Give me a break

At three p.m. this afternoon, my firm is having a guy come in to, apparently, show us how to get fit and lose weight in a 15 minute no-sweat workout.

Too good to be true?  This "Quick Fit" guy will show us how, "in no more time than a coffee break...pack[ ] in aerobic activity, strengthening exercises, and stretches." 

I looked up the guy, and his marketing campaign reminds me of the campaign Heineken conducted when it was new to this country, in which their guy went into bars and, rather than trying to pitch the beer, he instead purported to be a customer and loudly requested Heineken.  He did this often and enthusiastically enough that saloons started carrying it.  In the same way, this Quick Fit guy apparently visits companies and goes around pretending his services were invited by a phantom employee until his constant inquiries generate actual interest in his pitch.  Give the man credit for chutzpah.

I question his assertion that "Exercise, like money in the bank, is cumulative.  It all adds up."   Actually, no.  Stop weight training, and you lose 20% of your strength in two weeks.  Endurance is similar, that's why Ace got into trouble with his IT band when he abruptly restarted long-run training in time for Boston, after taking a month off.  I can tell you first hand that, however fit I may have been last year when I did that 70.3 World Championship, all the swimming I did last year helped me not at all this weekend when I jumped in the pool and was winded after 50 meters.  I'm just saying.

But the basic gist of this guy's pitch is, "Hey, 15 minutes is better than NO minutes!"  And I have to agree with that.  If committing to only fifteen minutes is what it takes to motivate and to establish a habit, then I'm all for it. But this promise that you can not sweat your way to actual cardiovascular and muscular fitness  in fifteen minutes seems a little overblown. 

Actually, you know whom he reminds me of?  This guy.

To borrow a phrase from Barack Obama: "Look."   

I am all in favor of companies offering mechanisms and incentives to encourage fitter employees.  The workers are happier, of course, but the companies are happier too, because fitter employees are (supposedly) more productive, and insurance costs may be lowered. 

But here's the thing.  Ever since my firm announced its move to a newly-renovated building, colleagues and I have been lobbying our office to install a shower.   This would enable employees to ride bikes to work, walk or run at lunchtime, or even squeeze in a sport at the end of the day and return to work, while still maintaining our professional dress and odor standards.  Our request was denied for lack of infrastructure.  (Huh?  It was a new building.)  The call was renewed when we expanded to another floor, which had an unused storage room placed immediately adjacent to and between the bathrooms.  Again, we were denied, for lack of infrastructure.

But let it not be said that the firm won't spend money on its employees' health.  Somebody clearly sees fit to spend money hiring minimal-effort gurus to come in and persuade us that sweating is unneccessary. 

How very convenient, since we have no shower.

Comments

[Kelli]

Yep -- having a shower at work would be just so awesome. Thankfully as a Y member, I can hit the downtown YMCA if I ride my bike in, but I have to wait until lunch. And it is supposed to be, oh 97 today. So, you know. That means no bike commute for the next 5 months or so.
The best way to get people to lose weigh in 15 minutes a day is to go to sleep reading instead of watching TV. Late-night TV watching has shown to make people eat too much in the evenings. I highly doubt Kingsolver has the same effect.

[Wickedly Scarlett]

I wish that I could lose weight after just 15 minutes of exercise a day!! Well, honestly, I wish I could lose weight after zero minutes of exercise a day and a bowl of chocolate ice cream...

[Amy]

I really try not to take for granted that my company has put in onsite fitness centers for us, including nice lockers and showers, plus we have free access to most of the fitness facilities in our city. I think they are on the right track!

Urge your employer to give you free access to area facilities (one group that sets up this stuff is Prime Fitness). I bet they'll give you a shower instead because it's cheaper!