The CDC reports that over 41% of the American public is classified as obese, making this a nation-wide public health epidemic. Obesity is also closely connected to multiple other chronic health conditions, which makes its impact that much more consequential. Quite often fitness professionals are on the frontlines of working with this population, left to decipher the massive volume of information that exists on how to effectively work with these individuals. The challenge with this information is...
Jul 20, 2022•43 min
We would be remiss if we didn’t take the time to recap IHRSA 2022 that recently concluded in June. This is a short episode that provides a brief overview of the important takeaways, from our host’s perspective, of this high energy industry event. Among the topics discussed are: IHRSA’s work on mental health and inclusivity Advocacy & lobbying efforts Push towards healthcare integration The importance of speaking with a unified voice How you can get involved Most definitely a short episode he...
Jul 15, 2022•17 min
There is no shortage of individuals who deal with aches and pains. In fact, according to the CDC, an estimated 20.4% of the American public deals with chronic pain. Many more individuals deal with subclinical levels of pain and injuries every day. This limits functional capacity and increases fearfulness around physical activity and exercise. However, when exercise is properly performed, it can reduce pain, improve function, and most importantly increase confidence in physical abilities. Proper ...
Jul 13, 2022•48 min
Achieving a health and fitness goal is hard, maintaining that achievement is even harder. If you’ve worked with clients for any length of time, you know how true this is. Many fitness professionals grow frustrated by their clients lack of long-term progress. It seems like the same cycle perpetuates itself. The client makes some positive change, only to fall back into old behaviors, feel bad, get motivated, and repeat the cycle over and over again. As frustrating as it is for the trainer, this ca...
Jul 06, 2022•49 min
Cancer is a debilitating disease. The physical affects of cancer are certainly severe, as are the side effects of treatment along with the loss of control and autonomy for the patient. Despite this, cancer treatments are improving and survival rates are increasing. This presents a unique, and growing, need for fitness professionals to become a part of the cancer treatment team. Exercise oncology has blossomed in recent years, leading to growth for the need to develop a workforce to engage with p...
Jun 29, 2022•46 min
At its core, being fit means being free to do the things we want to do in life. Strip away all the goals around body fat loss, looking better, and perfect Instagram pics; being fit means being free to move and play the way we want to. This is particularly true of our population as they age. When fitness is lost with aging some of the simplest activities earlier in life can become impossible later in life. The result? Freedom is significantly limited, life closes in on you, and you simply wait to...
Jun 22, 2022•58 min
Many fitness professionals tend to think in quite narrow terms about movement and physical activity. Firstly, the image that comes to mind for many of us is typically something exercise-related, rather than just any form of enjoyable movement (think lifting weight versus dancing or gardening). Secondly, the environment this movement is performed in is most often a health/fitness club or gym. While this approach is not wrong in the least, it is clear that it only resonates with out 20% of our pop...
Jun 15, 2022•57 min
There is certainly isn’t a shortage of passion and caring in the hearts and minds of fitness professionals. Simply put, people get into this profession out of an intense desire to help others improve their fitness, health, and wellbeing. While our motives may come from a very pure and altruistic place there can be a downside to this caregiving mentality. This downside can manifest itself in a proportionate reduction in our own self-care, relative to the amount of care we provide to others. This ...
Jun 08, 2022•46 min
We’re joined in episode 55 by a good friend of the Wellness Paradox, Kinesiologist Jeff Young. You may remember Jeff from episode 22 where we discussed Making Medical Fitness a Healthcare System Wide Reality . In this episode, we’ll dive a little deeper into a topic we teased on that podcast, the role of strength training in medical fitness, functional capacity, and ultimately health. As Jeff will attest, from his lengthy career as a “frontline” medical fitness practitioner, there is a lot of my...
Jun 01, 2022•58 min
Clearly there are not enough physical active people in this country. The CDC estimates that nearly 75% of the population doesn’t meet the recommendations for general physical activity and muscle strengthening. On the flip side, nearly 70% of American’s are religious to various degrees. While these two statistics may seem completely disconnected, this episode of the Wellness Paradox Podcast will bring the two together nicely. Our guest in episode 54, Rosi Reeves, fuses fitness, faith, and food to...
May 25, 2022•48 min
Episode 53 brings us to the start of the second year of the Wellness Paradox Podcast, hard to believe it’s already been a year! Episode 53 represents the reflections Wellness Paradox host and creator, Michael Stack, on what he learned in year one. As you’ll hear him discuss in the episode, many important lessons were learned, some questions were answered, and many new questions were generated. In his reflection of year one, Michael highlights the many things he learned (along with all of our lis...
May 18, 2022•42 min
Our guest in episode 52 almost needs no introduction. Dr. Barry Franklin is one the most prolific exercise physiologists of our time. He is a past president of the American College of Sports Medicine, and has his bio below attests, he is one of the most acclaimed professionals in our field. This conversation is not about exercise physiology, however. The depth and breadth of Dr. Franklin’s knowledge extend far beyond exercise testing and prescription. This is a conversation about how to maximize...
May 11, 2022•48 min
Episode 51 of the Wellness Paradox Podcast brings back a familiar guest, for joyful discussion (pun intended), on coaching health behavior change. Many of you may remember Dr. Michelle Segar from episode 35 of the podcast where we talked about Reaching the 80% of Americans that don’t go to Fitness Clubs . If you haven’t listened to that episode yet, go back and give it a listen at some point. That discussion provides some great ways to frame various aspects of coaching for lasting behavior chang...
May 04, 2022•47 min
In our Instagram influencer society, it is very common for fitness professionals to market themselves based on how they look (often in as little clothing as possible, as often as possible). While at first glance this seems like a time-tested marketing strategy for fitness professionals, there is one glaring issue with this approach – it alienates, and even scares off, the people that need fitness professionals help the most, but use it the least. We’re talking here about the 80% of the populatio...
Apr 27, 2022•42 min
Many physicians talk about the role lifestyle plays in preventing and treating illness, but few take the steps to put their money where their mouth is, and do something about it. Not so with Dr. Ari Levy, our guest in episode 49 of the Wellness Paradox Podcast, as he took the bold step of starting his own medical practice to essentially address the root cause of the Wellness Paradox. Dr. Levy is the founder of SHIFT , a primary care practice based out of Chicago that integrates traditional medic...
Apr 20, 2022•43 min
Entering any new profession is a challenge. Transitioning into a new profession as a second career can be down right scary. Our guest in episode 48 of the Wellness Paradox Podcast, Becky Searls, knows that well as she transitioned from a career in education to one in personal training. Although this is a scary process, transitioning from one career path to another provides interesting perspective and valuable lessons to apply to your new career, Becky also knows this well, and that’s what we’ll ...
Apr 13, 2022•46 min
All great coaches know they need a great coach to help aid in their own growth and development as a professional. In episode 47 of the Wellness Paradox Podcast, we provide you with just that, coaching from a great coach of other fitness coaches, when we’re joined by Ray Gorman. In this episode we discuss training principles and business principles in a very dynamic and practically applicable manner. Ray will dive into the coaching framework he’s developed for physical therapists and fitness prof...
Apr 06, 2022•46 min
Fitness wearables have exploded over the past several years. With devices that can go on our wrist, our chest, our heads, ears, and just about every other part of our body, we certainly have an abundance of things we, as fitness professionals, can measure for our clients. Now that we have the capabilities to measure so many biometrics the next logical questions are; (1) how accurate are these measurements, and (2) even if we can measure it, does it really matter. To answer these two questions (a...
Mar 30, 2022•52 min
Blue light is all around us, and most of us are unaware. Our screens, the lights in our house, nearly everywhere we look there is blue light. The impact of blue light on our natural circadian rhythms is striking. In the morning this blue light helps us wake effectively, getting us ready for the day. At night, a natural reduction in light from the sun helps us prepare to sleep. This equation worked well thousands of years ago when the only light we had was natural light from our sun. Not so, in m...
Mar 23, 2022•43 min
The fitness industry is still in its relative infancy compared to most other, more mature, fields. We’ve certainly learned and grown a lot in the past half century, but it’s clear we still have much to learn given the fact we’re only serving 20% of the population. The COVID pandemic showed us how well prepared were in some cases, and how ill-prepared we were in others. Sadly, the latter was more widely true for the fitness industry, so it’s clear we must keep learning and growing! As we come out...
Mar 16, 2022•50 min
Weight loss is clearly one of the most common reasons individuals engage in an exercise program. Like it or not, success or failure, the American public tries, tries, and tries again to lose weight and keep it off. While the statistics on weight loss are not great, and the statistics on maintenance are even less encouraging, there is an evidence-based path to safe and effective weight loss. It is this path that we’ll discuss in episode 43 of the Wellness Paradox Podcast with licensed nutritionis...
Mar 09, 2022•54 min
We’ve said many times before on the Wellness Paradox, if you don’t have profits, you don’t have a business, you have a hobby. When you have a hobby, you don’t have the ability to help very many people for very long. Marketing, sales, and strategic partnerships are critical elements of any fitness professional’s business, regardless if you’re a solo practitioner or running you’re a larger multipurpose health/fitness club (and everywhere in between). As important as business principles are, they a...
Mar 02, 2022•49 min
How we view life really all comes down to the stories we tell ourselves. By stories we mean the additional subjective information we add onto the objective facts of the situation (think: my husband didn’t make the bed because he doesn’t respect me – fact: not making the bed, story: he doesn’t respect me). The tough part is rarely are we ever able to determine the “truth” in these stories and, worst yet, most of the time our stories don’t serve us well. The concept of being aware of your perspect...
Feb 23, 2022•48 min
The concept of literacy is not foreign to anyone. Indeed, we all realize the importance of the ability to read and write in terms functioning in the world. Lack of literacy is considered a societal tragedy that the developed world attempts to avoid at all costs. When basic literacy is lacked within an individual (or population) life closes in and gets very small, achievement is limited, and life lacks fulfillment and a sense of purpose. All consequences that should be avoided at all costs. Altho...
Feb 16, 2022•55 min
COVID-19 was the largest upheaval most industries have ever felt. The health/fitness industry likely experienced one of the largest upheavals given it’s extended closures, restrictive reopenings, and due to a renewed emphasis on health, fitness, and wellbeing; however you analyze it, the landscape of the fitness industry has changed forever. Now the challenge is clear for the industry at large – determine what that landscape looks like to best meet the needs of current and new fitness consumers ...
Feb 09, 2022•53 min
As we’ve established many times on the Wellness Paradox only a small fraction of the population goes to health/fitness clubs (< 20% of Americans). There are clearly many reasons for this, but certainly one of the prominent reasons is a lack of programming to truly meet their needs. Indeed, the needs of the 80%ers are different than the needs of the 20%ers, as this population is largely sedentary, doesn’t have a great relationship with exercise, and may suffer from one, if not more than one, c...
Feb 02, 2022•53 min
If you don’t have profits you, you don’t have a business, you have a hobby – period! As uncomfortable as that statement might be for fitness professionals it is objectively true and critically important. So many fitness professionals enter and leave the field quickly because they can’t make a stable income. In many cases this is because fitness pros approach their business from a caregiving-centric mindset, rather than a business-first mindset. The reality is if you can’t make a living, you can’...
Jan 26, 2022•50 min
Mental health is becoming an increasingly important topic to discuss due strain the pandemic has placed on all of our lives. Despite most thinking of COVID-19 as a physical illness, it has resulted in significant social disconnection from the things we love and care for the most. As social creatures’ human beings need these social connections to thrive and be mentally healthy. Many of those social connections have been absent (or diminished) since March of 2020, as a result nearly one-third of A...
Jan 19, 2022•53 min
For the past 40+ years the fitness industry has largely succeeded in getting the fit fitter. That may sound like harsh statement for an industry that is all about making the public healthier, but it is an objective reality. Only 15-20% of the American public regularly goes to health/fitness clubs, leaving the other 80% to flounder in an attempt to become more active, improve their fitness, and better their health. Given the fact that 80% figure has not changed for decades, maybe it is time for t...
Jan 12, 2022•45 min
Episode 34 of the Wellness Paradox Podcast brings us to a discussion I am incredibly passionate about – leadership and building a strong culture within an organization. What it takes to be a great leader and to build a strong organizational culture is often misunderstood. Furthermore, in such a “young” industry, like fitness and wellness that’s identity is continuously evolving, leadership and culture can be a challenge. To address this topic and provide actionable solutions, we’re joined by Luk...
Jan 05, 2022•51 min
