Latest Industry News

Here are some of the latest goings on in the health and fitness industry...

NVQs no longer the poor relation:  The growing acceptance that National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) can be as important as BTEC diplomas or A-levels has been confirmed after UCAS - the organisation that processes applications for full-time undergraduate courses at UK universities and colleges - decided to award 160 points to the NVQ Level 3 in Accounting offered by the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) (equivalent to 2 A Levels at grade C or above).  Jane Scott Paul, chief executive of the AAT, said: "We are delighted with this decision by UCAS and believe it will go a long way towards dispelling some of the inherent snobbery that exists in the UK towards vocational learning. For too long vocational training has been considered the poor relation to academic studies."  This is a positive decision, and one which shows that NVQs in all sectors (including Fitness) are fast-becoming an accepted route of qualification.

Child Obsesity down to activity levels:  The Children of the 90s project, which has followed a group of children born in Avon in the 1990s, has concluded that a lack of exercise, rather than gluttony, is the key to obesity in young people.  Researchers fitted 5,500 children aged 12 with activity meters to measure how much exercise they took. The children wore the meters around their waists, taking them off only to sleep, bath or swim. Their body fat was measured using an X-ray emission scanner, which can distinguish between fat and muscle. The results are published in PLoS Medicine.  The boys who took the most vigorous activity were more than 30 times less likely to be obese than those who took the least. An extra 15 minutes a day of moderate and vigorous physical activity halved the risk of obesity. Among girls the effects were less dramatic, but still significant. The most active fifth of girls reduced their risk of obesity by two thirds compared with the least active fifth.  Why the effects should be so much greater in boys remains puzzling. “It could be physiological differences but I think that’s unlikely,” Professor Ness said. “The other possibility is that boys and girls use activity differently. Boys tend to use activity as the main weight control mechanism, while girls tend to control their weight by eating less.” Professor Ness added, that surveys and food production statistics suggested that total calorie intakes had not increased. Yet obesity was rising, so it was reasonable to suggest that this was the result of burning less energy.