Closing the Trust and Communication Gap Between Fitness and Medical Professionals - Wellness Paradox [Podcast Series]

• [:56] Dr. Bantham introduces her guest, Michael Stack

  • Michael is CEO/Founder of Applied Fitness Solutions.  

  • He is also the Host of the Wellness Paradox Podcast and a Clinical Instructor at the University of Michigan. 

• [1:17] Wellness Paradox

  • “[H]ealth and wellness and fitness professionals have all of the capabilities necessary to help improve public health dramatically in this country. Yet there's a trust, communication and interaction gap between those professionals and our other allied health and medical professionals.”

• [2:35] Inclusive language

  • “We use terminology that tends to not be very inclusive and approachable. We talk about things like exercise and fitness and strength. And while all those are amazing things for the 15 to 20% of the population that exercise, for the other 80 to 85% of the population that don't engage with a health and fitness center, those terms are very scary, and they're very off putting.” 

• [5:54] Operationalizing conversations about inclusion

  • “I think that's kind of the same paradigm that a lot of executives in our industry have is that like in the short term, they don't see how this can improve the bottom line, even though in the long term, certainly, if we could get the next 10 or 15% of our population active and coming to health and fitness clubs, it would dramatically improve our profitability.” 

• [9:20] Representation in inclusive environments

  • “This is where I think our industry would really benefit from having more individuals in larger bodies, because they understand the emotional challenge that it is to walk into certain environments.”

• [12:32] Mission to integrate healthcare and health & fitness

  • “For me, my mission, in its totality, is to do whatever I can possibly do to help to level up the health and fitness profession to become a part of the healthcare continuum.”

• [16:33] Coach-based approach to programming and services

  • “And for us, fundamentally, and I also feel like in general for our industry, we need a much more coach-based approach to how we engage with our clientele and with our members, rather than the traditional expert approach that's used in our industry.” 

• [18:47] Partnering with allied health professionals

  • “And just health and fitness in general, if we can focus on purely just getting people moving, getting people active and then use the dietetics professionals, the wellness coaches, all these other amazing allied health professionals to effectuate change in their scopes of practice, then we've got something.” 

• [24:27] Partnering with physical therapy

  • “And it is that very, very warm handoff that maintains the continuum of care right from, as you said, a finite number of sessions which seems to be a an ever reducing finite number of sessions at this point, and then to the health and wellness professional who, in theory, can work with that person indefinitely.”

• [26:24] Being seen as essential

  • “And so I think that that's the challenge here is to allow our industry to figure out a way to shift the perception of what we do in the minds of multiple stakeholders—politicians and lawmakers, certainly, but also people in the medical and allied health community and the population at large, who I think also views us as entertainment and a luxury rather than something that is an essential health care service.”

• [28:42] Progress on shifting the mindset

  • “But I also think because the conversation is starting to move away from just purely weight loss and esthetics to all of these other benefits, mental health in particular being one that's really been salient in a lot of the conversations in our industry as of late. I think we're starting to move towards it. By no means are we there yet.  Again, I think, look, anything in business, follow the money, and that will cause shifts in an industry or shifts in a market.”

• [30:15] Building trust

  • “And they should trust us because there are professionals in our field that are incredibly qualified, incredibly educated, and incredibly well positioned to provide a service that is not only essential, but it's a service that would make a physician’s job easier when it's done. And that's why they should trust us.”