Author: Gurmeen Kaur and Kanika Kalra
Institution: Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi, India
Date: May 2010
The twenty first century is witnessing a shocking upsurge in the prevalence of diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndromes and other lifestyle related diseases. As a result there is a sharp escalation in the number of local fitness centers and health clubs, leading to a rampant employment of fitness trainers, who lack adequate knowledge and training. We used a questionnaire to evaluate fitness trainers from local health clubs of North and Northwest Delhi in the following 3 domains:
(1) Human kinesiology, anatomy and physiology
(2) Nutrition, and
(3) Exercise prescription.
The answers were tabulated and statistically evaluated qualitatively as well as using the Microsoft Excel 2007 software. 20 fitness trainers were enrolled in the study. An average score obtained was 57.2% on the questionnaire administered, with a minimum average of 51% in the domain of Nutrition. Our findings suggest that fitness trainers are not well equipped with adequate knowledge of their field. They cannot successfully fulfill the multiple roles of fitness advisors, diet and wellness counselors and hence there is an urgent need to improve the quality of instruction provided by them by making necessary recruitment guidelines not available in India yet.