*Pursuing a new and challenging career in fitness may be one of the most important decisions you've made in some time.The world of personal wellness is full of opportunities for personal growth,enjoyment,and financial success.Learning about fitness can open the doors to all sorts of personal and professional possibilities.

 

*Your training will have a lasting effect on your health and the health of your family and your future students.As a fitness leader,you'll be the professional whom others will turn for information on exercise and healthy lifestyle.

 

*Feeling good and being fit is what this site is all about.You're lucky to be living in a time when there's so much new and scientifically proven knowledge of how to get into shape and live a healthier life.The tremendous changes in health industry have result in the need for qualified and knowledgeable professionals.

 

Separating Myth from Fact

*Before we get started though,it would be a good idea to test your awareness of myths and facts of fitness.You may be surprised to discover that television,radio,newspaper,magazines,and even some people in the fitness field often spread inaccurate or conflicting ideas now mark the statements figure 1 as either True or False.A discussion of the correct answers.

 

Figure 1-Its a good idea to test your knowledge of myths and facts of nutrition.

CCP to answer the following statements.

Fitness Quiz True or False

_1.Three hours of exercise,once a week is sifficient for physcial fitness.

_2.Exercise slows down the aging process.

_3.The only way to get a complete,proper workout is to go to a health club.

_4.Activities that make you tired or make you hurt actually make you fit.

_5.Activities like golf and bowling are useless for improving your fitness.

_6.The best kind of stretching is slow and assive,with each position held 10 to 30 seconds.

_7.Most back problems are due largely to muscular weakness and lack of flexibility.

_8.Inactivity is a major contributor to coronary disease.

_9.Once you stop aerobic exercise,the cardiovasular "training effects."

_10.The more you sweat,the faster you burn fat.

_11.Research shows that jogging is the best fitness activity for everybody.

_12.Nutrition plays a large part in your state of physical fitness.

 

How to Take Charge of Your Health and Lifestyle

*One of the most notable changes in the fitness and health industry is an increasing awareness that people need to be educated on how to raise their health consciiousness.People need to become educated not only abou health hazards but also about how to assume personal responsibility for their own health and well being.

Once upon a time,good health was viewed as a combination of good luck and the right parentage.It was simplythought that if that if you came from a family whose members lived long lives,you probably had a fair chance of living a long life,too-unless,of course,some diseasemclaimed you and then you had a case of bad luck!

Then,as scientific discoveries occurred,society depended heavily on the "wonders" of medicine and its curative powers to maintain good health.More and more,responsibility for good health fell to the doctor and to the medical care system.Most people looked to their physicans to "make them healthy".Thanks to successful medical  cures,the term health came to mean "absence of disease."

Mass media advertising and marketing campaigns did little to encourage individual resonsibility.For example,drug advertisers offered products to offset the damaging consequences of drinking six martinis a day or bigeing on a box of chocolate cookies.Successful products were often ones that encouraged irresponsibility and excess.There was a belief that you could eat and drink to saturation and still be merry-as long as the headace pills,stomach tablets,or laxatives were within reach.Increasingly,there seemed to be cure for everything.

But it also became clear that something was wrong.Heart disease,cancer,stroke,and other life-threatening diseases failed to decrease.Rather they flourished in numbers.The overwhelming demand for and skyrocketing  cost of medical care began to cause concern.Doctors soon realized that imporper nutrition,high stress,and an inactive lifestlye had a direct correlation with serious diseases,such as coronary heart disease,some types of cancer,stroke,diabetes,mellitus,and anterosclerosis.Fortunately there's now a beter knowledge and understanding of the human body and mechanisms of disease.Genetics (what you inheritand therefore can't control),however,still plays a large part.But more improptrant are factors that you can control-behavior patterns and lifestyle habits.Much of the chronic disease prevalent in our society today is attributed to poor eating habits,sedentary living,smoking,and stress-all things you can control.The key to managing your health is to learn the importance of removing these hazards from your life though a carefully planned change in behavior.Simply put,you're responsible for taking charge of your health and lifestyle.