The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation executive Nardo Dean continues to advocate for a nationwide youth wellness programme.

Dean - who has represented The Bahamas as an athlete in bodybuilding and fitness, as a coach, and as a team manager for various bodybuilding and fitness teams - said placing benchmarks in place for each demographic is the first step toward a more fit Bahamas.

“In a lot of our systems, school, military, society at large, we don’t know what the standards are we can’t really assess whether we are a fit nation,” he said. “We look at the obvious signs whether a kid may look overweight or be slower than the other kids in terms of their physical ability but we need to actually implement programmes to test our school kids across the board to see if they are meeting the standard for their demographic.

“Kids at a younger age right now in our society, especially the ones that are not athletes, they do not know what their standard should be in terms of fitness. For example, the average 10 year old, male or female, should be able to run a half-mile in a certain time, do a certain amount of pushups and complete agility drills is a certain time based on their age and sex. So there are benchmarks and a table that we should be testing our kids against in terms of resting blood pressure, BMI and other health factors.”

Dean added that fitness assessments can also be vital in helping student-athletes build their recruitment profiles and athletic resumés for collegiate recruitment.

“The beautiful thing about this is now how things are going in terms of scholarships,” he said. “Right now along with sending your transcript and resume of your academic qualifications, you can send a sporting or athletic resume. For example - if you’re a basketball player, instead of waiting on the scouts to come here to watch you play, you can send an athletic resumé based on those measurables. No matter what the sport is we can taper a particular resumé that encapsulates everything a coach would want to see to get an athlete in for a scholarship.

“It can be implemented right away. In partnership with an entity in the United States - Microfit - that actually has a full assessment lab that can be set up in either the government ministries or in independent settings, NSA or a location of our choice where we can invite kids to come in and be assessed on their fitness levels such as BMI, range of motion, agility standards, vertical leaps and more.”

The BBFF will host a Family Fun, Run hosted on June 11 which serves as a fundraising and community outreach project to further projects outside of its traditional competitions.

“We want to expand our fitness programmes to obstacle courses, fitness assessments and programmes throughout the schools and really reach out because no matter what sport you are in you are going to be in the gym. Maybe not for bodybuilding but for fitness, wellness and of course overall athletic ability,” he said.

“This should also be done for the military forces, first responders, all of our uniform services. I have reached out to the Ministry of Education, the Police Force, Urban Renewal and others letting them all know that we are interested in instituting these programmes in their communities.”