The Medicine Hat Tigers thank their fans as their season comes to an end on Tuesday, April 18, 2017.
-- NEWS FILE PHOTO
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
Male Medicine Hat Tigers fans between the ages of 35 and 65 will have the chance to improve their health and achieve an active lifestyle within a community of like-minded sports nuts through Hockey Fans in Training.
The free 12-week program is currently operating a research study through the University of Western Ontario, and Andrew Buskard, Hockey FIT’s Medicine Hat and Swift Current site co-ordinator, says the goal is to encourage local men to make healthy life decisions.
“In Canada, middle-aged men kind of see going to the doctor like going to the mechanic – you only go when something’s broken,” said Buskard, a post-doctoral research fellow in the UBC School of Medicine. “That’s great for things like cuts and broken bones, but for the real heavy hitters like diabetes and heart disease it’s all about preventative medicine, proactive behaviours – doing stuff so you don’t have to go to the doctor.”
Hockey FIT came into existence when UBC Department of Family Practice head Rob Petrella decided to take advantage of how many Canadians love the game of hockey by using it to encourage a healthy lifestyle among fans.
“He came up with this idea of using hockey fandom, for lack of a better word, as sort of a glue to bring guys together and help them learn a little bit about the importance of being physically active and getting enough exercise, and making small improvements in your diet,” said Buskard. “We partner with these local junior hockey teams as sort of an incentive.”
It’s a mantra the Tigers had no problem getting on board with.
“The Medicine Hat Tigers have always been a beacon of fitness. That’s one of the main things with our players, our players are really proud of that,” said Tigers media services manager Adam Jones. “It’s something we wanted to pass along to the fans as well. We want to encourage a healthy lifestyle.”
The program is set to arrive in Medicine Hat in mid-January for baseline testing, with the 12-week program beginning in February. Buskard says each week features a 90-minute session split between discussion and active training.
“It’s roughly split half-and-half between a 45-minute lecture or group talk around some healthy living behaviours … then the second half is a guided exercise session,” said Buskard. “Week 1 is really just walking, but Week 12 is more intense interval stuff. There’s an app and the guys are sort of encouraged to keep accountable to each other.”
While COVID has prevented Hockey FIT from operating in team facilities like Co-op Place as usual – opting instead to run out of the Downtown YMCA – participants will still be involved with the team in some capacity and have the chance to win gift cards or season tickets.
“In non-COVID times we hold the sessions at the team facility, we get regular guests from the team,” said Buskard. “The guys are definitely in the proximity of the team, which is really neat and they find it motivating. They also get this community they can go to games with and motivate each other.”
And there’s no time like the present to get in on the action. Buskard points out that, as a research study, there is no fee to participate – though that could change in future seasons.
“At its bare bones this is a research study out of the University of Western Ontario, and so I guess you could say what we get out of it is the data. At the end of it we write up a research paper and submit to an academic journal, but we’re not for profit and they don’t pay for anything,” he said. “I suppose down the road, once we’ve done maybe 50 or 60 sites, we’re probably going to transition it off to the YMCA and they’ll be in charge of it. As researchers we’ll sort of move on to our next thing. When it does get offloaded to the YMCA, they’ll probably have a small fee to participate.”
Visit hockeyfansintraining.com to sign up for Hockey FIT.
