Dr. Tyler Cooper
Let's Get Physical - For This Adventure Seeker, it all came back to where he started.
By Dr. Tyler Cooper, MD, MPH
CEO, Cooper Aerobics Enterprises
Sunday afternoons with my parents and older sister did not look like typical family outings. You wouldn't see us unpacking a picnic or taking a stroll in the park. Instead, our family jogged three miles together each weekend. That’s what happens when your father is the world-renowned “father of aerobics,” Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper, responsible for launching a revolutionary fitness movement and inspiring more people to exercise in pursuit of good health than any other person.
I grew up at the famed Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas, which my dad founded in 1970, the year I was born. Over the years I traveled to more than 45 countries with him as he preached the gospel of aerobics and preventive medicine. Our family’s active lifestyle shaped my own commitment and belief in maintaining healthy habits. But by the time I reached college, I didn’t want to follow in my father’s professional footsteps. At least that’s what I thought.
I went to Baylor University, graduating with a business degree and earning several track honors. Then I was off to be a ski bum in Vail, Colorado. To nurse my love of skiing, hiking and extreme outdoor sports, I worked construction during the summer months and operated a gondola and taught the blind to ski during the winter. It wasn’t long before my adventure streak called me to Australia where I spent more of my time outdoors than indoors.
Then came a time in my life came where I wanted to do more. I wanted to make a tangible mark in improving the lives of others. It wasn’t a lightning bolt that caused my new-found desire to take root. Looking back, the inner calling was more like falling snow that grew stronger, and I embraced the idea of carrying on my father’s legacy. That desire brought me back home to Dallas where I led business development at Cooper Aerobics Center by day and took pre-med classes by night. I went on to receive a medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio and a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University.
Now I serve as a preventive medicine physician at Cooper Clinic and CEO of Cooper Aerobics Enterprises. My goal is to find new ways to bring healthy living to the masses, just like my dad’s first book Aerobics did 40 years ago. It is disheartening to see the shape, or lack thereof, that Americans are in today and watch our collective health decline. Considering the prevalence of unhealthy food options, massive portion sizes and technology that helps keep us on the couch, it’s more important than ever to remember that personal responsibility is the key to good health.
As I listen to patients talk about the reasons why they think they are unhealthy, it’s the same story I have heard over and over again: no time, no money, no resources, no willpower. My response is that it is not as hard as you think to be healthy. You do not have to be a marathon runner to gain the benefits of regular exercise. Everyone can find the time to fit in 30 minutes of moderate exercise at least three times a week. In return, you will reduce your chances of death of any cause by 58 percent and add six years to your life.
Anyone at any age can do this, as outlined in my new book and first collaboration with my dad, Start Strong, Finish Strong. The “start strong” ideal is to help people, like me, in their 20s or 30s. At age 79, my father is the picture of those in the “finish strong” category, although he is far from finished, seeing patients every day, lecturing and exercising. We talk about health and fitness from different perspectives, but some of the same strategies work no matter what stage of life you’re in. Take the stairs, eliminate one “bad” food from your diet, get more sleep, reduce stress and figure out your motivational hot button. Seventy percent of what ails us can be improved, even cured, through changes to our lifestyle.
I hope through the efforts of the Cooper family and our family of health companies, we can change the mindset of Americans that it truly is what is on the inside that counts. I look forward to the day when my three young children are old enough to take our Sunday afternoon family jogs. My ultimate wish is that we aren’t the odd balls on the track and that other families are exercising together as way to be fit and have fun at the same time.
As my dad likes to say, “The family that jogs together stays together.”