Why Personal Training is the Best Invest You Could Ever Make
When you read the words "GREAT INVESTMENT," what's the first thing that comes to mind? The stock market, real estate, gold, and cryptocurrency are typically the things people think of when it comes to investing. Let's view a "GREAT INVESTMENT" through a more quantitative lens. Generally speaking, a good investment returns a 6% increase per year (average return of the stock market in one year). Now I want to throw a wrench in what we all assume is a good investment: I believe investing in your health (in the form of personal training/online coaching) is the best investment you can make, both financially and mentally. In this blog post, I'll break down the financial (quantitative) and mental (qualitative) returns of investing in your health.
Financials
Let's assume a great investment is a 6% return per year (average stock market return accounting for inflation). According to a recent survey by Charles Schwab, the average 401k contribution is $8,788. The average age people start investing is 31. So, if you invested $8,788 every year until you retired from the age of 31 to 62, your investment would return $745,237.14. That is a pretty decent investment. Now let's look at the financial cost of the diseases associated with a sedentary lifestyle: obesity, type two diabetes, heart diseases, high blood pressure, stroke, osteoporosis/falls, lower back pain, depression, and anxiety. The table below shows the lifelong cost of each pathology associated with sedentary behaviors.
Analysis
The table shows that the total costs associated with an unhealthy lifestyle are $69,866 higher than the return you would make if you invested in the stock market. One thing to consider is that when you are living with a laundry list of diseases, you more than likely can't work and thus wouldn't be contributing to the stock market. At most, you would be on disability, making the bare minimum to get by. Realistically, your healthcare costs are dramatically higher than any investment you would have made. Once everything is said and done, you would be left with -$68,000 in debt, living the last decades of your life working to pay off your debts.
Cost-benefit analysis of professional fitness + health intervention
What if you had invested in a personal trainer at the same time you started investing in the market? As a personal trainer, I tell all my clients that my goal is to educate them so that when we stop working together, they have the knowledge to craft workouts and make informed nutritional decisions. The whole point of my training is to give you the tools to increase your quality of life. So let's assume you'll only be investing in personal training/online coaching for one year. The cost of a personal training session in the united states is between $55-$120. Assuming you will be training 2x a week with a trainer, and the rest of the time doing workouts on your own, we end up between $5,720-$12,480 spent on training within one year. By investing upfront in your health, you have avoided the 800k cost associated with a sedentary lifestyle and simultaneously kept your 700K. This is also a very conservative outcome. When you are in control of your health, and regularly exercising, studies have shown you are more confident, focused, and disciplined, thus increasing your chances of promotions and growing your yearly income.
Final Thoughts
To clarify, I am not telling you to never invest in a financial market. The purpose of this blog post is to make you re-evaluate your health. We live in a capitalistic society that measures value primarily via financial indicators. By converting your health's value into dollars, I hope to draw attention to your health and help improve your quality of life. Obviously, I am writing this article with considerable bias because I am a personal trainer. Still, I genuinely believe everyone should hire a fitness coach/nutritionist at least once in their life. I recognize that not everyone is privileged enough to hire a coach, which is why my partner and I regularly publish free fitness and health information. We have conducted free zoom strength and condition classes and plan to expand them into the future. I encourage anyone reading this to reach out if they need help getting healthy, no matter their socio-economic background. I have included links to non-profit organizations that provide fitness and health services to those less privileged; please click and support them if you are able.
Non-Profits
Trainer's Coalition
https://trainerscoalition.org/
Guardian Gym
Sources
center for social dynamics and policy
American Journal of Preventive Medicine
Journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes
Journal Hypertension
Journal Stroke
Osteoporos Int.
Moneycrashers.com
Healthaffairs.com