For some years now, therapeutic and health-oriented concepts have no longer been a novelty in the fitness market. Names such as "medical fitness" and "health center" are now familiar to most people and, in terms of content, are often dedicated to either the so-called best agers or people with physical problems.

Goals such as regaining physical conditions for everyday life, reducing acute and chronic pain, or generally improving physical performance are often the primary focus.

Technical, content approach

The high-quality approach of these institutions to fuse the best content from the fitness market with the topics of health and therapy makes sense, especially against the backdrop of demographic change. The focus here is clearly on customers with musculoskeletal problems, such as back pain in the lumbar or cervical spine, muscular imbalances or other orthopedic indications. Internal and metabolism-related problems such as metabolic syndrome can also be effectively "treated" through targeted training and the available specialist staff.

Holistic and systemic approach

If you now take a closer look at the starting process of the customer/patient, after an initial discussion, also called anamnesis, the creation of a training plan usually takes place, which refers to the topics of strength, endurance, mobility and coordination. This is done on the basis of the available medical findings and on the basis of the customer's descriptions.

Unfortunately, what is often overlooked when working on a person's active and passive musculoskeletal system is the influence of a well-functioning metabolism on all structures in the body. For many people, it is still uncharted territory to determine exactly which forms of exercise make sense at what intensity and which metabolic types they are actually dealing with. This is because nutrition is also part of a holistic and effective recovery process, as is well-dosed strength and endurance training. It is not without reason that the combination of these essential "pillars of health" is also prescribed as mandatory content in all outpatient rehabilitation facilities. The scientific study situation here is clear:

In the optimization of the "software" (muscles, tendons, ligaments) and the "hardware" (bones, joints), the systemic approach plays a decisive role!

Only the combination of highly functional exercises in exercise therapy, which precisely target the problematic segment, and aerobic training to optimize the general metabolic processes and especially the metabolic end product removal turn a "normal" training into a highly effective input, which has a very positive effect on the entire physical construct even over a short period of time.

Central role of metabolic analysis

If you want to have a decisive advantage in achieving the goal you have set yourself when working with clients, you should also concentrate on analyzing all the necessary parameters for optimizing the current physical situation. First and foremost, this includes a basal metabolic rate measurement and an analysis of the fat and carbohydrate metabolism under stress in order to be able to optimally adapt both the diet and the training to the individual. Otherwise it is like operating without a differentiated diagnosis. The success rate of holistic treatment or a well-structured and accompanied training process, which is tailored to the age, physical conditions and specific goal of the person, increases significantly and is also much easier to implement if the above-mentioned examinations are carried out beforehand via the respiratory gases. There are now smart and mobile manufacturers such as uVida, which are explicitly dedicated to this topic and are making this fully automated for the first time, with the highest measurement quality, available to everyone. The respiratory gas analysis system can be used by all employees without any previous medical knowledge and is affordable for the facility as well as for the customer, who can carry out the analyses at low cost.

Tangible benefits for all parties

If you manage, together with the customer, to combine the analysis with the concrete planning as well as the sequence of the strengthening of the "breaking points", the training in the right pulse range and the mobilization up to the relaxation after the workout and personally adapted nutrition, the visit to the Medical Fitness provider of confidence quickly becomes a lifestyle that you no longer want to do without, because it does you noticeably good.

This benefits everyone involved because the facility can deliver maximum quality to the customer for an affordable price and the customer can actually see in black and white how they have improved and which steps in the process are now pending, for example through before and after comparisons. Parameters such as the individual anaerobic threshold, the pulse range of the maximum personal fat metabolism (O2 supply), the level of the basal metabolic rate and whether the customer/patient is in an over-acidified state should play a decisive role in every training and nutrition plan nowadays, so that quality comes first.

In addition, the effect of targeted, pulse- or watt-oriented training in sports and exercise therapy is of extremely high value, as people recognize and learn via the parameters which intensity is good for them and thus acquire increased body awareness, which is helpful for the prevention of injuries. Also in terms of holistic blood circulation and supply of nutrients in structures such as the intervertebral disc, muscles, bones and joints, training in personal fat metabolism is a great opportunity and also has a mood-boosting effect through the release of endorphins.

Conclusion

In summary, it is important to appeal to all institutions in this sector to improve the quality of their daily work with customers by means of easily integrated but reliable analysis options and to act in the spirit of digitalization. And this definitely includes the parameter metabolism of a person, because this is as individual as the fingerprint.

Manni Günther

Graduate sports scientist and sports therapist.
Co-Founder and "Head of Sports Science" at uVida