interview
ALFONSO JIMENEZ
P
rofessor Alfonso Jiménez may be a self-confessed academic, but he’s spent enough time out of the ivory tower to
be able to offer insightful, practical guidance and recommendations to the health and fitness industry. The chair of the EHFA Standards
Council since April 2009 – a body formed by, but independent of, EHFA – Jiménez is also head of the Centre for Sports Science and Human Performance at the University of Greenwich, from where he oversees the recently formed FIA Research Institute (for details, see HCM Aug 11, p24). But in spite of this academic CV,
Jiménez began his professional career very much within the fi tness industry. In 1989, while studying PE at Madrid Polytechnic, he took a part-time job as an aerobics teacher at the local Palestra health club.
“It was more than just a gym – people would meet there socially as
EUROPE EUROPE
FOCUS
The head of the Centre for Sports Science and Human Performance at the University of Greenwich, and chair of EHFA’s Standards Council, talks to Kate Cracknell about setting standards, providing evidence, and the public health agenda
well as for business – and it changed the view of the potential of the fi tness industry in Spain. It had a genuine social impact,” he says. After graduation, he was employed
at the Estadio de la Comunidad – the Madrid track and fi eld arena – where, as director of the sports centre, he was involved in the development of a year- long planning cycle for all programming:
“an effi cient system to properly manage customised exercise programmes and ensure proper training processes,” Jiménez explains. However, he left after three years,
disillusioned with the public sector – “where the delivery of services was always subject to the whims of politicians” – and keen to return to the “more evidence-based” private sector. Recruited by Reebok Spain to develop its research institute, as part of this role Jiménez also oversaw the development of training and education for exercise professionals, as well as new software to
organise the training process. A brief stint as sales manager of Reebok Spain and Portugal followed before Jiménez returned to an operational role – helping to develop the six-storey Reebok Club in Madrid, taking on the position of head of fi tness.
public health agenda All the while he was at Reebok, throughout the late 90s, Jiménez was also studying for a PhD in exercise physiology, and in November 2000 he decided to return to full-time academia. A government grant followed, to undertake a post-doctorate degree in exercise physiology at Arizona State University, investigating dose-response in resistance training. But it was very much applied academia, with the fi rst step being the launch of his own consultancy fi rm, Proyectafi t. “We consulted for governments, fi tness operators and so on. For Spanish operator Metropolitan, for example, we worked on quality control, product development and staff training, all of which was organised and delivered internally. “We also led two projects for the local
government of Madrid, one of which was an intervention study assessing the activity levels of the Madrid population. It was at this time – 2007 – that I really realised the critical role the fi tness industry must play in the public health agenda of any government in the world. “But in order to do so, we need to
change society’s perceptions of the sector. The problem is not that the
The Sector Qualifi cations Framework outlines 22 occupations in the fi tness industry – from PTs to physiotherapists
36 Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital january 2012 © cybertrek 2012
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84