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ACE® HOSTS CONGRESSIONAL ROUNDTABLE ON ROLE OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN POLICY

Posted: Oct 27, 2015 in ACE Press Releases

San Diego Congressional Representatives Scott Peters and Susan Davis Join Local Industry Thought Leaders to Discuss Key Topics in Physical Activity 

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 27, 2015—The American Council on Exercise (ACE) recently hosted a roundtable discussion on the role of physical activity in policy. San Diego Congressional Representatives Scott Peters and Susan Davis joined key individuals from the fitness industry as well as academia, non-profits, private business, local community coalitions and medical groups for a thoughtful discussion on the types of policy changes that could help address the physical inactivity epidemic in this country.

The key takeaways from the roundtable discussion were:

• There is a need to incentivize physical activity. One way of doing this would be an initiative involving the tax code.
• The focus must shift from return on investment to return on engagement in order to achieve the outcomes that will allow policy initiatives with demonstrated results to be scaled up and implemented in a wide spread manner.
• The majority of today’s youth fall far short of meeting the daily recommended amounts of physical activity which has contributed largely to the childhood obesity crisis. Systematic policy changes that include physical activity and ensuring access to safe places to engage in activity are needed if there is to be success in reversing this alarming epidemic.
• The country’s national security is increasingly at risk due to the very limited number of individuals who are fit to serve.

“In order to address the national inactivity epidemic, there must be cultural systematic changes across communities nationwide and we need the help of policy makers at all levels—federal, state and local— as well as decision makers in healthcare, fitness and health professionals, community leaders, and thought leaders at organizations that are influencing the course of physical activity programming to make it happen,” said Graham Melstrand, ACE Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs.

“By bridging the gap between fitness and healthcare, expanding access to exercise, and working with policymakers to lower healthcare costs, we can create a culture where physical activity and healthy behavior is the cornerstone. We invite you to join forces and advocate that more policies focus on high-quality physical activity and making it available to exponentially more people,” added Melstrand.

Join the conversation and connect with ACE on Twitter @ACEfitness and @ACEadvocacy using #ACEpolicytalk or email comments to Advocacy@ACEfitness.org.

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About ACE The nonprofit organization American Council on Exercise (ACE) educates, certifies and represents more than 58,000 currently certified fitness professionals, health coaches and other allied health professionals. ACE advocates for a new intersection of fitness and healthcare, bringing the highly qualified professionals ACE represents into the healthcare continuum so they can contribute to the national solution to physical inactivity and obesity. ACE is the largest certifier in its space and all four of its primary certification programs are accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA), the gold standard in the United States for accreditation of certifications that assess professional competence. ACE also plays an important public-service role, conducting and providing science-based research and resources on safe and effective physical activity and sustainable behavior change. For more information, call 800-825-3636 or visit ACEfitness.org. AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EXERCISE, ACE and ACE logos are Registered Trademarks of the American Council on Exercise.

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