Hi! friends, I am Dr Milind Pimprikar. And you are listening to fighting fit Fridays with Dr. Pimprikar. When we speak of fitness and fashion, I must say that today fitness is the new mantra of fashion and one can say “ FITNESS IN ITSELF IS FASHION”
Good exercise behaviour or performance as an athlete or let us say for a common man, the attire or costumes one wears for fitness activity, in short WHAT YOU WEAR does it really matter? And DOES IT HAVE some impact on the positive outcomes? In terms of exercise behavioural pattern is what we are going to discuss today.
If we compare the sports and exercise in early 60s say for example cricket, there is a stark difference the way cricketers are dressed. There is a transformation from white shirts with folded sleeves and trousers to multicoloured dry fits and aesthetically appealing sporting uniforms. Similar transformation has occurred in other sports and gym outfits over passing years. There is an increasing trend towards using fancy sporting outfits. Now the question is does this fashion in sports or different clothing used in doing sporting/physical activity has any impact on doing exercise per say? And the answer is a big YES.
There was an article in journal of experimental psychology by Adams in 2012 explaining the concept of enclothed cognition. Which states that, what one wears has a direct impact on the thought process of an individual. One start feeling more responsible and humane no sooner one pulls over a Doctor’s white coat, similarly there is a gush of daring in a uniform of a policeman or a soldier.
If we apply the same analogy to exercise, does wearing a sporting track pant or a t shirt improve our performance? And again, the answer is yes! By merely changing into exercise costumes, one moves a step closer to doing an exercise. In the sense from a situation of thought of doing exercise, which is precontemplation phase, now one has moved to contemplation phase of undertaking physical activity.
If one dresses like an athlete, he/she is more likely to behave as one and feel like one. Now a days whenever we travel, we see the airport fashion changing to more of a sporting wear. There are no more three-piece suits and the formal shoes around. We see a lot of different brands and attractive sporting attire worn by all age groups and ethnic origins.
Because of globalisation the language of cloths has become one and the globe is speaking the same language. Thus, fashion in exercise has become a lifestyle statement. Everybody is making statements of their own to be noticed.
Athleisure– Is the style of draping oneself in type of clothing worn during athletic activity and in other settings like workplace and social occasions. It includes yoga pants, sneakers, leggings and tights. The concept is gym clothing is making its way as a fashion statement in the outside world. It is a fashion industry movement with better, comfortable, versatile and fashionable wear. And can be worn without hesitation on almost any occasion.
Just close your eyes for a moment and imagine you wearing a nice track bottom with a breathable material, which is light weight and a t shirt topped by a nice-looking pullover. Imagine a head gear with a sporty gadget around your upper arm, a colourful sports shoes with a smart cordless earphone plugged in. this will give you a feel of affirmation. By merely imagining this will make a gush of adrenalin to undertake physical activity and that is all about sports fashion today.
To witness this one must attend one of the marathon events where thousands of people are dressed in this type of clothing. This colourful display will encourage you to undertake the healthy behaviour of exercising and the pendulum has already swung in its favour.
Physical activity is the future for our society. The fashion needs to be eco-friendly and sustainable. Sportswear was the term coined for this type of clothing since 1930 and was influenced greatly by Paris. The term meant an all-time wear which is not synonymous with active wear. This term was then renamed as “American style” by Lord and Taylor in 1932. Mainly targeting women population which symbolised relaxed nature of an individual in a fast-paced American lifestyle. This was called as an American Invention. Initially till 1930 most of the American garments copied French but went on to be the world leaders in this industry. Around 1970 brands like Clavi Klein and Ralph Laurens started their stores and thus, the same outside America were brands like Prada in Italy.
Interesting facts about ADIDAS which is a German founded company after 1st world war the two brothers Adolf Dassler and his brother Rudolf formed the company making running spikes. American athletic wonder Jesse Owens bagged 4 Olympic golds in 1936 Olympics, and he ran wearing the spikes made by ADIDAS. It is second largest company to NIKE. Unfortunately, the brothers split, and Rudolf formed his own sportswear making company which today is named PUMA. Recently PUMA has launched a sustainable shoe made from recycled plastic as a part of social responsibility.
We also need to understand this in Indian context. There are very few Indian companies in global scenario although the demand has more than doubled in last 5 years. It is need of the time to dwell into manufacturing sustainable, environment friendly, affordable and fashionable clothing for what is termed as ATHLEISURE.
To sum it up,
Start looking for athleisure as a part of your wardrobe. It will make you feel like an athlete. This will encourage you for active lifestyle, physical activity and exercise. you will surely make you look cool and trendy plus will get you additional health benefits in disguise.
Here we come to an end of this episode. You can hear me on VTLPODCAST and all leading podcast platforms on every Friday. If you have liked the views, please share like and comment.
Thank you for listening
Reference-
- Adam, H. and Galinsky, A.D., 2012. Enclothed cognition. Journal of experimental social psychology, 48(4), pp.918-925.
- WOMEN’S FASHION BY NATALIE RIGG, SEPTEMBER 25, 2014, T Magazine, Athleisure-Appropriate Hair at Paco Rabanne, Retrieved May 6, 2015, “…clothes have a cool, sporty vibe, so..
Generally speaking, people prefer an immediate benefit to a delayed one, even if the latter is larger. Similarly, they discount the longer-term negative consequences of an act that procures immediate gratification.
Only the immediate and unpleasant consequences of a disease constitute ample motivation to adhere to therapeutic advice.
Sport and exercise medicine’s culture is multidisciplinary, integrated and holistic and ideally suited to take action in the areas of preventive and rehabilitative medicine using a multidisciplinary, holistic approach. For four decades, sport and exercise medicine clinicians have been required to treat the ‘whole patient’, which requires collaboration not only with medical specialties and other professions such as athletic training, physical therapy, nutrition and sport science, but also with coaches, administrators, sport agents, the media and legal groups. Sport and exercise medicine have the advantage of being closely associated with organised sports that have great influence within many segments of society. Leveraging this influence is a unique strength that clinical sport and exercise medicine brings to the table of chronic disease prevention and management. As an example, FIFA established F-MARC (FIFA Medical Assessment and Research Centre) in 1994 to promote football as a health-enhancing activity.
Modern health information technology, innovation, patient empowerment and user-centric care
Disease-based healthcare encourages patient dependency on the medical system. To make the shift towards user-centric healthcare, we must empower patients to take responsibility for their own health. Some of this is accomplished by close supervision and personal instruction, with healthcare professionals applying communication skills such as motivational interviewing.
Behavioural control and self-efficacy are effective comprehensive interventions alongside increasing self-regulatory skills. There is growing evidence that self-monitoring and behavioural change programmes using computer-tailored interfaces can be more effective in changing lifestyle risk factors than traditional approaches. Monitoring compliance and adherence is key to effecting behavioural change. People tend to overestimate time and intensity of their own physical activity. For example, 40% of adults claim to engage in physical activity sufficient to improve health but less than 4% actually do. But they behave differently when provided with detailed information of their behaviour using self- monitoring tools such as tracking devices as the digital society is expected to grow more than 40 times in global volume in the next 10 years, tectonic shifts in health information economy must be expected, making possible abundant yet focused information for the patient and care giver.
Once widely implemented, this environment will provide the foundation for digital applications and tools that enable interaction and collaboration in a way that users (patients) become participants (empowered co-creators not end users) strengthened through the network (a collective resource). Personal data will be the new ‘oil’, a valuable resource of the 21st century and a main driver in the conversion of an event-based health system in which the patient is a passive participant to a health-based approach in which the patient is more actively involved.
New profession
There is currently no profession that dedicates the majority of its efforts to the prevention and management of chronic lifestyle-related disease. This is an amazing oversight. Several professions already possess key components of the knowledge, skills and attitudes required, and some are actively applying their expertise to the prevention of chronic disease. These professions include athletic training/therapy, physical therapy, nursing, strength and conditioning, fitness instruction, exercise physiology and kinesiology. The larger medical profession needs to recognise and support these efforts and provide cohesion and structure for the work.
As time passes, it is likely that a unified curriculum will be developed for this new profession that includes behavioural modification, innovative use of technology, population-based outcome assessment, exercise training and monitoring, rehabilitation, nutrition, illness and injury assessment and programme development. These new professionals would be trained to deal with acute exercise-related complications and work in a team setting with sport and exercise medicine physicians, especially for patients at higher risk.
We are on the cusp of the third major square-wave adjustment to healthcare delivery: preventing and treating chronic disease. The first two major advances, widespread adoption of hygiene and effective curative medicines, devices and surgeries, have delivered substantial improvements in quality and length of human life. We now embark on an era where the major transformation will come from changed behaviours, not only in patients but also in the workplace, healthcare professionals, payers and medical schools will need to revisit and realign their practices to improve healthcare. Sport and exercise medicine should play a leading role in this transformation.
