Nicholas Boér is on a mission to change the perception most people have about physical fitness.
“In the world of fitness, there has been a pretty significant disconnect that I am attempting to bridge,” said Boér, a UC Foundation associate professor in the Department of Health and Human Performance at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. “In public health, we try to get people active, and the data just gets worse. With all the on-demand streaming entertainment content, it gives people more sedentary options.
“How do we change that and get people to do physical activity?”
Research literature shows that the average individual knows he or she should be physically active, Boér said, but there is a huge intimidation factor with going to an exercise facility.
“Generally speaking in the fitness industry, it’s about the entity. A lot of things that have been successfully sold to the public is about changing your look. That works from a marketing perspective,” he said. “But most people go to a gym, and it’s intimidating. They see other people working out hard, so they do not feel like they fit in. They feel like people are looking at them, which may or may not be true, so they just don’t feel comfortable.
“And that’s where I see the big disconnect. Instead of pushing weight loss and the body transformation aspect, what we should be selling in the fitness industry is to improve your life, and I think people would buy it if packaged properly. What we want to do is promote the things that people will enjoy.”
Enjoyment is the key.
“In the classroom, I have the students develop exercise prescriptions on themselves and on other people that they know so that they can deal with the practical issues of whatever that person is dealing with and figuring out what are the things that people are actually going to do,” he said. “All too often in public health, I see recommendations like, ‘Go for a walk for 30 minutes most days of the week.’ That’s fine and good, but some people don’t like walking; they do that all day at their job.
“So we need to try to figure out what are those things that individuals enjoy that are feasible for them.”
For years, Boér has been working on transitioning his classroom ideas into a real-world setting. Eventually, one of his students bit on the concept of gearing a fitness/exercise facility around the average individual.
“After having some conversations with Nicholas and getting my feet wet within the personal training realm, I realized that I really wanted to launch a business,” said Josh Johann, one of the co-founders of Onsight, a boutique fitness studio with two locations in Chattanooga. “Nicholas planted the seed, for sure.”
Johann received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in health and human performance from UTC. He went through school with the anticipation of pursuing physical therapy as a career but realized he could have an impact at the community level, he said.
“The issue that I always had was personal training in the gym setting is just too appealing to either vanity-based training or sports performance,” Johann said. “I was more interested in the whole body and long-term health.
“On social media, a lot of people saw pictures of me going out hiking and rock climbing and mountain biking and all these things, and they would make comments like, ‘I wish I could do that kind of stuff.’ And my response was, ‘You totally can. You just have to do it.’ I have a heart for that type of person who really needs fitness to improve their health and not just to look better in the mirror.”
Johann said Onsight, which was launched in 2016, exists to bridge the gap between the medical world and the fitness world. Its mindset is to follow a medical/physical therapy model of utilizing the company’s services for a predetermined length of time, typically four months. Since individuals coming there don’t have a program of their own, Onsight teaches them how to move in a safe and relaxed environment. More individualized programming is developed to build confidence and create independence as the clients progress.
“Many physicians are seeing patients with high blood pressure, diabetes, overweight and all these chronic-disease issues. The lifestyle interventions don’t necessarily exist as a good resource for physicians,” Johann said. “That’s why we exist, to introduce people who need exercise for health. This is where theory meets application.”
Johann utilizes Boér in an advisory role, saying a large part of Onsight’s training model is dictated by his former professor’s background and teachings.
Boér calls his involvement with Onsight “a labor of love.”
“Onsight helps transition people who are inactive or intimidated by physical fitness facilities into being confident and independent in their ability to complete activities,” Boér said, “and I view this as a service that is needed for the community.
“All I’m trying to do is to move the needle, and I have always been interested in how to get the average person to exercise. When you look at obesity rates and heart disease rates … if we can just get those individuals engaged in regular exercise habits, then it will really move the needle.”
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