Leisure Studies- Unit 5- A03

Also the government would like to try to encourage teenagers to exercise more. There is more of a focus on girls ages 14-16 because it is a fact that this is the main age and gender that tend not to want to take part in sport because it is no longer compulsory at school so they tend to drop out and a lot don’t enjoy it. This gives them no motivation to get involved in any clubs outside of school or take part in new activities so they are not doing any exercise at all and obviously this is not very healthy.  

International health clubs are beginning to start to provide health clubs for children. This has come about as the childhood obesity rate has started to rapidly increase and the government is getting hot on the health of the nation. Health and fitness club operators have started to give children access to physical activities. A lot of these children join different classes while their parents are taking part in other activities at the club. Schemes that are getting children active are becoming widely available everywhere you go. There are a lot of countries that have already developed such schemes like Australia, New Zealand and America. Such schemes are bringing children together and making them feel part of a club and educating them into living a healthier lifestyle. A lot of the programmes that are being offered do not just give the children a place to exercise but they are also providing them with education about nutrition and other factors which can affect them having a healthy lifestyle.

Although the children of our nation are increasingly becoming more overweight and their lifestyles are becoming more unhealthy there are still 3 out of 10 boys and 4 out of 10 girls who are still doing enough activity to benefit their health. Recent studies show that obesity is increasingly common among children, with 16.6% of boys and 16.7% of girls deemed overweight. This is why something must be done to improve the health of the children of our nation because otherwise the numbers will continue to increase. The department of health states that young people need to experience a wide range of activities to get them into fitness habits. Trends that have now become a normal daily routine for our younger generation need to be changed. “it has taken a generation to become so inactive, why should it take longer than a generation to reverse this?”

This market is clearly one that could become very big with people becoming more aware about health risks and the need for more physical activity in day to day lives and eating healthily. Children and teenagers are the future of the world and it needs to be made clear that they need to be healthy because otherwise things will continue the way they are and get worse. The NHS is beginning to come under a lot more strain because the amount of obese people is continuing to rise and people suffering from illnesses that have occurred from an unhealthy lifestyle. More people than ever know that our children need to be healthy, but no one seems to be doing a lot about it, so these new plans to get children into gyms may sound extreme because a lot of people would think that they would be doing enough exercise by running around playing games and having fun but with the continuing introduction of new technology this is not the case because children are just playing on computer games and sitting in front of the TV and therefore not doing any physical activity. These new plans are there to help the people of the future and educate them to make the right lifestyles changes.

The Health Of Elderly People

The government has released a new scheme called ‘choosing activity’ and this is a cross department action plan for improving the nation’s health and levels of activity. The government are recommending that people should do at least 60 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity each day for children, and for younger children it has been said 30 minutes. Only 50% of older people do physical exercise, and hopefully by 2011 70% will be exercising.

The government have made two promises. The first is to raise the awareness of the health risks of obesity that will be launched in March 2007. The main target for this is the North East of England although they do aim to target everywhere including London. The second promise of the government is that they are trying to make all schools healthy by encouraging healthy eating in schools. They are trying to get 50% of schools to be healthy by 2006 and all of the schools healthy by 2009. The white paper is a tremendous catalyst for FIA members, making marketing plans and all industry participants. They have funded about £30 million in 2006/07 and approximately £40 million per annul for 2007/08.

Being inactive means that you will be running a higher risk of developing obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis and depression. Elderly people have the right to exercise as much as anyone else, as long as the training programs are well balanced and not pushing their limits to much. They are still able to gain muscle strength. It is a fact that 4 out of 10 people over 50 take no exercise at all. 

95% of people know that physical activity is good for them but they do nothing about it and this is very worrying considering that it is their life that they are affecting, but only 28% of the population are doing something about it and taking part in activities and are doing at least 30 minutes of exercise per day and most of the people doing this are older.

Scientists did experiments and found that the hearts of male athletes between the ages of 50 and 70 were as powerful as those of 20 year old sedentary individuals. Cable explains that “in terms of the aging process, they may be chronologically old but biologically they have internal function of a 20 year old person and their everyday functional capacity is far superior to their peers.”’  The results of the experiment show that there should be no reason for elderly people to not be taking part in some form of physical activity because it can still be a great benefit to these people even though they are more elderly.

 

In the news recently there has been talk about the pensioners' playground and it is the first if its kind that we have in this country. ‘The £15,000 outdoor facility in Blackley, Greater Manchester features six pieces of fitness equipment designed specifically to provide gentle exercise for the over-60s.’ It is a place designed for multiple purpose. Obviously the main one is to help elderly people to exercise with more ease but it also gives them the chance to  meet other people in their area and get them out and about.  Many of the residents that have used the new playground say that it has brought back a youthful feeling and is now providing them with something to do in the community. It has been a great success and has been said that when the weather improves they think that it will really start to take off. They are hoping that this will be of great success in other places around the country and this will therefore lead to many more similar playground sites being introduced all over the country.  

Men          

Men are becoming an increasingly worrying category and this had got them the name of the “hard to reach group”. A lot of men work in and around London and this means that by the time they have come home from their job they have little if any time to take part in leisure activities. According to the chief medical officer only 37% of men in England are sufficiently active to gain any benefits to there health. ‘Males over the age of 15 were 3 times more likely than women to kill the selves with suicides accounting for around a quarter of all deaths in this group.’ ‘Obesity, smoking, high cholesterol and lack of exercise were all key factors detrimental to men’s health. 60% of men with cardiovascular dieses were overweight or obese and 40% of men in the UK admit to drinking in excess of the recommended daily intake.’ This clearly shows that people are not looking after there bodies in the way that they should be

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Six points that have been formed to try and improve the nations health are:

• Reducing the number of people who smoke
• Reducing obesity and improving diet and nutrition
• Increasing the uptake of physical activity, sport and exercise
• Encouraging and supporting sensible drinking
• Improving sexual health
• Improving mental health  

These are six points that have been made to help men hopefully become more aware of the lifestyles that they are living and to try to change their lifestyles for the better to make them more healthy individuals and to increase their life expectancy.

Southwark have introduced a new program which they were starting to run in 2005.  This includes different fitness classes that vary so they can suit all sorts of intervals. Some of the activities that they can take part in are things like circuit training, boxing, kayaking, swimming, football, cricket and the list goes on.  There is a free phone number that people can call to request information if people wish to require details on different aspects of the programmes that area available to them. Men can also purchase a health card which only costs £1 and lasts for the whole length of the programme. This is good for an individual because it gives men access to specific men’s health activities. This is a good idea for promoting the health of men as they can become more aware and have more activities which are becoming more available, also the numbers of different classes and activities means that there is something for everyone to try so there are no excuses from men that there is nothing that they want to do.

‘Exercise makes your body stronger, fitter and more flexible. It protects your heart and bones, keeps your weight at an ideal level, helps reduce stress and makes you feel good. It also reduces the risk of a range of illnesses including ,  and .’  This definition provides us with a simple explanation of why you should be taking part in exercise and why it is so important for people to take part in sports. More health and fitness clubs are turning to educational reasoning with its members. This means that not only will they be taught how to exercise properly but they will also be taught about the right and wrong foods to eat and this therefore creates a healthier lifestyle for the individual.

Encouraging the overweight to exercise

‘TOAST (The obesity awareness and solutions trust) was formed to be a focus for the prevention and management of obesity in the UK. TOAST is a charity that sets up action groups; informs, educates and listens, researches and works with interested parties to raise the profile of the set of problems called obesity.’  This trust aims to help individuals and to research into the increasing problems of obesity that the country has.

It has been said that our nation is set up of:

20% sporty types

16% mild enthusiasts

44% subs bench

20% couch potatoes.

These figures show how the country weighs up when it comes to being active. The people who need the most help to get active are those in the subs bench because they are mostly willing to take part in activities but they just need to be brought into action and motivated to do it. This is also the largest percentage of people from the groups which means that the government needs to try and get these people more active if they are ever going to try to meet some of their targets that they have set for themselves.

‘Obesity has grown by almost 400% in the last 25 years this means that ¾ of the adult population are now overweight or obese’  These figures are shocking but they show what is happening now and this is the way we are living and how much of a huge problem obesity is. It obviously needs to stop and things need to change if the nation is going to become healthier.

The City Council in Birmingham has had a great success with its new specialist health programmes. These give opportunities to different people. For example it means that under 16s swim for free. This is one of the ways in which they intend to make Birmingham a more active city. Another example is the walk 2000. This was “developed for those people with low fitness levels, but who wouldn’t or couldn’t use the gym. People were happy to walk.” The scheme was set up in the city with walks sign posted. These walks took place with trained leaders and now there are 28 of these different walks that have been sign posted around the city so that people can follow the different routes.  

There have been an increasing number of health and fitness centres being set up so that GP referrals can take place and people can be educated into the different ways that they are leading their lives. The more that people know about what possible harm they are doing to their bodies then it will make it easier for them to change the habits that they have got into and try to make their lifestyle healthier. This will not only affect the individual but it can also affect their children and they will therefore become more educated and live healthier lifestyles.

Government targets

Obesity has grown by almost 400% in the last 25 years this is ridiculous because this means that about three quarters of the adult population are overweight or obese. It is also a fact that the problem of obesity is estimated to be costing the country around £3.3 billion per year which is a huge amount of unnecessary money that is being spent. With these figures it is clear that the government cannot ignore the massive problem of obesity and  something needs to be done about it and quickly before there are more deaths within the population caused by obesity and the costs rise even more.

One of the main reasons that this has happened is through the trend for buying fast foods and the super size options that are now being provided. With a mix of this and our sedentary lifestyles consisting of higher TV viewings and more technology this means that people tend to do a lot less physical activity in there day to day lives and this means that our country is becoming a lot more obese and therefore a lot more unhealthy.

This is starting to be helped by the campaigns that are designed to raise awareness and GP referral schemes that have been set in place in local leisure centres. These have been tested and have proved to be increasingly successful. Others schemes that have already been testes are “Shape your Life” and “Weight to Go”. They have also proved successful. As long as the government has schemes like this put in place then there should be a difference made to the health of the nation.      

‘there are plans to link up with schools to educate children of the effects of exercise and regular activity is certainly the way forward for a more joined up approach towards healthier nation in the future.’  this shows that people are beginning to understand the effects of what we are doing to our children and that we need to help them to become healthier. this is a good start to making the nation a healthier one as they are staring with the young people meaning that they will be able to pass this information onto there parents and there children.  

Lots of these new schemes are providing new jobs and creating more of an income for people already in the industry. This can only be good news of our economy.

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