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Our Live Better, Longer series (a thought-provoking interview series that takes a deep dive into longevity) is back with our fifth interview! Our host Kelly Stranburg, had an informative interview with Michele Wong, the COO of Active Wellness. Below are some selections from Michele’s interview where she and Kelly discussed valuable insights and strategies related to fitness management and wellness in the industry (be sure to watch the video for the full interview!):
Kelly: Michele, we're excited to dive into your background and expertise, but also learn a little bit more about what Active Wellness is looking to do when it comes to living better, longer. Can you share with our audience why are you passionate about exercise programming and the difference it can make for anybody's quality of life?
Michele: Kelly, that's going to take me back some years! So, really, it came to me from a realization in my teenage years when I was seeing some of the health struggles going on with my own family members and I became a caregiver really young. My grandmother was struggling with lots of different health conditions but really kind of fell off that cliff, so to speak, after having a massive heart attack. It really started to resonate with me that it was “too little, too late”. So at a really young age, that became important to me. I'm like, "How did I want that quality of life for me to be? And how did I want to avoid that?” Which is unusual, right? In your teenage years, but then going on and figuring out, well, how do I share that passion with other people? And this industry has allowed me to do that.
Kelly: What are some of those initial, I guess we'll call them changes or even lifestyle behaviors, that you embraced even at a young age?
Michele: I think back and I think if I only had the knowledge I have today back then, how much different it could have been. But, for me, it was exercise and activity. I was in athletics in high school but I wouldn't have seen myself as really a super competitive athlete or involved in a lot of sports growing up. One of the big key things for me was recognizing that the diet I grew up on didn't lend itself well for me in terms of my energy level and managing my weight and looking at long term health. And again, had I only had the knowledge I have today, I probably would have made even different choices back then. But some of it was really connecting what I was doing with how I felt on a daily basis. Obviously there's this long game with longevity and we want to improve health span and lifespan, but really connecting it back in with what was working for me on a daily basis - things like we think about today: energy level, sleep, mood, and this whole mind-body approach to it.
Kelly: Oh, I love that, the mind-body approach, excellent. So let's talk a bit more about your own kind of epiphany at a young age and what you do professionally and where we see society going. So when you think about the current state of longevity, what would you love to see change or improve?
Michele: I think the biggest thing that's been a struggle in my professional career is this connection with medical and integration and looking at “we're too little, too late” and we're trying to implement prevention strategies when somebody's already dealing with chronic conditions. When their habits have been so ingrained in their 40s and 50s and it just feels like it's so late in the game. So I think that’s one of the struggles, but also one of the opportunities, in what's shifting is. I see this in my own kids who are the Gen Z, right? The knowledge, the information that they have, and again, when we talk about it from a mind-body perspective, there's a lot shifting in own personal responsibility, right? For a lot of years, it's been waiting for healthcare to meet us and see us as a support and a partner in this. And now I think there's a shift coming with personal responsibility, accountability, and how we feel today (and how that's going to benefit us in the long term) in terms of all the things and knowledge, right? There's a lot more information and good information coming every day.
Kelly: I’m glad you brought up this intersection with healthcare and the medical field. I think now in this age of technology and information, a lot of us are a little more willing to poke some holes in things. And so, I struggle sometimes with how do we better partner with that side of, we'll say personal wellbeing, because there is a medical component even if we're not on a doctor's caseload or taking certain prescription meds. Is that something that you all have explored at Active? And is how do you get certain industries or entities getting their medical partners on board with what you all offer?
Michele: Yeah, it's a big struggle. I'm excited to say we've made some really big strides with a couple of partners in the last couple of weeks. We're in the electronic medical record system - we are “as prescription”! And it's because the struggle is, “Is it safe? Are you going to treat my patients correctly? Are you going to overdo it with them? How do I know that the staff has the certifications and understand special populations?” But it comes back to “too little, too late” right?
They also view it as, well, if this person doesn't have a diagnosable condition, everybody needs health and wellness in their life. Everybody needs prevention. It's definitely been a challenge. And one of the ways that I look at it is that in our industry, we say there's this elusive 80%, right? 20%, get it, know it, live it. But it's the 80 % that really need us. And they do need the physician to tell them this is what you need. And then for us, it's like this funnel, if we can be directly connected, we don't lose people in the funnel because if the physician says, yes, you should do this, but there's no direct connection already back to us, when they walk out of the office, best of intentions, who picks up the baton and runs with it. And so what I'm hoping to see more and more of is the direct connection where there's a there's a definite handoff, such as “Hey, Kelly, I know you want to see Dr. so and so and they referred you to the 60 day wellness program with us. When can I get you started.” And we know that Kelly was referred and we know that there's a connection there. It’s a partnership that we see shifting a little bit.
What I've seen shifting is less of a treatment of the symptom and more of “here's some lifestyle things”, but it's a very big blanket recommendation. How does somebody implement that? When you tell my mom who's been a diabetic for 30 years and high risk of heart disease, just don't eat any sugar or meat and that's the recommendation you walk away with (and that's a true-life story), how does she implement that? How do you start? How do you look at it and think “What's the tiny habit? What's the baby step? How do you move in that direction?” And the physicians don't have the time (and sometimes the knowledge) in terms of the details, to do that and we do at Active. Wanting to see more of that partnership take effect is where I hope things are going.
But also, in terms of longevity, we're seeing it. Like the Gen Y, the Gen Z, more of a holistic mind-body approach. They're very focused on their health and have information and knowledge that we didn't have necessarily when we were their age, unless we were athletes, unless we were already coming with those things somewhat ingrained. I think that there's going to be more of a demand on medical to say “Okay, I don't want you to treat my symptom. I want you to treat me as a whole person.”
Kelly: I agree. A lot of times over the years I’ve been asked, “Well, when should I've started, you know, XYZ, balance training, strength training, all of these things.” And you and I both know you can start these types of programs or proactive interventions at any age, because we can make a difference, believe it or not. Everybody - 85, 90, 95! Yes, you can get stronger, you can improve all of these things physically. However, if we really wanted to live better longer, of course sooner is better, but when is the right time? And so even when I think about advocacy in what Active does and even what I do in the senior living space, it's never too late and it's never too soon. We can start a whole new trend, Michele. It's never too late, never too early!
Michele: I so believe in that. And I think some of it is people don't start because they think it's an overwhelming task. And we as an industry, are a little bit guilty of this - if you didn't show up five days a week you weren't successful, if you didn't do the hour class you weren't successful. The minimum dose response to be effective is very small in somebody who's deconditioned and is doing nothing. So, we have to look at, how do we help people create that measure of success for themselves? And know that a little goes a long way. And if you just keep building on that little, it's going to turn into a big change.
Kelly: I like that, “a little goes a long way”. We had a fellow champion in the space who thinks similarly to us that was on Live Better, Longer a couple of months ago, Mike Studer, and he has coined this phrase “exercise snacks”. I actually saw a post of his on Instagram recently and it was a chart of exercise snacks. It's just like, “hey when there's a commercial on TV stand up and down ten times, or go up three laps around your first floor of your house” - it's those little bouts of movement. And as somebody who works a desk job during the day, I find myself being like, oh my gosh, I haven't gotten up in like four hours - I better go run up and down the stairs a couple of times. And so, all of those little bites, or snacks, make a difference and they can add up to that benefit of the cumulative portion of being physically active.
Michele: Yeah, it's exciting. We're entering a pilot with one of our corporate partners and EGYM (who makes a really cool line of strength equipment) in setting up a circuit that will be outside of our fitness centers and inviting people who are non-members to come in and three times a week do a strength circuit which will be six minutes, where they don't have to change clothes, they don't have to take a lot of time between their day and giving them that “exercise snack” and say, "Okay, let's measure and look at how much progress you can make three times a week for six minutes in that exercise snack. I think that's an important piece. I still have a couple of people in my life that I train and work with and when they don't show up to the workout, I text them and say “Here's your snacks for the day. This is what you need to do throughout your work day.” So I am a total believer. It’s just helping people be successful and tuning in to how just those few minutes makes them feel. How does that reenergize you? And then, how does that progress build on each other over weeks and months?
Kelly: Awesome. Now let's talk a little bit about senior living and aging older adults. What are some of your philosophies or approaches at Active to serve senior living or aging adults, and how are you entering the aging services in senior living industries to continue this messaging and this impact that you get to have on individuals?
Michele: This is a super exciting area for us. We've come up with a studio model concept, which doesn't exist today, right? Geared towards the 50+ that really is a holistic approach to everything from cardio, exercise strength, brain training, the dual-tasking function, recovery, and giving seniors an opportunity to do this in a community setting, all in one place, in a studio model (and some of these will be embedded within senior living communities). It's really giving them something that hasn't existed with a supervised, personalized plan for every single one of those residents and then inviting community members in who want to join as members. It’s really connecting fitness/wellness to what seniors love - connection with each other. A lot of them have time on their hands, and the ability to do things in a group setting, but in a very personalized way. And if we think about what exists right now in the studio model, there isn't really one that covers so many modalities and is really geared at that longevity piece, and specifically an environment that is inviting and safe for seniors, wherever they may be. Whether it’s somebody who's been physically active all their life and is in a great state of health, or somebody who's coming because a physician has given them a prescription and they're dealing with some things, we can meet them where they're at and really help them continue to improve their health and manage those things along the way.
Kelly: I'm excited to get to watch that all play out, that's very cool. What is a simple tip that you can give to the audience that they can easily embrace or adopt either for themselves or maybe clients that they work with?
Michele: If we're looking at things from the longevity lens and we think about focus, I want to see people shift in looking from a performance space. Think of yourself as an athlete. Your “sport” is life and athletes do athletic things. And in terms of building that athleticism for life, how do you train and do that through the exercise snacks, through small habits and small changes. We're all athletes, we all have a body and our sports life. And if we look at it from that lens, we're going to get gains out of it.
For more insights and tips from experts and thought leaders in the health and wellness industry, be sure to check out our interviews with Anna Hall of the Purpose Equation, Mike Studer, Eric Levitan of Vivo, and Tony Galvan of Vi Living. It's always great to learn from different perspectives and experiences in the field!