Fitness

Americans need more exercise—and should be able to tap FSA and HSA funds to pay for gyms, studios, and sports leagues

Published

2 years ago

May 7, 2024

Americans need more exercise—and should be able to tap FSA and HSA funds to pay for gyms, studios, and sports leagues

Exercise matters. In the battle against America’s rising tide of overweight and obese youth, increasing mental health concerns, and growing threat of chronic disease prevalence, the simplest prescription is movement—every step, every workout, every sport and physical activity improves physical and mental health.

What’s more, the ramifications of childhood obesity are profound, ranging from cardiovascular issues to heightened diabetes risk, as highlighted by the Government Accountability Office. With health care costs rising and cultural influences promoting sedentary lifestyles, the imperative to act has never been more urgent.

The future of our country is inextricably tied to our ability to move, and it is necessary for all of us—lawmakers, parents, educators, small business owners, employers—to embrace and support physical activity as a necessary component of health care.

The Health & Fitness Association, a trade group I lead, is this week releasing new data illustrating the economic powerhouse the health and fitness industry has become—and the vital role it plays in our economy. This first-of-its kind data demonstrates why the industry deserves a seat at the table, alongside government and health care leaders, as we continue to advance toward preventive—not prescriptive—care.

The data reveals that local health and fitness establishments collectively employ over 430,000 workers across 55,000 locations, injecting over $22 billion directly into our local and national economy while also strengthening the American middle class. Furthermore, the Health and Fitness Association also reports that across the nation some 70 million consumers regularly use industry facilities—health and fitness clubs, gyms, studios, sports and aquatic facilities, camps, and industry partners.

Empowering busy parents, educators, and students to embrace this ethos requires innovative solutions. One such solution lies in extending financial support for physical activity and equipment through flexible and health spending accounts (FSAs and HSAs), mirroring the approach taken with numerous other consumer health products.

Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are tools for managing health care expenses, but they differ from traditional ones. FSAs, provided by employers, allow pre-tax contributions, but funds expire at year-end, with any remaining balance reverting to the employer. HSAs, for those with high-deductible health plans, offer tax-deductible contributions, potential growth, and rollover funds, providing flexibility and long-term savings potential.

We’re collaborating with national leaders to champion bipartisan legislation called the Personal Health Investment Today (PHIT) Act, aimed at expanding families’ access to all manner of physical activity programs and equipment, for both youth and adults alike. Under it, FSAs and HSAs could be used to pay for health club memberships, fitness equipment, exercise videos, and youth sports leagues. If passed, it would enable individuals to use up to $1,000 per year—up to $2,000 for families—to cover physical activity-related expenses.

The proposed legislation extends coverage to these expenses for employees, aligning with the model through which millions of Americans already purchase over-the-counter health products, such as cold and pain relievers. By streamlining access to these resources, we can combat the troubling statistics outlined by the Centers for Disease Control, where only a fraction of children meet the recommended levels of daily exercise and rates of obesity continue to soar, especially among communities of color.

Harnessing FSAs and HSAs for exercise initiatives is a logical extension of existing practices, given that these accounts already support a myriad of health-related services and products. Physical activity stands as a universally accessible tool for enhancing both physical and mental well-being, making its inclusion in these programs not only sensible but essential.

Additionally, expanding eligibility to encompass youth sports programs and fitness courses for adults, as proposed by the PHIT Act, makes good financial sense because millions of Americans who use FSA and HSA benefit accounts leave leftover funds in the accounts at the end of the year—funds that most consumers do not know revert to their employer.

Beyond the realms of family and youth fitness, such measures hold the potential to address broader societal challenges, including military readiness, where obesity rates have hindered recruitment in recent years.

The federal government already recognizes the importance of using federal policy and support to encourage and empower consumers to take action.

This year will be the first time physical activity expenses are eligible as qualified expenses for many HSAs when prescribed for medical necessity. This new tax treatment is a great first step for empowering employees to leverage their funds in order to combat a critical health care challenge in our society. Now is the time to fully embrace physical activity and take the investment in our country’s overall well-being to the next level. We know it can be done.

Expanding access to fitness programs through taxpayer-funded initiatives represents a commonsense approach whose time is overdue.

Every week, some 70 million consumers from ages 8 to 80 visit more than 55,000 different types of gyms, studios, and other fitness facilities because they know and experience the physical and mental health benefits of exercise. Federal policy should help expand access and encourage good habits like these—it would benefit all of us in the long run.

Let’s seize this opportunity to empower individuals of all ages to embrace a lifestyle of movement, vitality, and well-being. The future of our country—and our economic lives—depends on our ability to take bold action and embrace a sensible, scientific approach to empowering a population that is healthy, able to face today’s obstacles, and prepared for the tomorrow’s challenges.

Liz Clark is president and CEO of the Health & Fitness Association, a trade group representing health and fitness facilities, along with their partners and suppliers. She’s the first woman to head the organization in its 40-year history.

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The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

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Fitness

Exercise Icons Of The ’70s Who Were So Ahead Of Their Time – Health Digest

Published

9 hours ago

May 12, 2026

Press Room

Exercise Icons Of The ’70s Who Were So Ahead Of Their Time – Health Digest

Charles Mcquillan/Getty Images

The 1970s are known for being the golden era of fitness. “There was the birth of exercise science,” Danielle Friedman recalled about the decade during a January 2025 episode of NPR’s news and politics podcast, “All Things Considered.” But that’s not all, according to the journalist; there was also a move toward self-improvement. “The 1970s — the writer Tom Wolfe famously dubbed it the Me Decade,” she explained. “After the kind of activism of the ’60s, Americans and baby boomers in particular were turning toward themselves, were sort of, in many cases, shifting away from trying to save the world to trying to improve themselves.”

Naturally, many exercise aficionados led the charge, pioneering the movement with fitness regimens that were far ahead of their time. From Arnold Schwarzenegger’s affinity for bodybuilding to Farrah Fawcett’s love of jogging to Jane Fonda’s ballet barre workouts and even Judi Sheppard Missett’s creation of Jazzercise, these exercise icons blazed a path and put some of the world’s most popular workouts on the map!

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s love of bodybuilding proved to be contagious

Bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger training actress Sally Field on the rowing machine.

Bettmann/Getty Images

While it’s clear that Arnold Schwarzenegger is no stranger to controversy and scandal, it’s hard to deny that he was on to something way back in the 1970s with his intense weightlifting regimen. As you may recall, Schwarzenegger practically became a celebrity overnight with the release of “Pumping Iron,” a 1977 bodybuilding documentary that followed him and his rival, Lou Ferrigno, as they prepared to compete in the Mr. Olympia competition. Spoiler alert: Schwarzenegger comes out victorious in the end. But, perhaps even more noteworthy, was the way he drew many other people to weightlifting, too.

Fast forward many years later, and we now know that strength training can improve 13 health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and even depression and anxiety. And, according to a study using mice and published in The FASEB Journal in May 2021, weight lifting every day may also shrink fat cells.

Farrah Fawcett made jogging cool

Tom Wargacki/Getty Images

While it may be hard to believe, there was a time long ago when people were judged, ridiculed, and even bullied for jogging. No, really. “Cars would go by, windows would roll down and either taunts or empty beer cans would come flying out,” the 1968 Boston Marathon winner, Amby Burfoot, recalled during an interview with The New York Times in January 2025. “There was no respect,” Burfott added.

Thankfully, that all changed once the famous “Charlie’s Angels” actress Farrah Fawcett came on the scene and made jogging cool. Per Vogue, Fawcett’s daily exercise routine wasn’t complete without a one-mile jog, followed by time in the sauna and jacuzzi. “The only way I can release my day’s tensions is not with a drink or a visit to some Beverly Hills shrink, but with something so taxing to my muscles that I fall asleep from body exhaustion instead of a mental wipeout,” she was quoted as saying. “You’d be surprised; after you push your body to its fullest, your daily problems hardly have time to affect you,” she added.

And as it turns out, Fawcett was on to something. According to a study conducted by Professor Larry Tucker of the Department of Exercise Sciences at Brigham Young and published in 2017 in Preventive Medicine, routine running habits can help slow down the aging process.

Jane Fonda was doing ballet barre workouts way before they were mainstream

Jane Fonda during a class at the opening of the 'Workout' exercise gym in Beverly Hills, California

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Dare we say Jane Fonda was the OG ballet barre workout enthusiast?! Fonda first started working on her famous ballet-inspired workout routines way back in the 1970s. “People respond differently to various types of movement, to different workout speeds, even to different kinds of music. I like ballet and what it does for me — the slowness, the rigor, the sense of creativity while I move,” she told Vogue in 1979. Later, Fonda went on to open her very own gym and release workout videos. And, well, the rest is simply history. “I remember thinking, Oh, God, wouldn’t it be great if I could sell 25,000 [tapes]? Three million tapes later, we created an industry,” she declared during a 1987 interview for “Good Morning America” (via Analog Indulgence).

Today, ballet barre classes are still all the rage. “Barre requires you to keep your core engaged at all times. So that means while you are working your arms, legs, and booty, your abs are working as well,” Bergen Wheeler, the national director of Core Fusion talent development and senior teacher at Exhale Spa, explained during a 2017 interview with Self about what happens when you do barre workouts every day.

Judi Sheppard Missett created a fitness program and an entire community

Judi Sheppard Missett, the founder of Jazzercise, leading a class inside her Jazzercise Fitness Studio

Bob Riha Jr/Getty Images

We would be absolutely remiss not to discuss famous Jazzercise creator Judi Sheppard Missett while talking about 1970s exercise icons who were light-years ahead of their time. According to Sheppard Misset, she first came up with the idea for the workout in 1969. “I had been at Northwestern University, working professionally as a dancer, and teaching dance class, and lo and behold, I came up with an idea that I thought would be great, and 50 years later, here we are. That idea was Jazzercise, and we pioneered a whole industry, the fitness industry,” Sheppard Misett recalled in a video on the company’s YouTube account.

Sadly, Jazzercise is one of many fitness trends that have completely disappeared. But that certainly doesn’t negate the wonderful health benefits of the workout routine. Emily Jones says she lost a whopping 90 pounds doing Jazzercise while gaining so much more. “I was kind of apprehensive, because with the history of Jazzercise, you tend to think of leg warmers, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that,” Jones told “TODAY” in March 2021. But Jones claimed that after just one session, she was hooked. “I walked in and I was like yeah, this is it, I love it,” she recalled. In fact, she loved it so much that she decided to become a Jazzercise instructor herself. “It’s so fulfilling. We’re not clique-y and ‘all about me,’ but it’s just genuinely our own little family (at our location),” Jones explained about the community aspect. “I’ve taught a woman in her 80s, and she’s brought me cookies and held my children.”

Fitness

This simple strength training trick builds more muscle and better technique—here’s how to try tempo training in your next home workout

Published

21 hours ago

May 11, 2026

Press Room

This simple strength training trick builds more muscle and better technique—here’s how to try tempo training in your next home workout

Of all the exercise techniques I use when training clients (and myself), slowing down the movements is one of my favorites. And I’m not the only fan.

“Tempo training is excellent because it increases time under tension,” says Steven Chung, physical therapist at VSI Spine Solutions in Reston, Virginia.

“Slowing down your reps—especially during the eccentric lowering phase—forces your muscles to work longer per rep, which is a major driver of muscle growth (hypertrophy) and strength.”

Tempo training workout for beginners

Chung has chosen “compound, functional movements that we perform on a day-to-day basis.” You will need dumbbells for some of the moves. The five exercises are:

Goblet squat
Push-up
Split squat
Romanian deadlift
Floor press

“Squatting mimics daily tasks like sitting, standing and lifting heavy objects. The push-up and dumbbell floor press target the chest, shoulders, triceps and core, which mimics daily tasks like pushing doors open.

“Split squats mimic the unilateral (single-sided) nature of running, sprinting and jumping, helping people improve performance in these areas. They also mimic the daily task of kneeling down to tie your shoe or to get to a lower cabinet.

“Romanian deadlifts require proper hip-hinge movement, which improves the mechanics and efficiency when lifting heavy items.”

Chung suggests employing a 3-2-1 tempo. To put that into practice:

Take 3 seconds to lower: this part of the exercise is known as the eccentric phase, where the muscle lengthens under tension.
Pause for 2 seconds: this part of the exercise is known as the isometric phase, the static pause between the muscle lengthening and shortening.
Take 1 second to lift: this part of the exercise is known as the concentric phase, when the muscle is shortening.

Chung suggests aiming for between three and five sets, with six to eight reps in each set, and a one to two minute rest break between sets.

Start at the lowest end of the range, then gradually add more reps or sets over subsequent workouts as you get stronger.