Creating Community Within and Beyond a Health Club [Podcast Series]

• [:55] Dr. Bantham introduces her guest, Mike Alpert

  • Mike Alpert is the former President and CEO of the Claremont Club.

  • He is also the current COO of Smart Health Clubs.

• [1:16]  Creating community within and beyond the four walls of the club

  • “Part of your culture really should be that if we're surviving and making money, and we're profitable, some of that profit should go back into the community. And you should be welcoming to all populations. And in my opinion, especially those people that struggle with disabilities, with chronic illness, chronic injury.”

• [2:24]  Making community connection part of the culture and DNA of the club

  • “We created it by creating and maintaining meaningful purpose in the work that people did, and how did we do that? We started helping people that were desperate, that were in need of hope, acceptance and possibilities. And we focused on people that were struggling with these terrible, chronic injuries, paralysis, these chronic illnesses, long term cancer, Parkinson's, and a host of things. And we really used exercise as medicine.” 

• [4:33]  Sharing programs and best practices among clubs

  • “I had taken my wellness director to a seminar that Julie Main put on back in 2005 at an IHRSA convention, and it was on a program she had started and was running very successfully in Santa Barbara with a hospital there, called Cancer Wellfit program. And we were so impressed with her talk and what she had done that I went up after that talk and I asked her if she would share her template with me and let me develop a program like that in Claremont. And if you knew Julie, she was such an amazing human being, truly an amazing person that she said, ‘Sure.’ And we took it.”

• [9:43] Becoming totally vested in a community

  • “I'm willing to give these programs to any club that wants to implement them, complimentary. I mean, it's not about money here. It's about helping people. And building a culture around your brand that says ‘We're here to do that. And we're the club of choice and we're the employer of choice in our neighborhood. And we are totally vested in the community.’”

• [13:16]  Building relationships with physicians

  • “'So, you know, you can't go to doctors to build your bottom line.  They'll shut you down before you even get past two minutes with them. And you have to convince them that you're there to make a difference in people's lives and in their patients lives.”

• [16:27] The impact of programs on staff and member retention

  • “Let me tell you how easy it is to make money by doing the right thing for people in need. It resonates with your members, your staff, the community. I will tell you that our attrition rate dropped 8% after we started these programs a couple years after we were running them. They dropped from roughly 23 and a half percent to 15 and a half percent a year.”

• [21:17] Socialization and social support

  • “And the other thing I want to say is the social aspect of all these programs cannot be emphasized enough. I think they're as important or more important than the physical fitness part. So I use a term that I think that socialization is more important than perspiration. It's powerful, it helps with depression, anxiety, mental problems that people go through. To get them out instead of going to a clinic or a hospital, having their treatment and going home, getting them around like people in a support group setting with electric excitement going on. And then injecting the fitness part is powerful. It's powerful, powerful medicine.”

• [22:01] The role of health clubs in a post-COVID world

  • “Well, let me respond to the COVID issue. It will be over. And although virtual, live streaming, on demand, all that is not going to go away. It's going to be important. But people are going to yearn and want to get back and interact with people.”

• [24:30] The purpose of a health club

  • “I think those that focus on doing the right things and having the right blend of social activities and physical activities in their club are going to reap rewards like they never thought they would when this is over. You have to have it in your blood that your club is more than a place to just come and sweat.”

• [25:10] Integrating healthcare and health & fitness

  • “I think if ever there was a time for the experts in fitness, and the experts in health care, to come together to start working together instead of so independently, now is the time.  And especially when we know the powerful effect that exercise has on overall health.”

• [26:22] Health clubs as essential

  • “During the pandemic that we're in right now and, God forbid, if there are future pandemics, we should be an essential business. You shouldn't be able to go to Walmart, and be in with 6 million people picking up produce and putting it back on the shelf or waiting around the block at Costco to get in for 45 minutes and not be able to come to a health club, with certain restrictions, to stay healthy. It just makes no sense.”

• [26:50] First steps to connecting medical and fitness communities

  • “There's power in numbers and you've got to get all, all the barriers down and you’ve got to bring everybody in the fitness end together moving in one direction with the, towards the medical community.”