Sports & Fitness Q&A
Q: How can you organize a citywide
campaign to get healthier?
A: First of all, decide on one mission and
involve everyone you can.
In 2002, the
Mayor’s Fitness Council was developed in
collaboration with ChicagoWorksout,
which is Mayor Richard M. Daley’s initiative
to promote, educate and motivate
healthy lifestyles for Chicagoans of all
ages.
This is a citywide campaign that
many can relate to and recognize.
It is a
shared mission by all Chicago Citywide
agencies, including the Mayor’s Office,
the Chicago Park District, the Mayor’s
Office of Special Events, the Chicago
Department of Public Health, Chicago
Youth and Family Services, the Chicago
Fire Department, and many more notfor-
profit and for-profit health-orientated
organizations.
The Mayor’s Fitness
Council Mission reads: “The Mayor’s
Fitness Council promotes, encourages
and motivates the development of a
physically active and healthy lifestyle for
Chicagoans of all ages. The Mayor of the
City of Chicago appoints all members of
the MFC. The MFC will recruit the support
of individuals, community-based
organizations, corporations and others to
help promote physical activity and a
healthy lifestyle for the people of
Chicago. The council increases awareness
of the importance of exercise and good
health through public appearances and
the distribution of relevant information.
The MFC encourages private and public
agencies to promote physical fitness and
the awareness of the benefits that come
with living a healthy life. It also assists
educational organizations to understand
the importance of physical activity and
good health. The MFC strives to help all
Chicagoans to enjoy a physically active
and healthy lifestyle.”
MFC has created
and produced two annual Chicago Moves
Day events to demonstrate there is an
active choice for everyone in Chicago,
whether that may be taking the first steps
to get off the couch or running your first
marathon.
MFC also strives to promote healthier
nutrition choices and teach Chicagoans
the basic equation of energy balance, in
other words to eat better and move more.
The MFC also has done a great job of collecting
basic health assessment questionnaires
and offering health screenings at
their events, to assess which communities
are at risk.
Once more data is collected
the MFC hopes to reach out to these communities
with resources, be it educational,
access to classes, or giving information
about low-cost fitness centers, like those
found in the Chicago Park District.
—Colleen Lammel-Harmon is Fitness
Senior Program Specialist and Co-Chair of
the Mayor’s Fitness Council for the Chicago
Park District. Colleen is scheduled to give
related presentations at Parks & Rec
Business LIVE! at Deer Creek State Park,
near Columbus, Ohio, Sept. 19-20.
Q: How do you attract seniors to your fitness
classes?
A: Keep it simple, social, consistent, and
most of all, fun!
Offer a non-competitive class that
also offers a challenge to active seniors. A good senior class should have music from
an era the seniors can recognize. Utilizing
resistance bands can reap the benefits of
minimizing osteoporosis and increasing
bone mass without heavy and cumbersome
weights.
Keeping up with the
trends, such as Pilates and yoga, is a fun
way to mix beginners and seniors into
one class. The low-impact, basic-to-follow
scheme is perfect for a beginner level
and senior participant.
Encourage instructors to teach seniors
on a very personal level and remain open
for feedback, which will make or break a
class.
Many seniors like a challenge.
However, the instructor needs to use
active listening before increasing the
choreography and intensity.
—Colleen Lammel-Harmon
Q: How do you stress the importance of
maintaining fitness center equipment to
unmotivated staff?
A: Educate them first on the importance
of the fitness equipment and get them
involved in trainings. This should be
based on both how to use the equipment
correctly, and methods to get them
involved in their own health using these
machines.
Possibly host an employee fitness
day. Make it easy to keep duties routine,
create incentives, develop daily
cleaning logs, and have random spot
checks.
—Colleen Lammel-Harmon
Q: Can you have kids’ fitness classes
that are not marked as an “exercise
class”, which may turn kids off?
A: Introduce non-traditional fitness
opportunities. These can include Fitness
Inflatables, ranging from Jumping Jacks
to Blow- up Obstacle Courses, Fitness
Arcade style pieces like Dance Dance
Revolution, Game Bikes, and other interactive
video style games.
Some fun classes
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