Beyond the Battle of the Bulge

by Miriam Rinn

Americans are becoming less healthy year by year. According to data from the National Center for Health Statistics, 12 percent of the population suffers limitations on activity because of chronic health problems, and 32 percent of people over 20 years old have hypertension. Two-thirds of the population is now considered overweight. Our life expectancy at birth (how long a baby can expect to live) lags behind Japan, the U.K., Germany, Switzerland, and 43 other countries.

How did we get here? Every strip mall boasts a gym and thousands of weight-loss books are stacked on bookstore tables, yet Americans are fatter, less fit, and unhealthier than ever. According to JCC Association Health and Wellness Services Director Steven Becker, the fitness-center model of exercising three times a week has not worked for the majority of the population. Most fitness clubs are competing for the approximately fifteen percent of already-motivated adults instead of trying to engage the other eighty-five percent. “The hard-body advertising strategy has done more to turn off prospective members than to attract them,” Becker said. “In fact, at the current rate, this will be the first generation that will not live longer than their parents. We’re looking for a way to get people active,” walking or biking rather than driving, eating healthier foods, and doing stress-relieving activities such as yoga and meditation.

“People want balance. We’ve become the instant gratification society,” said Ronald Katz, the JCC Association board member chairing a task force on fitness/wellness services at JCCs. While the goal of the task force is to provide JCCs with recommendations and guidelines regarding wellness programs, it is first surveying what JCCs mean by wellness, since there are different definitions. One definition is that wellness is the science and art of helping people change their lifestyle to move toward a state of optimal health. “It’s not a diet, it’s a way of life,” Katz said. “We have to take care of ourselves. I think people want to do that.”

Risa Olinsky, the lifestyle and wellness director at the JCC MetroWest in West Orange, New Jersey, agrees. “A wellness program is not just moving your body on a machine or what you eat. Wellness is the umbrella that takes in all the pieces of how your life works.” Olinsky started her fitness career in the 1970s as an aerobics instructor. She recalled the routine then—bounce, bounce, stretch, on concrete floors—laughing at how foolish and dangerous that seems now. Science has learned much more about how the adult body works and the effects of aging on that body, according to Olinsky. She plans to develop a wellness coaching program at the JCC, which will work in conjunction with the registered dietician at the facility. Done mostly on the phone, wellness coaching helps people set pragmatic and attainable goals. Someone may decide to take the stairs rather than an escalator, or to walk on a treadmill for 30 minutes three times a week. “One of the simplest exercises is to learn how to breathe.” Olinsky believes that baby boomers are concerned about maintaining good quality of life. They remember their parents’ later years, and they don’t want to repeat that experience. “They tell me, ‘I want to be able to lift my grandchildren, I want to go on an active vacation,’” Olinsky said.

At the Peninsula JCC in Foster City, California, a partnership with Kaiser Permanente Redwood City Medical Center is providing local residents with health education and preventative healthcare resources for free. “It’s been a very rewarding collaboration,” said the PJCC’s Associate Executive Director Jane Post. “It is helping the JCC fulfill one of our guiding principles, Shleimut, which means wholeness of body and spirit.” People have been showing up in significant numbers for nutrition lectures and other Kaiser preventative health programs. A recent Family Fitness Day, co-sponsored by the PJCC and Kaiser Permanente, drew over 1,300 visitors, the largest event the JCC has ever had.

This fall, the JCC rolled out Kaiser Permanente’s walking program, 10,000 Steps® to members and staff. “This is a fun way to get our community involved in wellness,” Post said, “and because we organize them into walking groups, it should also enhance social connections.” Research suggests that people enmeshed in social networks lead healthier—and longer—lives. Isolation and loneliness is a variable comparable to high blood pressure or smoking when it comes to health, some research has shown. According to DeAnn Jacobson, group fitness director at the Marcus JCC of Atlanta, their Les Mills group classes and the Silver Sneakers program encourages healthful socializing. “Someone notices if they’re not there,” she said, and an exercise instructor may call to find out why. Especially for older people, a scheduled exercise class gives them a reason to leave the house.

The Shaw JCC in Akron, Ohio is also partnering with medical facilities in their community. The JCC runs a children’s health program called Future Fitness with Akron Children’s Hospital. “They refer obese children to our facility, and we work with them on making physical activity part of everyday life,” said Stephanie Davis, the JCC’s health and wellness director. Using games such as relay races and obstacle courses, along with swimming, the program encourages overweight children to become active without the danger of embarrassment. The kids meet with a dietician to learn about healthful eating as well. They’re all in it together, Davis pointed out, so they’re more willing to try things. Parents pay $15 a month, but the program is underwritten by a grant to the hospital from Kohl’s Community Youth Fitness. “We’ve had children lose weight. We’ve had children develop social skills,” said Davis, but the best thing to come out of the program, she believes, is the bond that the kids form with the instructors. The children felt comfortable enough to teach the instructors some of the latest dance moves, something they would never do at school, Davis said.

Because JCCs are full-service facilities with activities for all ages, they are perfectly positioned to encourage healthful living. JCCs have always responded to their community’s changing needs. And a healthy community is part of the JCC’s mission. As Katz puts it, “As a community center, we’re about bettering the community.”

Download PDF

Download JCC Cirlce Fall 2009 (PDF)

Browse Articles