Changing How We Age with Digital Strength and Balance Training - Bold [Podcast Series]

• [:55] Dr. Bantham introduces her guest, Amanda Rees

  • Amanda is Co-Founder and CEO at Bold.  

  • She is also a tai chi and yoga instructor and dancer.  

• [1:10] Bold inspiration for focusing on healthy aging and fall prevention

  • “I think caregiving is an incredible test of anyone's resilience. But, for me, the biggest shift was it made me think more about aging. And taking a long term view of how do I want to age and what are the things that I can do well before I really see myself as being older that will change the way I age for the better.”

• [2:26] Bold mission

  • “And we do this by providing personalized science-based programs to address things like balance and fall prevention, chronic condition or pain management. And then just building healthy habits and having the right resources and support to start increasing more physical activity and bringing more movement to someone's life.”

• [3:41] Investing in health

  • “If you could choose what your life would look like at 100.  And it weren’t—it looked exactly the way you wanted it to—wouldn’t you want to try and find a way to make that possible?”

• [6:44] Market opportunity

  • “And we can help accelerate getting moving. And so that's where I think we sort of timed it, unknowingly, right around when COVID began as well. And so there was also, I think, a flip of starting to feel like, I need to find something at home, and both physically and mentally I know I should find a way to keep moving.”

• [10:34] Bold instructor credentials

  • “The number one thing for me is that they have experience working with clients who are exercising for aging or older, or that have health conditions like arthritis.” 

• [12:18] Science-based

  • “And then validation is actually really important to us. We did a study remotely and online during 2020. And it was published in JMIR.  But it demonstrated greater than 45% reduction in falls and over 200% increase in physical activity.” 

• [15:03] Measuring success

  • “I mean, candidly, the number one thing is the moment someone is taking a class and the moment they sort of finish that class, however long it is.  If they're feeling better, if they're feeling more connected, healthier, more confident as a result of doing dance or doing balance training or doing strength training, I think that's a win.  And that's an immediate instant gratification.”

• [16:55] Integrating mental health

  • “You know, I think my background in yoga and sort of the yoking of mind and body.  And then also dance, I think, is a similar relationship.  It's hard to think of exercise as just for the muscles and not for the mind.”

• [19:05] Caregiving and exercise motivation

  • “This is going to help me be a better caregiver if I carve out a little bit of time to kind of just release the tension or feel strong in my body again.”

• [21:19] Resilience

  • “The other piece we think about is resilience. It's not how many times you get knocked down or stop a habit or feel like you aren't as strong as where you were. But it's how you're able to say, I've jump started before, I'm going to jump start again. And that’s the part that we want to applaud and celebrate, too, is every minute and every action is worthwhile and valuable.”

• [23:26] Partnering with healthcare

  • “But for us, that's one big step as a company in ensuring there's access so that you aren't paying out of pocket and you know that your insurance plan is as incentivized for you to be healthy, and they're willing to put their resources behind that, I think is really important.” 

• [26:08] Value proposition for insurance companies

  • “I think being digital means that we can scale, we can serve rural members that live in rural communities as well as we can in urban communities. I think that's definitely attractive for big partners.”

• [27:58] Changing how we age

  • “And so that more and more individuals truly believe for themselves deep down that they have the power to influence how they age.  They don't feel like aging is happening to them, but that it’s never too late and that there's something that they can do and they feel armed and informed about that.”