3% Club is built on idea that little bits of exercise can snowball into major change<\/p>\n
A Terrace doctor\u00a0is encouraging people to take the stairs\u2014and in doing so, to join what he\u00a0calls the \u201c3% Club.\u201d<\/p>\n
The program, led by Northern Health clinical exercise physiologist Darren Scherbain with support from registered dietitian Christine Geier, is based in Terrace but is open to patients across the region through referral from primary care providers. Scherbain said the name comes from a 2018 study suggesting that only 3 per cent of able-bodied people in the study chose stairs over elevators.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my practice, I am using exercise as a primary intervention in over 36 chronic diseases,\u201d Scherbain said in a Northern Health press release. \u201cThe approach that I take is I don\u2019t look at what\u2019s going on with a comorbidity. I don\u2019t treat the disease. I want to treat the person. I get to know the person. Once you can garner somebody\u2019s trust then we can start the collaborative approach of what are we going to do for your clinical care.\u201d<\/p>\n
The initiative uses small actions, such as stair-climbing, as cues to encourage broader lifestyle changes. Scherbain pointed to research showing that \u201ceven as little as nine minutes a day can see a 7% increase in how much oxygen the whole body is able to use and deliver so that we can go through our day-to-day activities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Members of the 3% Club receive personalized health plans, check-ins, and access to workshops and activities including fitness classes, nutrition workshops, and mental health support groups. They also receive a membership card and opportunities to connect with others facing similar challenges.<\/p>\n
The program is connected to Change BC, a province-wide initiative that uses goal-setting, reinforcement, and progress tracking to encourage behavioural change. Participants in the 3% Club work with Scherbain and Geier for a year, beginning with weekly sessions for three months before moving to monthly sessions for nine months. Family physicians provide blood work and lab results to support care.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re looking at doing is taking evidence-based research and reversing metabolic syndrome,\u201d Scherbain said.<\/p>\n
Metabolic Syndrome Canada describes the condition as a cluster of risk factors\u2014including high blood pressure, abdominal obesity, high blood sugar, high triglycerides, and low HDL cholesterol\u2014that raise the risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and other health problems.<\/p>\n
Patients in the program have shared success stories, from overcoming anxiety to returning to mountain hiking. Scherbain said that even modest steps can be transformative.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re also starting to see is that this little step of climbing the stairs creates a domino effect for people being more physically active for setting goals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The program also includes group activities, such as a weekly dance session, and community challenges like the upcoming \u201cBrandy Challenge,\u201d in which patients and supporters will climb Terrace Mountain.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just celebrating people\u2019s goals,\u201d Scherbain said. \u201cIt might seem like a small victory to some, but to us it\u2019s huge. They\u2019re huge, huge victories.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"3% Club is built on idea that little bits of exercise can snowball into major change A Terrace…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[45572,6647,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-91341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-exercisehealth","9":"tag-fitness","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}