Jackson Free Press

Thanks to this title, I now have that Jeffery Osborne song in my head now: "And ya WOO WOO WOO, and ya WOO WOO WOO..." (That's also a clue to the rest of the story.)

...Keen-eyed marketers in the fitness industry are spicing up their workout offerings with a touch of gospel, soul and hip-hop, tailoring the music and dance in a direct appeal to black consumers....That's because nationwide, black waistlines are expanding. One 2002 study by the Centers for Disease Control found 78 percent of black women ages 20 to 74 were overweight, with more than 50 percent qualifying as obese.

Solutions are showing up on store shelves and TV screens. At Wal-Mart, Benita Perkins' "Taking It to a Higher Ground" DVD sets step aerobics to a background of Kenny Bobien and other popular black gospel artists. On the black-aimed TV One network, fitness guru Donna Richardson Joyner sets brisk workouts to live R&B.

And from New York to Los Angeles, hip-hop yoga classes like the one Arizona-based Ian Lopatin teaches entice blacks who prefer trying the "downward facing dog" position set to Snoop Dogg.

"It has roots in their culture," explained Lopatin, who tours the country teaching. "If you're doing yoga to Tupac, it doesn't seem so foreign anymore."....But packaging fitness for black consumers comes with challenges.

In the mid-1990s, University of Pennsylvania epidemiology professor Shiriki Kumanyika interviewed 53 black men and women and found that many viewed exercise as excess work that could do more harm than good.

Some thought it would aggravate high blood pressure and add to stress — already running high for many blacks. These men and women overemphasized rest, some calling sleep even more important than exercise. That "rest ethic" goes back to slavery, Kumanyika said.

"Stories that are passed down through generations are that people were brought here and forced to work," she said. "It's kind of logical to think that the idea of not having to do this physical labor would be something that would be valued."

Those surveyed also thought blacks worked disproportionately strenuous jobs and therefore got enough exercise during the day.

"Most jobs we've got are going to work in jobs like janitors," one said "...We're going to work ourselves to the bone."

Surprisingly, that belief held true even among desk workers, Kumanyika said.

"People might think of themselves as hardworking people to come home and rest," she said. "In fact, their jobs may be sedentary."

But for many black Americans, failure to exercise comes down to priorities and exposure...[John] Grant argued that exercise hasn't historically been emphasized in black homes, and that exposure to things like pricey gyms often is limited. Many blacks, he said, are focused on economic survival, making regular exercise "not one of those things that are high on our priority list."

He's among those who believe incorporating black exercise instructors and some soul music could change things.

"If you can see a reflection of yourself as part of that, one becomes more inspired," said Grant, who watches Richardson Joyner's show. "They may be exercising to music I like or that is more culturally attuned.".... Full text here.