Professional Ethics in the Fitness

Professional Ethics in the Fitness Industry

There are various approaches and views towards the human behavior and how each behavior should be treated. The ultimate goal of these behavior system controls is to ensure that the people can coexist in peace and there is maintenance of order throughout the society. The varying views of behavior patterns and the way they are handled are what are referred to as the ethical systems. They can also be referred to as the standards or rules governing the conduct of a person / group of people or the conduct of the members of a profession/community (Farlex Inc. 2011).

Ethics, however has a quite an ambiguous definition and reference all depending on the person viewing the concept itself and the field of application. In as much as there are universal laws, there is the tendency of people to define ethics with an ego approach and what their feelings, or their religions, their standards of behavior, their legal standards and even their views of right and wrong.

Ethics, therefore can be said to be two things as stated below by Manuel Velasquez et al., (2010);

They define ethics as well founded and defined standards of what is right and what is wrong that primarily prescribe what humans ought to do. These usually come in the form of the rights, the obligations, fairness, and benefits to the general society and the specific virtues. A good instance are the standards that compel people to be loyal to the reasonable compulsion or responsibility to keep of theft, murder, rape, burglary, fraud and such like vices. The rights are also defined in the ethics such as the right to security and freedom from harm, right to life as well as to privacy. These standards are reasonable and hence adequate to be used in defining what is ethical since they are in line with well-founded reasons.

The second definition fronted by Manuel Velasquez is in close reference to the development of ones ethical standards and the study of the same. Since the laws, feelings and even the social norms can quite often deviate from what is ethical, it is therefore essential to continually reevaluate one's standards to make certain that they are well founded and reasonable. Ethics can also mean that constant effort to studying our own moral conducts, moral beliefs and always working hard to ensure that we live up to the levels that are reasonable as well as the institutions that we are shaping constantly.

In light of the above definitions of ethics, it can be challenging to set out to state whether or not the qualification limits and standards should be placed for those intending to join the fitness industry. However, in light of this paper, it is worth noting that the prescription of the qualification standards in the fitness industry is an ethical thing and has helped the industry so far to avoid ugly incidents that have befallen the sports industry and in particular the sectors that don't have such restrictions.

In the fitness industry, the basic and most significant concern of the personal trainers and coaches is the safety of the clients or participants, their health as well as their welfare. These, according to IDEA Health & Fitness Association (2008) should not be compromised at all times. Not for the personal gains neither of the trainer or the organization nor for the professional progress nor the economic gains that may come with the compromise. The compromising of this fundamental obligation and responsibility would be a blatant overlooking of the personal ethics and the rights of the client for whom the laws have been bent.

In line with the first definition that Manuel Velasquez gives, the qualification standards that should be imposed on all those joining the fitness industry will be an effort to uphold the rights of the client to maximum safety health wise and physically in the fitness industry. In any case the personal trainer or the coach responsible for taking people into the team overlooks such standards, then the person ends up engaging in physical activities or exercises that trigger a fatal condition that they have like hearth attack then the trainer shall have failed in observing the rights of the person to maximum safety. The same case can be argued for a coach who decides to take in a person whose sanity is questionable just because he is physically fit and can help the team win a body building competition. If this person ends up in the gym and due to some trigger loses his mental composure and strikes a team mate with a metal bar from the gym machines, they the coach shall have failed to protect the rights of other team members to safety and security by acting selfishly and in a monetary oriented manner, hence unethical. These are situations that can be controlled by the qualification rules that should be followed in the fitness industry.

These qualification standards should also be applied in situations where the participants are to qualify from one stage to a higher stage of the competition. These qualifications will ensure that there is order within the fitness industry and that each individual feels satisfied by the other person going further up the ladder in representing the group in the fitness competition and not him. In this case, the existence of the qualifications fulfills the ethical prerequisites of the utilitarian theory of ethics.

Utilitarianism; this is the view that an action is right in-so-far as it aims at producing pleasure and the elimination of pain. Here an action is considered right if it produces the greatest amount of pleasure and the minimum possible or least pain of any available substitute action. Stuart Mill (1806- 1873) puts it plain that actions are right to the degree that they tend to promote the greatest good for the greatest number. John Stuart Mill is one of the greatest proponents of this theory and argues that "foundations of morals Utility or the Greatest Happiness Principle holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness it is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure." (Davidson College, (2002). This is an approach that can help facilitate the quest for pleasure and the well being of each member of the community hence striving for positive achievement and the general environment that favors the positive growth in the community.

This theory therefore is a pointer that the qualifications that are supposed to be put in place, for the good of the clients and the coaches and trainers and for the ultimate good of the fitness industry is an ethical step towards ensuring that the maximum happiness is experienced by everyone involved in the industry.

Contra argument

Taking into account the second definition observed above as referring to ethics in terms of reevaluating one's standards to make certain that they are well founded and. Ethics can also mean that constant effort to studying our own moral conducts, moral beliefs and always working hard to ensure that we live up to the levels that are reasonable as well as the institutions that we are shaping constantly. It can therefore be appropriate to point out that the qualifications once placed, are a limitation to the ability of the person to individually evaluate their ethics hence resolve to play by the rules in the industry. This will then mean that even in situations where the rules fall short or are inadequate, the individual may have no option but to play by the failed rules.

The qualifications in this case will therefore be a hindrance to the self-actualization and full potential exploration of the individuals restricted or totally locked out of the fitness industry. There are some people who are determined to get into the fitness industry for personal achievements and satisfaction and unfortunately are disqualified from participating to some levels or even totally from getting involved in the fitness industry. To this extent, the qualifications can therefore be regarded as unethical to the individuals. This perspective is in line with the ethical egoism theory that supports more of the free will and personal conscious rather than relying on the rules and the qualifications.

Ethical egoism: is the perspective that each and every individual should act in the interest of themselves. Each person should consider their interests first before taking an action (Robert Shaver, 2010). Ethical egoism can be further split into three.