I'm a firm believer that exercise and diet improves upon health and is a big prevention of disease. Also even when inflicted with disease exercise and diet and can extend life and ease suffering. Too many African-Americans are inflicted with obesity and as the producers of the world's greatest athletes this shouldn't be the case.
As a certified personal trainer I went to school as the only black in my class. Also when we went on tour in many of the gyms in the San Francisco Bay Area I found no Black trainers of staff. At first I felt it was obvious discrimination for this then it become apparent it was more of the racist design of economics. Personal training packages can start anywhere between $60 to $200 an hour. And at 3 sessions needed per week to improve the average monthly bill could exceed $720.00. I don't know many people whom can afford that and typically the gyms knew African Americans were the least to be able to afford personal training packages. Mostly Whites and Asians were the large number of people whom retain personal trainers so thus this is why the personal trainers were mostly White and sometimes Asian. It was simply a matter of the gyms knowing they needed to pair personal trainers with clients choice of race. Alot of the big gyms like 24hr Fitness, Gold's Gym, Crunch, L.A Fitness, Equinox and others didn't hire African American personal trainers because the client's wouldn't support them by retaining their services so gyms have no choice. I find it's not the system that is racist it is the people themselves.
This affects African Americans in alot of ways first it deprives us of reasonable employment since we are such great athletes we would be extremely qualified to instruct fitness and with education even greater. Second the personal training packages make it nearly impossible for African Americans whom median incomes are not sufficient enough to support most basic personal training packages. It takes at least 3 sessions per week in the beginning in order for a client to see improvement and also this has to be maintain at least the first cycle of 6 weeks to see massive improvement in weight loss and strength development. I can concur this from my own transformation while attending fitness school and losing alot of weight but I didn't see my body improvements until about 2 months of 3 sessions per week devotion.
I wondered how we can start off life in the best shape from being the world's greatest athlete's to being barely able to walk in our retirement and suffering from obesity in large numbers. Some people are foolish enough to believe dieting alone with get you results and I have yet to see anyone who has tried a yo-yo diet maintain their weight after the diet is over. Also low weight doesn't imply fitness or being in shape. As we get older we tend to lose testosterone which is needed for muscle development. Some people are foolish to think we don't need muscle but muscle is needed for stability and balance because gravity is always pulling on us. Old people who lack muscle tend to have more falls and injuries for they have lost stability muscles that are important for movement and maintaining balance. Also resistance training which builds and maintains muscles strengthens the heart and makes the heart a strong resistance to heart attack.
In conclusion, I think we should seek out African American personal trainers and that more African Americans should become qualified to become personal trainers. But more importantly I think personal training which has been gloried to be a service only for the wealthy should consider reducing prices to make affordable to the lower income African Americans. We can't wait for the establishment to this we must take our health into our own hands. The racism that prevails is too great and a total waste of our time to try and change the disparity within the hearts of those who are denying us this life supporting service. First we can eliminate the ridiculous rates that prevent and discourage our people from retaining trainers. There should be a low affordable monthly charge that includes adequate sessions in order for African American clients to see improvement. Also education should be included so that clients can educate themselves about fitness and thus become independent in their workout and make fitness a lifestyle change. Without access and education our community will continue to decline in health and fitness and be more prone to disease and emotional stress.
Posted By: John Washington
Friday, December 25th 2009 at 11:38PM
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