keep up is recorded as the score for that test.

The procedure is designed to measure the maximum endurance of an individual. Therefore, it should not be used for those of low fitness levels.

This test is now used by the British Army as one of the basic measures of personal fitness.

Fitness in Society and the Influences

The problem of Obesity

Obesity has become a serious health risk throughout the developed world. Forty percent of adults in the United States in 1997 reported engaging in no physical activity, while fifty-nine percent do not engage in vigorous leisure-time physical activity. Only twenty-six percent of adults engage in vigorous leisure-time activity three or more times per week. One in five children in the United States is overweight, fifteen percent of children ages six to nineteen are seriously overweight, and this overweight classification can be responsible for lowering self esteem among the afflicted people. The number one cause of obesity among young people in America is inactivity. Reasons why people remain inactive may include sheer laziness -- the refusal to transport one's self from home to a gym, and so there are identified correlations between readily available physically tasking activities and the levels of exercise among the people in close proximity to the activities. Research suggests that fitness groups and fitness programs positively alter the exercise behavior of families and youths.

Public Policy to Encourage Fitness

In the United States the government has created many policies in an effort to curb obesity rates and encourage exercise. One of these policies encourages workers to bike to the office rather than drive a car or take a cab. Another is an online attempt to increase exercise and fitness levels by formally praising people who set and accomplish particular goals, additional information about this policy can be found at fitness.gov ¹.

Case Studies of Organizations that Encourage Fitness

Critics argue that if helping people achieve fitness was really as easy as developing a volunteer-run fitness program, someone would have implemented such a program already. Refuting that claim is the psychological phenomenon of the diffusion of responsibility. Most people share the point-of-view of these critics, and because they do, no one takes responsibility for creating such a fitness program. Everyone thinks someone else will do it, and so no one accomplishes anything.

Wellness On Wheels

One piece of evidence that supports the claim that available programs affect fitness behavior arises in Wear Valley, England. The Wear Valley council transformed a trailor into an air conditioned array of top-of-the-line gym equipment with sophisticated electronic fitness monitoring systems. The Wear Valley council named this spectacle of a vehicle WOW -- Wellness On Wheels. The trailor was tailored in an effort to persuade as many people as possible to enroll in regular workouts as part of a wider campaign in the Wear Valley district to promote exercise. Barry Nelson, a health editor for the Northern Echo, noted that his attempts at an interview with the WOW project manager, Natalie Drew, were constantly interrupted by new faces peering into the trailor seeking a guided tour. This constant stream of curious people, including children, adults, grandparents, and grandchildren who knocked on the door wanting to look around impressed Nelson. The simple presence of this Wellness On Wheels machine lured people out to come exercise. Drew was also pleasantly surprised with the incredible interest created by the mobile gym. "We'd only been in Crook for a day and it was full of young people. We must have had 500 people through the door without promoting it at all," Drew reported. This too supports the fact that simply making an exercise activity available in a neighborhood community increases the fitness behavior of young and old alike.

How and Why Wellness On Wheels?

     The Wear Valley District Council, along with its local Durham Dales Primary Care Trust, developed the innovative scheme in an effort to combat the high levels of poor health and obesity in the area. They identified exercise as a key factor in decreasing obesity, along with eating more fruits and vegetables and quitting smoking. Barbara Millns, the woman who first thought of the idea of a mobile fitness center, came up with the idea of taking exercise to people's homes rather than waiting for them to use existing leisure facilities because she wanted to target people who don't do traditional exercise and people who feel uncomfortable going to their "local leisure center." Her idea succeeded. Children and adults, who otherwise wouldn't have exercised, came out to exercise in the mobile gym. Clearly, from this instance, the availability of a fitness program in a community positively afftected the fitness behavior of the residents.

Walking School Bus

More research that defends the idea of fitness programs increasing exercise practices among children and adults stems out of San Diego. Heritage Elementary school implemented its first walking school bus. Students walked to their designated stops, but waited not for the school bus. Instead, they waited for a train of people on foot to pick them up and walk with them to school. Rather than have parents and bus drivers drive SUV's and school buses, students opt to walk to school with their peers. Although it is not directly stated, a major reason children choose to walk is because they fall victim to mob mentality. Perhaps the phrase, "fall victim to mob mentality" has a negative connotation, but that is, in essence, what the children do. Because so many other students are doing it, all of them join in. In this instance, mob mentality and mass behavior have a positive influence on fitness behavior, and encourage the kids to exercise. The group environment of the walking bus provides comfort in exercising, which in turn leads children to exercise more often. Although not exactly identical to the "Forrest Gump phenomenon", this walking school bus exhibits the same results.

Forrest Gump Phenomenon

Forrest Gump made a spectacle out of running. He was not extraordinarily talented at the sport (as proved by his numerous commonplace followers who kept up), but because he got out there and ran anyway, people viewed him as a role model--an exercising idol. He silently presented the message, "If I can do it, you can do it," and by overcoming the diffusion of responsibility and simply taking the initiative to exercise, he encouraged those around him to do the same. Conformity, in this case, has a positive effect on fitness behavior.

The Power of Motivation

Video Games

As evidenced by these previous examples, motivation plays a pivotal part in encouraging otherwise inactive people to exercise. In this day and age, kids entertain themselves with technological distractions like video games and the internet rather than with the physical activity their predecessors participated in. Two significant reasons they choose technology over exercise are because they have the opportunities to play the games and also because they are not motivated to exercise because they can entertain themselves in other ways. By stepping outside and moving around, the children of the twenty-first century cannot achieve high scores or challenge bosses or pass levels and progress to more challenging ones as they are so accustomed to in video games. What they don't realize is that they can do all of that by exercising and challinging friends and stepping up the intensities of their workouts and achieveing and beating personal records.
Because this solution may be to real for them or too unorthodox in comparison to their less energetic accomplishments, several video game companies have developed ways to mix the two spectrums of electronics and exercise. Dance Dance Revolution, perhaps the most well known exercise game, has kids earn points by dancing to a beat. They earn more points for tapping dance pads on the dancing platform at precise times and in proper sequences, thereby incorporating physical exercise and the competitive scores and levels modern kids enjoy.

Television and the Internet

A type of motivation different from combining exercise and technology was utilized by Nickelodeon a few years ago. Nickelodeon hosted a day to go out and play and on that day, rather than broadcast popular television shows, it broadcasted a constant message encouraging children to go outside and play. A similar tactic to encourage exercise arises on television and on the internet with Verb commercials and ². These commercials inform children that any exercise is good exercise and encourage them to pick any verb in the English language and perform it. Fitness.gov also encourages exercise with the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports by offering recognition for outstanding levels of physical activity. These internet and television exercise prompts, however, are passive, and therefore ineffective in recruiting habitually inactive people to exercise or participate in fitness programs.

Failure of Inititives

Passivity

Many opportunities to exercise exist, but because they don't recruit, entice, or encourage people to join, they fail to increase the exercise behavior of youths, adults, and families. For example, neighborhoods all over the country come standard with community fitness centers, gyms, pools, playgrounds, and athletic courts and fields, and residents pay for all of these luxuries. But even after inactive residents pay for so many advanced services, they still eschew exercising. Similarly, on college campuses, recreation centers provide superfluous equipment and facilities to exercise with, but--for the most part--only students who worked out prior to attending college will take advantage of the free fitness opportunities because the facilities and programs are merely available, and not proactive enough to interest exercise-depleted individuals. The reason these traditionally inactive students, children, and families still avoid physical activity is because those neighborhood and campus ammenities are so disconnected from their customers. Take a look at the ice cream truck phenomenon.

Ice Cream Truck Phenomenon

With community and commercial development evolving so quickly, most neighborhoods and families live within walking distance of ice cream parlors, but they don't walk to them. They don't even travel to them. But the minute an appealing, shiny, cheerful-music-playing machine strolls down a neighborhood street, children sprint outside to take an awestruck gander, rush inside to request money from their parents, and dash back outside to catch the waltzing dessert-mobile before it vanishes down another residential street. What is the difference between the ice cream truck and the ice cream parlors? First of all, the ice cream truck is very readily available and accessible--more so than the walking-distance parlor. Second, the truck lures customers by utilizing lights and sounds to advertise. The sound and lighting draw otherwise non-hungry children from inside their houses, and consequently, the children purchase the desserts and eat. Obviously, the interactive approach to selling ice cream is more effective in bringing out people who ordinarily would not purchase ice cream. The same is true for exercise programs.

Possible solutions

As previously exemplified by the Wellness On Wheels project, the Forrest Gump phenomenon, and the walking school bus, presence and attraction lured tens, sometimes hundreds, of curious, otherwise exercise-free residents outside and consequently caused them to exercise. By directly confronting people, programs attracted participation in physical activities and therefore positively affected exercise behaviors of youth and families.

Roaming PT Squad

One possible solution uses audible advertising like the successful ice cream truck. In the armed services, cadets run in groups shouting cadences, partly to maintain breathing patterns to reduce cramping in the runners, but also partly to encourage and motivate the troops in their efforts. A neighborhood spin could be put on these cadences as roaming PT squads jog through neighborhoods shouting "encouraging" words to discourage laziness and invite anyone willing to join them and run. This method would find most of its effectiveness with athletically inclined people because many less physically fit residents feel incapable to participate at a higher level of exercise.

Overcoming Inability

Yoga, pilates, and many other instructional courses manifest this sense of inferiority and its adverse affect on the inexperienced. Rarely will instructors see inexprienced students stick with the classes. They feel intimidated by their peers who seem like experts of the exercises. For this reason, different activities should be developed for different fitness or ability levels.

Level-Oriented Programs

Using a system similar to Wellness On Wheels, an organization could host exercise contests. Healthier, more athletic people could compete in running competitions, weight-lifting competitions, or overall fitness competitions while less healthy, less athletic people could participate in contests to lose the most weight over a period of time, or improve their running, weight-lifting, etc. abilities the most during a predetermined time period. This way, with motley competitions, no one feels inferior or discouraged due to inability, and more people can participate in promoting and practicing exercise. But still there are people who refuse to leave their video games.

Video Games

For these stubborn inactivists, Dance Dance Revolution restarted a revolution. Nintendo once developed a track and field video game, for which players would run, jump, and sprint in place on a mat to compete in mock Olympic games. Similar games have been reemerging, and they will encourage people who are primarily technology oriented to exercise--if not to get healthy, to earn high scores and pass levels.

External links

"American Council on Exercise," ³

"Exercise/Physical Activity," by the National Center for Health Statistics, ⁴

"Fitness with the WOW Factor," by Barry Nelson, September 18, 2005, ⁵

"Increasing Physical Activity: A Report on Recommendations of the Task Force on Community Preventative Services," by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. October 26, 2001, ⁶

"Students join walking `bus';Program promotes exercise, less traffic," by Carly Bartkiewicz, October 23, 2005, ⁷

"Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults, National Health Interview Survey, 2003," by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, ⁸

"The Influence of Friendship Groups on Intellectual Self-Confidence and Educational Aspirations in College," by Anthony Lising Antonio, ⁹

Category:Exercise