Physical Activity of Polish Society

Jakub Adamczyk; Karol Pilis; Aleksander Siero?

doi:https://doi.org/10.47739/2379-0571/1135

Physical Activity of Polish Society

Review Article | Open Access | Volume 5 | Issue 2

Article DOI : https://doi.org/10.47739/2379-0571/1135

Jakub Adamczyk^1* Karol Pilis¹ Aleksander Siero?¹

^1. Department of Physical Education, Tourism and Physiotherapy, Jan Dlugosz University in Czestochowa, Poland

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Corresponding Authors

Jakub Adamczyk, Department of Physical Education, Tourism and Physiotherapy, Jan Dlugosz University in Czestochowa; Waszyngtona 4/8 St., 42-200 Czestochowa, Poland

Abstract

The popularity of fitness clubs in Poland and in other European countries is growing at a rapid pace. Undoubtedly, what contributes to such growth is a direct education of the society about healthy lifestyle transmitted via social media and mass media. The aim of the work is to present the current potential of the entire market of recreational sports services in Poland compared to the rest of Europe.

Keywords

Polish people , Physical activity , Physiotherapy

Citation

Adamczyk J, Pilis K, Siero? A (2018) Physical Activity of Polish Society. Ann Sports Med Res 5(2): 1135.

INTRODUCTION

Polish people are increasingly paying attention to a healthy lifestyle. This trend began to gain momentum at the end of the last century together with the fashion for going on a diet, which soon translated into higher awareness of the Polish society of food products available on the market as well as an overall quality and quantity of Polish society’s diet, and knowledge of food safety [1]. Changes in a lifestyle, beside leading to an improved and more healthy nutrition also increased people’s physical activity [2,3]. The latest Eurobarometer survey shows that 28 % of the Polish people play various sports at least once a week, and 34 % are active in a different way, e.g. ride a bike, dance, and runs [4]. Almost every sixth Pole aged 15 - 69 years reaches the recommended by the World Health Organization level of physical activity during leisure time. That proportion increases up to 18.3 % if we also add to that any regular transport activity performed, such as cycling. Among the total number of Poles aged 15 and more, this proportion is slightly lower and amounts to 16.5%, but if respectively we also here add such transport activities as for instance commuting to work by bike, it reaches 17,4 %. Among men aged 15-69 years, the proportion of people who meet WHO’s recommendations is slightly higher than when we compare it with the same proportion among women - 21% compared to 16% [5] (Figure 1) of physical activities that Poles most often participate in are: cycling (53 % of physically active), running (33 %) and swimming (29 %). These disciplines, at the same time, are the most popular in all age groups, irrespective of place of living, gender or education [6].

The interest in participating in marathon races and halfmarathon races remains high. In the year 2016 about 101 races were organized in Poland. Running in Poland is becoming more and more popular. In the year 2015 over 86,000 participants took part in the largest running events. Statistical Polish runner trains 2-3 times a week (63.6 %) or daily (19.7 %). Runners training regularly for 5 years or more make up 35.2 % of population [7]. A large part of the runners are training on their own: among runners who have been practicing this type of sport for 3 years up to 5 years those who train themselves make up 22.6%, while in case of runners with half-year experience such proportion is 21.5%. Up to 59.7% of runners plan their training on their own, while 67.8% of runners look for some information about running on the Internet. Barely 17.2 % of runners use jogging accessories such as watches, fitness bandage etc. But if they choose some equipment, as the most important criteria for the selection come: quality, convenience, price and fashion. Analyzing the above, it can be concluded that when it comes to an awareness of the importance of acquiring some knowledge about one’s body and its reaction to physical effort, is not high. Particularly among people practicing amateur sports, there is not high enough level of recognition and understanding of usefulness of research related to the preparation for physical activity. Fashionability of sport activities makes people purchase sport gadgets (watches, pulse oximeters and sport outfits), but does not affect their lack of awareness of the importance of the proper preparation of the body for effort. Still common is a conviction that only “real” sports men, such us those who prepare themselves for the Olympic Games need to consult their doctors and trainers. This

Figure 1: The physical activities most often performed by Polish people.

is confirmed by the results of the study “How Polish people do sport” conducted by IQS on behalf of LUX MED, indicating that 4 out of 10 Polish people did nothing to prepare themselves for physical activity. Lack of preparation for practicing sports is declared more often by men than women (46 % compared to 37 %). What is more, only 3 % of people doing sports performed any medical examinations in preparation for their planned physical activity. Also, only 4 % of the respondents had a consultation with a physician or physiotherapist (3 %) or with a coach of a given discipline (6 %) [8]. One has to admit that medical and coaching care for sportsmen in Poland, especially when it comes to recreational training, currently seems insufficient. It has been caused by an official abrogation of the requirement of having appropriate coaching or instructor qualifications, as a result currently a coach may be a person who does not have such qualifications [9]. Fortunately, some sports associations have restored such requirements to internal regulations and have thus increased the safety of those who do sports. In addition, sports medical clinics are offering their services only in major Polish cities, therefore a significant number of sportsmen are deprived of specialist medical care. Positive change has happened when physiotherapy has been made a regulated profession in Poland [10]. Currently, the availability of physiotherapists’ services in Poland is wide, including services for people practicing only recreational sports.

From a survey conducted at the end of May 2016 by TNS Polska, it appears that every third person who takes up recreational running or some other sport discipline does not follow any training rules [11]. Therefore, although Poles are becoming increasingly active and interested in staying in good shape, they sometimes tend to forget about suitable preparation for the selected discipline, also in terms of their health. Nowadays strikingly popular has become amateur physical activity - amateur, but nonetheless often performed at a very advanced level - such as long-distance running, marathon races, mountain biking, trekking expeditions, triathlon races and increasingly popular trail running. These forms of physical activity, comprising typical endurance training elements, lead to many beneficial changes in human body and, among others, intensify post-exercise bradycardia associated with physiological cardiac hypertrophy and tension change in the autonomic nervous system [12,13] , which, inter alia, protect the training people from arrhythmia [14]. In the last few decades, sportsmen became increasingly interested in forms of physical exertion that last for many hours (eg, running at a distance of 200 or 300 km), which beside some health-related adaptive aspects carry a large dose of health risk or even a danger of loss of life.

Not infrequently, people after the age of 40 or 50 try to perform such heavy physical activities, even though they have never previously pursued such demanding disciplines. However, such sudden, excessive strain on the body may be dangerous to health and may even lead to death. Usually, when a sudden death occurs during intense physical exercise (eg during marathon race) its real cause is a hidden disease or defect, often not diagnosed due to negligence in the medical examination. According to data collected, the risk of death from a heart attack during a marathon race is 1 to 75,000 – 12,000. At the highest risk of cardiac death during or immediately after running in a marathon race is a middle-aged man (41 years old), making his debut in the marathon race (in 80 % of cases it was the first start) [15]. Research carried out by [16] showed that in the group of 158 sportsmen who have died a sudden death, in 1985-1995, up to 134 of deaths’ causes had cardiovascular etiology and in only 24 there were other reasons (blunt chest trauma, drug abuse, severe bronchospasm, or heat stroke). Among the causes of sudden death of cardiac origin, the most significant were: hypertropic cardiomyopathy (36%), aberrant coronary arteries (13%), unexplained increase in cardiac mass (10%). In this group sudden death was most frequent in case of sportsmen practicing basketball, football and track and significantly less often in case of sports such as soccer, baseball, swimming, volleyball, ice hockey, boxing, crew, ice skating, tennis, wrestling.In Italian studies, arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia was recognized as the main cause of sudden death in sport in 6 out of 22 cases (~ 25%) occurring mainly among football players [17].

In a recent study [18] performed on 65 (8 women, 57 men) Chinese sportsmen who suddenly died, it was shown that death was significantly more common in case of men than in case of women (7.1: 1). In particular age groups, that ratio was as follows: under 15 years (3 boys, 1 girl); 16-30 years (18 men, 3 women) ; 31-45 years (20 men, 2 women); 46-60 years (14 men, 2 women); over 60 years (2 men). The authors of these studies postulate that special attention should be paid to the occurrence of sudden cardiac death in sport and that more effective tools should be introduced for forensic pathological examination and clinical screening.

In addition to classic sports such as running, swimming or cycling, fitness clubs are becoming more and more popular in Poland. According to the report of “European Health & Fitness Market Report 2017”, Deloitte and Europe Active, there are 2,560 fitness clubs in Poland, attended by 2.84 million people [19]. Fitness clubs provide access to professional training devices for people practicing recreational sport activities, including practicing at a very advanced level. It should be emphasized that the popularity of fitness clubs and gyms in Poland, like in Europe, is increasing from year to year. The Polish fitness club market in recent years has become one of the fastest-growing European markets. Regular income of fitness club owners, one can say, is actually granted in Poland, and they are not only granted but also they are constantly growing. Poland is in the top ten when it comes to revenues from clubs’ activities, holding 7th place in Europe [20]. According to the annual reports of “The European Health & Fitness Market” prepared by Deloitte, revenues earned by fitness club owners in Poland are still growing. In 2016, they amounted to over 3.68 billion PLN. Since 2014, the European fitness segment’s revenue has increased by approx. 3.7 %. However, as for the number of participants, Poland is still below the European average, where 7.7 % of the population uses fitness clubs [19]. Nonetheless, according to estimates, in 3 – 5 years the number of people using the fitness club services can increase up to 4 million people. As the Polish fitness market is one of the fastest-growing European markets, in recent years it has enjoyed great interest from investors, including foreign and non-industry players.

The report from April 2018 says that currently the beneficiaries of the fitness trend have become by 4% more reach than a year ago. The clubs’ revenues in 2017 amounted to 26.6 billion EUR. According to the fifth edition of the report “The European Health & Fitness Market 2018”, prepared by the consulting company Deloitte in cooperation with the Europe Active organization, presently rather the fragmented Polish market of fitness services in the next years should continue to develop and consolidate. Clubs whose number at the end of last year amounted to around 2.6 thousand, are being attended by 2.91 million Polish people, nonetheless that ratio of fitness clubs visitors is still lower that the levels observed in Western Europe [20]. Despite the observed slowdown in the pace of growth, the market is still developing and has considerable potential. In 2015, 7.3 % of Poles exercised in fitness clubs. This is by 0.2 % more than in 2014 and by 0.9 % compared to 2013. Still, Poland is below the European average, where on average 7.7 % of the population uses fitness clubs (Figure 2).

However, what should be notices, is a direct link between popularity of fitness clubs in the country with its level of GDP, therefore reaching the level of market penetration similar to countries in the European forefront, such as Sweden and the Netherlands, where the services provided by the clubs are being used by more than 16 % of the population, will be rather difficult in the coming years. In Poland, salaries are still significantly lower when compared to other Western European countries [21,22] (Figure 3).

However, it is worth noting that the Polish market is growing faster than most European markets, where the achieved level of penetration is definitely higher, and therefore their prospects are much lower. The high potential of the target group is the basis for continuous improvement of the Polish market and introduction and development of new solutions.

Analyzing the penetration rate showing the relation of the number of club members to the population of a given country, among the ten most important fitness markets in Europe, it can be seen that the highest index reach Scandinavian countries (on average over 19 %) and the Netherlands (17 %). On the other hand, the lowest such rate, and thus the one with the greatest potential for development invariably can be noted in Russia and Turkey, where the index is 2.0 % and 2.4 %, respectively, and also debuting this year in the ranking Ukraine - 2.6 %. In Poland, the penetration rate increased slightly by 0.2 % and is at the level of

Figure 2: Number of members of fitness clubs in Poland.

Figure 3: Economic summary of the fitness industry in Europe and in Poland.

7.7 %. This figure is similar to the average for the whole of Europe (7.6 %) and is slightly lower than the average for all countries analyzed in the survey (8 %).

An important issue is the equipment of fitness clubs. When analyzing the market, it should be noted that there has been some kind of stagnation. Equipment which is available there, despite its huge variety, does not offer modern technological solutions. The analysis of the market shows that there is a need for development in the field of rehabilitation facilities for sportsmen and people with a history of injuries, preferably in the form of some apparatus or devices helping at the same time to shape the body and to improve the overall condition of its user. According to the web portal rehabilitacjawPolsce.pl there are 108 rehabilitation centers and sanatoriums operating in Poland. Those who belong to this target group will be interested in using new, unique devices able to improve their physical fitness in a modern way. In terms of market saturation, it should be pointed out that despite a relatively large supply of sports and rehabilitation equipment, the demand for innovative and technologically advanced training devices on the domestic and European market shall grow. There are many factors causing such growth: favorable development trends in the fitness industry, growing physical activity of Polish and Europeans, attempts to increase the safety of sports and, above all, scientific progress in sports medicine, rehabilitation and, consequently, technological progress in apparatus and devices dedicated for these fields. Majority of the training devices available on the market do not distinguish anthropometric individuality of the exercisers and the anatomical structure of the muscle and cannot measure and adjust itself to the exercise capacity of the exercisers. Majority of those instruments have limited range of motion, do not lead to peak muscle performance, do not take into account initial muscle stretching. Few instruments make it possible to work with maximum and supramaximal loads, allowing selective recruitment of fast contracting units [23]. It should be noted that in addition to physical activity practiced in fitness clubs, physical activity in natural conditions plays an important and even more important role in health prevention: swimming in open water areas, walking, running, horse riding or cycling, canoeing, rock climbing, mountaineering or high-altitude skiing, downhill or cross-country skiing and others. Poland belongs to countries with multiple natural conditions where one can perform such physical activities. Poland stands out also against the background of other countries in the sport offer addressed to employees. At the end of 2017, the leading company in Poland, the creator of the MultiSport program, had over 996,000 users of sports cards in Poland and abroad [20].

In many countries, a decrease in average revenues per one member of a fitness club is observed, while the number of people using their offer increases. That happens for instance in Germany, France, but also Poland, where the average revenue per club member decreased by 1.7 %, while the number of people using the fitness offer at the same time increased by 2.6 %. The reason for this phenomenon is the expansion of fitness clubs from the lower and middle price range, which has been observed in Europe for several years. It must be assumed that this trend will become even stronger also in Poland, where customers are very sensitive where it comes to the price of their fitness club voucher.

In comparison with other European countries, the Polish fitness market is very fragmented. A significant consolidation of the fitness market should be expected, leading to a higher activity in the area of mergers and acquisitions.

Summing up, the situation of the Polish fitness market presented in this study, as well as social changes that have taken place in Polish society after transformation are very optimistic. There is a positive increase in conscious, healthy physical activity which has a significant impact on the health of Poles and the equipment of Polish gyms and fitness clubs has reached European level.