I ask: Just what is so crazy about it? The slow training protocol developed by this individual and the underlying philosophy associated with it is far more safe and productive than anything else being advocated by the so called “experts” in our industry. Personally, I have utilized this slow protocol exclusively in my own training and that of all my clients for the past seven years and have achieved outstanding results. Results that could be considered outstanding even if they had required several hours of weekly exercise time to produce. However, considering these results have been produced with about one-tenth the amount of weekly exercise time as that recommended by traditional exercise programs, these results simply defy belief!

Our industry’s experts have no comprehension of what’s possible through “proper” exercise. Let’s be thankful that at least someone has the guts to speak out against the irrational and illogical recommendations currently being prescribed by exercise professionals.

In the second case, you condemned an individual who has advanced the notion that the target heart rate (THR) is a myth and a falsehood. I do not know this individual, nor have I read his book on the subject. However, I was very pleased that you alerted me to the fact that this person exists. I and hundreds of other exercise and medical professionals, including several cardiologists, have exactly the same opinion — that the target heart rate is bogus.

I’m not aware of this person’s entire philosophy or whether it is valid, but I can say that at least in regard to THR, he is right on the money.

If you are really sincere about promoting proper exercise and helping club owners become more profitable, why not print the truth? The best place to start would be an article devoted to the “slow” training protocol including printing its full name and giving credit to its developer. He has devoted years of his life towards the search for the best possible exercise method. He most of all wants to get the message out and see this industry wake up. At least you could recognize his efforts.

Michael K. Ang-Lee, M.D., and colleagues from the Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago, identified commonly used herbal supplements based on 1999 sales data and surveys. The herbal medications analyzed in this study were ephedra, echinacea, garlic, ginseng, ginkgo, valerian, kava and St. John’s wort. The authors then searched for and reviewed articles published between 1966 and 2000 on the safety, effect, and action of these herbs to determine if they may have a negative impact on patients who undergo surgery, during the period of time surrounding the procedure.

Studies have shown that approximately 12 percent of the U.S. population uses herbal medications, and 22 percent of patients scheduled for surgery reported using such medications. The eight herbal medications studied account for more than fifty percent of all herb preparations sold in the U.S.(the article does not include data on nonherbal supplements such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids and hormones).

According to previous studies, possible complications from use of herbal medications include heart attack, stroke, bleeding, increased or decreased effectiveness of anesthesia, transplant rejection, and interactions with other medications. The effects of some herbal medications can linger two to three weeks after patients stop using them.

In this study, the authors found that the herbal preparations analyzed may pose a concern before, during, or after surgery. Direct effects include bleeding from ginkgo, garlic and ginseng; irregularities in heart rate from ephedra. Valerian and kava may interact with anesthetics, provoking a greater depressive effect of anesthetics on blood pressure and respiration. Possible effects of St. John’s wort include altered metabolism of many drugs used in the period around an operation.

Previous research suggests that patients may withhold information about their herbal medication use from their physicians for various reasons.

There is no mandatory reporting for adverse events in herbal medication use, which is contrary to conventional medication mandates.

If you didn’t buy the magazine, you weren’t exposed to the sales pitch. With the advent of the information superhighway and the mega-TV channel selection comes a bombardment (of sorts) of those crazy fitness buffs and their fitness machines.

Is it quackery? No, just advertising. As a matter of interest, it may probably be the best thing for the business of fitness. As more and more of these types of gimmicks hit the market, the consumer may become wiser (or just tired of the sales pitch), and the second-rate products will fade from our 27-inch screens. Lest we forget that in America it is still a “buyer beware” market. That does not mean that they are involved in fraud. They certainly would not qualify as “quacks” either, because it would be hard to say that an infomercial fitness guru (such as Tony Little) is hardly “ostracized.” Judging by his 1995 income, he may be one of the leading money makers in the history of the fitness profession.

The best way to counter ads that may seem questionable is to devote equal amounts of air time to products that promote safe and enjoyable exercise (one example is Douglas Brooks’ and Gin Miller’s fitness ball ad on QVC). The public will ultimately decide on what’s best for them, and until the fitness profession can agree on standards of practice and codes of ethics, we will continue to see a barrage of gimmicks on our cable stations. Happy surfing!

Having recently read your editorial on “fitness quackery” in the December issue of Fitness Management, I find it necessary to both commend you and condemn you.

First, I commend you for correctly calling attention to the existence of the “hucksters” in the fitness industry. These people deliberately mislead, misinform and lie to the general public and fitness professionals alike simply to make money selling bogus products and programs. Something must be done about these people because their actions jeopardize the legitimate exercise profession.

However, I must condemn your selection of examples of quacks. Even though your intentions may be good, you obviously don’t possess the required knowledge and expertise to correctly judge a program or product as either valid or quackery. In your list of examples, you wrongly suggested two individuals and programs as quackery when in fact their programs and messages are actually quite logical, rational and valid.

For the apparently healthy individual who wants to develop and maintain an adequate level of cardiorespiratory fitness, the American College of Sports Medicine recommends that exercise intensity be between 50 percent to 85 percent of a person’s maximum oxygen uptake capacity (V02max). For most participants, exercise intensities between 60 percent to 80 percent of V02max are prescribed. It is generally believed, however, that the appropriate intensity threshold to elicit a training effect is at the low end of the recommended continuum for those who have been relatively sedentary, and at the high end of the scale for those who are physically active.

Unfortunately, many adults — particularly those just starting an exercise program — have difficulty estimating the intensity of exercise needed to produce improvements in their aerobic fitness levels.

This difficulty in properly gauging exercise intensity often results in a lack of improvement or, worse, overexertion which, in turn, leads to excessive muscle soreness and/or injury. The key to remember is that in order to maximize the benefits from an aerobic workout, one must exercise within the appropriate intensity range. To identify what intensity range is appropriate for an individual, one or more of the several techniques for monitoring acceptable levels of exercise intensity can be used. The most widely used methods are target heart rate (THR), ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and metabolic equivalent units (METs).

“I am living on borrowed time,” Byrd said, but not because of her earlier brush with breast cancer.

Her mother died at age 46 of a stroke and her grandmother at age 39 during childbirth. Living well beyond her 40s is something Byrd never expected. At 63, she has lived longer than the women closest to her in her family. But breast cancer, she insists, would not cut her life short.

“Yes, it’s a shock when you learn about it,” she said. “But I was assured that they found it in its earliest stages. I found out in February [in 1992] and they did the surgery in March. I said then, ‘Lets get this taken care of, so I can get on with my life.’”

“I had a mastectomy,” she said, “and one reason for that was to make certain that all of it [the cancer] was gone.”

Family History?
Even with a stoic attitude toward such devastating news, there was a reason for her take-charge approach: Breast cancer had loomed elsewhere in her family, stalking women, striking at periods in their lives when they least expected to be affected by the disease.

“I learned that I had two cousins who had double mastectomies, so it was something I was always looking out for,” she said of breast cancer. “I had an aunt who also had breast cancer,” Byrd said. One of her cousins was in her early 30s when she was diagnosed with the disease; the other was in her mid-40s. Her aunt was already past 70 when her diagnosis came.

No one in Byrd’s family underwent testing for the presence of any of the known breast cancer genes. In fact, the first of those genes was discovered in 1994 — two years after Byrd was diagnosed. But to say that genes may play a role in a family where four cases of breast cancer have surfaced may be too quick of an answer, doctors say. Sometimes chance and coincidence are equal factors in the occurrences of breast cancer when it is detected among relatives.

Still, Byrd thinks about her mother and grandmother. She has no idea if they would have developed the disease because they died young, and of other causes.

Enjoying Borrowed Time
Despite those sad episodes, Byrd has had a happy and full life. She and her husband Joshua have been married for 44 years. They have no children, but they enjoy each other’s company immensely. They travel frequently together and look forward to June 2001 when Gloria retires after 39 years in her academic affairs position at a university in California.

Byrd, who by nature is very quiet and unassuming, has become in her own way a healthcare advocate, urging friends and co-workers to be mindful of their annual mammograms. “I tell them breast cancer is a very serious thing and to get their mammograms yearly.

“It had been two years,” she said between mammograms at the time she was diagnosed in 1992. “I just wasn’t that diligent. For some reason or another, life sometimes gets in the way.”

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And in an industry where staff turnover is also high, B&R has also managed to retain two key staff members — its general manager and maintenance director — for more than a decade. So what’s the club’s secret for longevity? You might say a little humility and a great deal of concern for members. “I’m not sure why we’re so good at keeping people here, but we do listen to our members,” says general manager Jody Bender, who herself boasts 10 and a half years with the facility. “We are not only blessed with wonderful members, but after 18 years of being in business, we are fortunate to be in the position to do something about it.”

In this case, that something was an all-out, fully-catered, one-heck-of-a-shindig celebration. Fittingly, the idea for the 10-Year Member Appreciation Party came in response to a member inquiry. Club owner Dave Spadaccino was approached by a long-term member who, through the club’s computer tracking system, figured she had burned more than 80,000 Calories over the years at B&R. “She said to Dave, ‘What are you going to give me?’” recounts Bender. “That got us thinking.”

Initially unaware that hundreds of 10-year-plus memberships existed, B&R wanted to create an evening its loyal customers would remember for years to come. To do so, it decided to go first-class in its preparations. Staff altered their schedules to decorate for the event and after hours of hard work, transformed the facility’s aerobics room into a virtual winter wonderland. Elegant touches included dim lighting with candles, white pin lights and flood lights, tables garnished with white linen cloth, servers dressed in tuxedos and gloves, and an 8-foot-tall silver “10″ trimmed in lights.

In addition to a host of other gourmet items, the menu included caviar, mushrooms stuffed with crab, tempura veggies and baked brie with almonds and apples. The 254 members who attended also received a commemorative “10-year” embroidered T-shirt.

To keep costs down, the club bartered four memberships in exchange for the catering and T-shirts, and received a donation from one 10-year member who owns a beverage distribution company. Out-of-pocket expenses totalled about $1,600 for decorations, postage and miscellaneous items.

As Bender says, the cash outlay was minimal compared to what the long-term members have contributed to B&R. “A rough estimate of the dues collected from these members over a 10-year period is close to $1 million,” she says. “The amount it cost us to honor each individual was only $6.46 — an unbelievably insignificant amount to give back compared to what we’ve received and will continue to receive.”

In addition to providing a feel-good evening, Bender says the party also afforded members an opportunity to get re-acquainted. Name tags were distributed at the door, and to help promote interaction among the honorees, it was a night for members only. “I think the nicest part about the whole event was that there were so many members who hadn’t seen each other for five years or more because of different schedules,” Bender says. “They would walk up to each other and say with amazement, ‘Wow, you’re still here?’”

In fact, according to Spadaccino, a number of members have been at the club for much longer than 10 years. “Some signed on as charter members before the club even opened, 18 years ago,” he says.

Quite obviously, B&R has come along way since those early days. The 60,000-square-foot facility is home to 3,600 members, 10 percent of whom have at least 10 years under their belt. And in addition to Bender, maintenance director Bob Girmscheid has also been with the facility a decade.

In a “salute to longevity” in its newsletter, B&R quoted a few members about why they’ve stayed at the facility so long. Member Thelma Ulrich may have put it best when she said, simply, “I wouldn’t be able to do the things I do if I didn’t go to B&R first. It’s saved me many trips to the doctor.” If Ulrich keeps going back to B&R, it’s no doubt she’ll be on hand to enjoy the 20-year party. It’s already in the works.

Parkinson’s disease is one of the more common neurological diseases in Americans, affecting perhaps 1 million people, and a large majority is over age 60. However, the disease can strike at a younger age, as it has actor Michael J. Fox and former boxing champion Muhammad Ali. Genetic factors account for a small portion of affected patients, but in general the disease strikes unpredictably.

The new study’s authors, a group from Emory University, administered modest doses of rotenone, a natural or “organic” pesticide derived from plant roots, intravenously to rats, continuously over a period of four to five weeks. About half of the study rodents developed traits similar to humans with Parkinson’s: tremors, slow and unstable gait, and muscle rigidity. On autopsy, the rats’ brains also showed characteristic changes compatible with those seen in the post-mortem exams of Parkinson’s patients.

Some scientists and environmentalists used this report to attack pesticides, and environmental chemicals in general, as a cause of Parkinson’s. The facts do not so indicate, by any means. The substance involved, rotenone, was given intravenously and continuously — an exposure not related to human exposure in any meaningful way. And while the doses given were “modest” by rodent-testing standards, they were still far beyond any conceivable human exposure level. A different rat species proved not to be susceptible to the disease-producing effects of the rotenone, despite a much higher exposure dose. The authors themselves acknowledge there have never been any test animals that have developed Parkinson’s disease on oral exposure to pesticides at any dose.

So, what is the lesson to be learned? For one thing, while the production of this animal model for Parkinson’s may well prove to be a tremendous accomplishment, as it may allow testing for possible therapies to treat or even prevent the condition, to extrapolate an association between all human Parkinson’s disease and pesticide exposure from this data is completely unwarranted.

There is currently no proof, or even a basis for speculation, that a cause-effect relationship exists between pesticides and human Parkinson’s. Even if further study were to implicate rotenone in the causation of some Parkinson’s cases, there would be no reason to generalize from that to a widespread effect of all pesticides. The plants themselves produce the large majority of pesticides, while those under attack by “environmental” groups tend to be synthetic. But as this study reiterates that natural does not equal safe, just as synthetic does not equal toxic.

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West recognized that some people are intimidated by the typical gym layout with its hard surfaces and rows of imposing machines. These negative perceptions can even keep them from joining a health club. Gold’s Gym…Health, Fitness & Beyond designed its facility with a sophisticated comic-book decor to help make working out stimulating and fun. A Disney animator designed life-size cutouts of super heroes that celebrate human potential and beckon visitors to discover the hero inside each of them. It offers an inspirational atmosphere that people feel as soon as they enter the facility. The unusual juxtaposition of freeform and geometric shapes also invigorates the senses and motivates customers to perform at their best.

Gold’s Gym…Health, Fitness & Beyond sets a new standard for health clubs. The $5 million project is a virtual high-tech theme park for the fitness-oriented individual. The 22,000-square-foot multi-leveled facility bridges the gap between a health facility and a nightclub. It contains a large exercise area with the usual machines, including 130 pieces of cardiovascular equipment. Its long list of amenities includes a DJ booth, a 600-gallon shark tank, an art gallery, four 10-foot television screens, a stage for live entertainment, nightclub-quality sound and lighting systems, and palm trees. In front of the facility, there is even a large water fountain that uses cutting-edge computer programming.

The hero theme also extends to the nicknames of the staff, which together are known as the G-Force. Among the staff heroes are the manager (G-Man), the flexibility trainer (Elastica) and the nutrition expert (Nutrina). Membership categories include Hero and Superhero, while the lobby and lounge area is called the Heroes Lounge. It’s all part of a total concept to help bring out the true fitness potential in members.

This attention to detail has paid off on the bottom line. The gym signed up more than 2,000 members during its first six months of operation, half of whom had never joined a health club before. Customers have found that the imaginative interior boosts their energy level and motivates them to exercise more intensely. It also adds an element of unpredictable fun that eliminates the intimidation and monotony they may have felt at other clubs. Gold’s Gym…Health, Fitness & Beyond has expanded the boundaries of what a fitness facility can be. Considering the positive response it has received in the Madison marketplace, it just may become a model for health club construction in the future

A new sales representative at a gym I worked for encouraged prospective members to give aerobics a try, and placed them in whatever class was taking place at the moment. Uninformed, he believed that aerobics classes were all alike, and anybody could join in regardless of experience or fitness level. Unfortunately, most of his clients were unconditioned and overweight, and the classes he placed them in were geared for the more fit, experienced students. Needless to say, he didn’t make many sales.

Your first goal should be to make new exercisers comfortable. They should be placed in a class suited to their ability and taught to do the movements and exercises properly. Instructors shouldn’t be concerned if their new students don’t get their heart rates into the “target zone” during the first class.

They also shouldn’t encourage them to work their muscles to fatigue. As their bodies progressively adapt to exercise, the intensity they work at will increase on its own.

Low-intensity classes are great for allowing new students to build confidence and progress gradually without feeling the stress of trying to keep up with those around them. Keeping your students comfortable with exercise is critical to helping them overcome any fears they may have.

“Somebody will always break your records. It is how you live that counts.” — Earl Campbell

“I love the winning, I can take the losing, but most of all I love to play.” — Boris Becker

“Becoming number one is easier than remaining number one.” — Bill Bradley

And two of my favorites:

“You have to be able to center yourself, to let all of your emotions go … Don’t ever forget that you play with your soul as well as your body.” — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

“For when the One Great Scorer comes to mark against your name, he writes not that you won or lost, but how you played the Game.” — Grantland Rice