Marcos Santos Ferreira

Programas e campanhas de promoção da atividade física

O incentivo a pratica regular da atividade fisica vem sendo apontado como importante acao na area da saude publica, o que vem ensejando iniciativas de larga abrangencia populacional, na forma de programas e campanhas em prol de estilos de vida ativos. Neste artigo, fazemos reflexoes sobre o processo de adesao a pratica regular de atividades fisicas e sobre as acoes costumeiramente adotadas nesse sentido em programas de promocao da atividade fisica (especialmente Agita Sao Paulo e Programa de Educacao e Saude atraves do Exercicio Fisico e do Esporte). Identificamos que os objetivos, estrategias e avaliacoes dos programas enfocam o aumento do nivel de atividade fisica da populacao e a ampliacao de seus conhecimentos sobre os beneficios da atividade fisica. Tendo em vista a complexidade da adesao a pratica de atividades fisicas, apontamos a necessidade de se ampliar o numero de variaveis sobre as quais devem repousar as acoes e a avaliacao dos programas. A nosso ver, alem do quantitativo de pessoas fisicamente ativas, e preciso considerar variaveis como oferta, acessibilidade e qualidade de espacos para traduzir melhor o desempenho das acoes adotadas, tornando mais consistentes a elaboracao e a avaliacao desses programas de promocao da atividade fisica de larga abrangencia populacional.

Atividade física na perspectiva da Nova Promoção da Saúde: contradições de um programa institucional

This article aims to discuss how the ambiguity of health promotion occurs in one physical activity institutional program. Firstly, different approaches to health promotion are presented as embodiments of such ambiguities. Then, after a brief discussion about manifestations of such ambiguity in everyday media coverage, we analyze the Agita São Paulo Program, regarded by the World Health Organization as an example of health promotion initiative. The conclusion is that, in spite of being under the umbrella of the so-called new health promotion movement, the Agita São Paulo Program is based upon behavioral/conservative approaches of health promotion because it demonizes sedentarism, blames its followers and supports its strategies in terms of behavioral changes as a way of reducing epidemiologic risks, in spite of social, economic and cultural determinants.

Epidemia de fitness

The objective of this paper is to analyze a condition we call a fitness epidemic, which is naturalized and disseminated mainly in the field of new health promotion and reinforced in the spaces of physical education activities. The condition refers to obsessive habits and behaviors in relation to health, beauty and vitality, and has become subjected to expert control. The discussion is based on a case study of 59 pieces of promotional material collected at an event titled Expo Wellness Rio 2009; these materials were subjected to semiotic analysis using methodological procedures based on isotopic analysis. The isotopic categories that emerged from the analysis are health/beauty and technology, health/beauty and somatic expertise, and health/beauty and longevity. They point to the enhancement of human vitality as the motivating force in discursive strategies as well as a recurrent value underlying interventions concerned with improved health conditions, intertwined with ideas of longevity and beauty.

A Prática do Handebol na Cultura Físico-Esportiva de Escolares do Rio de Janeiro

This study is based on the mapping of the physical and sports culture of a representative sample of public school students in their final elementary school year in Rio de Janeiro. The main goal of this study was to identify the levels of adherence to handball practice in both Physical Education classes and leisure time. Handball was found to be the third most practiced physical/sports activity among students, particularly girls. Although handball popularity was found to be lower than suggested by sports specialists and managers, it can be considered a typically school activity, given its reduced practice in non-school environments.