This post isn’t about fashion, or about gluten-free recipes or 33 ways buzzfeed reads your mind. It’s not about fitting in to be cool or keep up with everyone else. This post is about a trend that isn’t technically what’s hot in the streets.
Being a fitness trainer/consultant/life-coach/mentor/shoulder-to-cry-on/friend, I hear a ton of stories about why the person sitting in front of me wants to change their lifestyle. I help them uncover a deeper meaning to why they’re having these hour+ long conversations with me, and shed some light on what I recommend for them.
As I'm consulting more, there is a commonality among those I meet. While in NYC, the majority of those I coached wanted to stay fit – meaning, being able to keep up with their kids, stay on track with their sport-specific training (see: marathons) and get clarity so they could focus more on their actual work. Some common goals: stabilize ankles, improve posture, relieve lower back pain, have energy, get ripped. Done (for the most part).
In Baltimore, there's a deeper lining and factor that comes into play. It's the actual medical reasons why people are stepping into the gym - to lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, control blood sugar (see: get off meds). No one wants to be pill popping for the rest of his or her life. Granted, these health issues could come from genetics, but they’re not concerned about stabilizing their core so they can run better. Their main goal is to get a good report from their doc each time they visit. Or, in some extreme amazing cases, pay a lower insurance rate if they are within certain criteria: weight, inches off waist, normal cholesterol levels, etc.
I often think of my own family and health related issues that they have/had and how I could be in a similar position with those I speak to. It’s a tough pill to swallow (pun not intended, really) to hear stories from women my age (29) or even younger with serious health issues like diabetes, obesity and high cholesterol – some with clean/healthy family histories – and know that it’s probably due to poor nutrition and little exercise. [Side note: yes, there are a hundred of other factors that could also contribute to these health problems , but lets just all agree that eating clean and exercising consistently could prevent a lot of issues later down the road].
The bottom line is that when someone walks into a gym/fitness center/box, they know that they want to get (or stay) fit. If there’s anything that I could be 100% certain on, it’s that being proactive in having a healthy lifestyle will always be trending.