Women's Health Series - Groe Solutions: Amy Bantham, DrPH - From Playground to Silver Years

[00:00:02] Hey friends, welcome to the Future of Fitness, a top-rated fitness and wellness industry podcast for over five years and running. I'm your host, Eric Malzone, and I have the honor of talking to entrepreneurs, innovators, and cutting-edge technology experts within the extremely fast-paced industries of fitness, wellness, and health sciences. If you like the show, we'd love it if you took three minutes of your day to leave us a nice, supportive review wherever you consume your podcasts. If you're interested in staying up to date with the Future of Fitness, go to

[00:00:31] futureoffitness.co to subscribe and get weekly summaries dropped into your inbox. Now onto the show.

[00:00:47] Hey friends, this special women's health series is sponsored by Groe Solutions and I couldn't appreciate their support any more than I do. So, nine years I owned and operated gyms and I know firsthand how much time gets eaten by fragmented systems and admin chaos. Groe fixes that.

[00:01:07] One actionable operating system that helps you streamline operations, support your staff, and actually improve member experience. Your coaches belong on the floor. They do not belong buried in disconnected tools. It's a good product. It's great people. Please take some time to go check them out. It's grow.solutions. That's G-R-O-E dot solutions. And before we get into the interview, you're going to know something a little bit different about this series.

[00:01:36] So, Alan, the founder and CEO of Groe Solutions dedicated this series to three women in his life. And so, right after this, you'll hear that dedication and then we'll get into the interview. So, take a moment, appreciate it, let it sink in, and enjoy the show. Thank you.

[00:01:54] Hello, this episode is dedicated to my grandma who everyone affectionately calls Omi. Omi, you raised four kids. Three of them were wild as hell and you pulled many of those kids through some of their darkest times in their lives. You had a huge part in raising three of the grandkids, to include myself, and were the beacon of hope and light for us as we grew up and were in some of our darker times.

[00:02:23] You were essentially the force that pulled generations forward and now is the time for you to rest. I want you to focus on you and I hope this episode helps you get information on how to do that. I love you so much and thank you for your immense sacrifice over the decades that you've been holding the family together. You rest. I'll pick it up from here. I love you.

[00:02:50] All right, here we go. Dr. Amy Bantham, welcome to the Future of Fitness and this special women's health series brought by Go Solutions. It's awesome to have you here. I've really enjoyed our conversations and preparation for this. And now that I've kind of recognized your work over the years, I'm like, oh, it's like the end of the movie, The Sixth Sense. I'm like, oh, like this is, it's all come together. You've done all these different projects and you've been in this industry for a very long time. So it's very exciting to have you here. Thanks for doing this. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to have this conversation.

[00:03:19] Yeah. So let's do right in, right? So we know this entire, this series is about women's health and there's a significant movement, I would say, that's been over the last five years and maybe a little bit more in the research, in the exposure, in the availability of information and the appetite for information when it comes to women's health. And in the first episode in the series, we had Anna L from Ultrahuman on and we talked about data and we talked about kind of the history of women's research. And this is the question that you and I were just kind of joking about because as a dude, as a man, right?

[00:03:48] What I'm seeing is, and being, you know, having women in my life, we're tend to be like segmenting women's health into different periods of life, right? We have like, you know, points, you know, before puberty and into childhood, adolescence, you know, we get reproductive years, perimenopause, menopause into older adulthood, like all these different segments of someone's life.

[00:04:10] And I feel like we're just talking about women in those particular segments with those reference points, but maybe not looking at like the whole continuum of health and what that means. And there's certain things that bridge all of those periods of life that are really important. And that's how you look at it as a holistic period. So when I bring that out, do you think I'm right? I'm wrong? Like, am I as an observation that's worthy of diving into?

[00:04:32] Well, I actually just had this conversation over lunch when we were talking about research into women's health and funding for women's health. And I heard the statistic that the vast majority of funding for women's health is focused on pregnancy. And I think that and so other aspects are significantly underfunded and we know that they're under researched.

[00:04:58] And so my preference when I look at whole person health, women's health, men's health is across the health span, across the lifespan and really thinking holistically and not carving women up into their body parts, focusing on their womb, not carving up women's health into where they are in their life cycle.

[00:05:28] And really thinking across the lifespan, across the health span and my focus, both as a researcher and as a practitioner is across the lifespan and the health span and setting women up for success around movement, physical activity, helping them establish habits and follow through on habits that will last them a lifetime.

[00:05:55] And I just taught a group fitness class this morning. And I have women in, I teach at an all women's facility. I have women in my classes who are age 20 through, I think my oldest is 92. And I always chat with them after class and, oh, my shoulder, one came up to me today, my shoulder. I just had surgery a couple months ago.

[00:06:22] I really love the fact that I've been able to come back. I've been able to be in your class. I've been able to do most things. And I always say it's a marathon, not a sprint. I'm so delighted that you are ready for surgery, that you were able to come back after surgery. We're here for you to support you and we'll continue to be here every week. So I look at it. We're in this for the long game.

[00:06:47] So when you work with the female population, maybe as a practitioner, let's start there. Where do you think most practitioners get it wrong? And I'm not just saying people were specifically with the female population, but kind of overall who work with a lot of women. Like my gym, I work with, you know, 50, almost 60 percent women in my gym, but a lot of men, of course. So, I mean, you know, there's the famous Dr. Stacey Sims is women are not small men. And there's a lot of differences. Right. And I feel like we're just starting to wake up.

[00:07:17] So when you look at a practitioner standpoint, like how do you incorporate things into your practice that are more specific and valuable to women that maybe most people are doing? Well, I always see it as a mixed methods researcher. I am very focused on really listening to people, really understanding what they want, what they need, what would be helpful to them. So I spend a lot of time asking questions and listening to the answers.

[00:07:46] And I think there's a lot that the fitness industry is getting right around meeting the needs, serving the needs of women. And yes, of course, there are things that we're not getting right. What I'm delighted about is the fact that we're starting to have more and more conversations about women's health. We're starting to recognize, and I think this is a really important point,

[00:08:12] women are on the front lines of the health and fitness industry. We are group fitness instructors. We're personal trainers. We're health coaches. We are on the front lines. We're general managers. And women consumers are critical to the industry. And I haven't always taught in a women's only facility. I've been a fitness professional for 30 years.

[00:08:40] So I've taught in many, many different types of facilities. I taught in corporate facilities, in law firms, and in financial institutions where I had many more men in the class, group fitness class, many more men. But now I exclusively teach women.

[00:09:04] But over the years, there are certain universal truths around behavior change and being a supportive coach and instructor. But also coming right back to that point about asking people what they need and want and supporting them and getting them what they need and want. Well, you know, I'm glad you brought up behavior change because really, that's like, that is what we do as an industry.

[00:09:30] I mean, when you boil it all down, right, it's not about the program. It's not about the movement selection. It's not about the nutrition plan. It's about how do we get people to change their habits and behaviors to align with said programs, movement selection, and nutrition plans. So maybe from a behavior change analysis viewpoint, that's probably too many words. What's different about the women's population? And what's unique about the women's population that you've noticed over your career?

[00:09:57] Well, it does come down to behavior change. And I was, again, talking with someone in the industry about this. There's a lot of talk around longevity and biohacking and this, that. And what it fundamentally comes down to are things that they're not sexy, but they are the fundamental pillars.

[00:10:22] And it is uptake and adherence over time. So it's sleep, it's recovery, it's stress management, it's nutrition, it's movement, it's social connectedness and community. Not sexy, but basic pillars consistent over time.

[00:10:47] And I'd say that that's a universal truth for all people, men and women, and really supporting them. Where I do think it's important to get right.

[00:11:01] And I hear clients who tell me, for group fitness, for one-on-one personal training, we have great demand for women who are middle-aged, older adults. And our fitness professionals don't match that. They're 18-year-old guys.

[00:11:27] And so trying to find representation, representation matters. And so trying to match fitness professionals with clients, with members, with students, program participants, that matters too. I would say, I don't know if I agree that programming doesn't matter. I do think programming does matter.

[00:11:56] And I've spent, over the last three years, I've developed a program that I'm now licensing to health and fitness centers, which leads with some of the things that you and I have been talking about around behavior change. It leads with small wins. It leads with fun. It leads with community and connectedness.

[00:12:19] The movements that participants are doing are, they're building an exercise base. But they're also teaching people how to use equipment. They're pairing them up so they're celebrating each other. They're partnering and having fun and leading with laughter.

[00:12:43] So I do think accessible programming, accessible equipment, role models and representation, I think they all matter for behavior change. Yeah, I agree. And I guess the point I was looking at was that you can have the most beautiful program, right? Just gorgeous. Like if you're a fitness professional, you've written programs, sometimes you just, you write it out and you're like, oh, it's just, well, it's just, it's great, right?

[00:13:07] But if you can't get the person to do it or the adherence, I hate that term, or, you know, maybe it's just not fitting their lifestyle at the moment or something happens in their life. So it's like, you know, there's a lot of things that, that prevent a great program from actually getting to where you want it to be. When you look at like all these factors, you can mention nutrition and lifestyle, stress management, social connectedness. Where do you think most women are lacking right now? Is it one or one or two of those categories specifically in our current day and age?

[00:13:35] I think that there is a hunger for community and connectedness. And I see, I was actually just asked to, to give my thoughts on this for, for a blog article recently about community and social connectedness in health and fitness centers. And I see community at play constantly. I see it in my clients, in the programming that they're implementing.

[00:14:04] I see it when I'm in the facility myself where I can't get my participants to, to quiet down so we can get started because they're so busy catching up. I see them saving spots for each other or wondering where Susan is this week. I didn't know she wasn't going to be here. Where is she? I should check up on her or they're out at a local coffee shop after class getting together.

[00:14:28] And I think there is this, we've been talking for a very long time about health and fitness centers as third spaces, community wellness hubs. And there is a hunger for that, which I think was, it was, we didn't have it during the pandemic. And so it's been accelerated since the pandemic where people are truly looking for community and community around a shared interest like movement.

[00:14:58] I think it's a really profound connector. And so I see it in the women that I serve. I see that they have a hunger for it and it is a top priority for them. And there is a reason that they're there day in and day out, week in and week out. And they are adhering to a program without calling it adherence. They're showing up for themselves and for each other.

[00:15:28] And that's when we look at, at women across the lifespan, time is a challenge. Self-care is a challenge. And I talk about this in my book. Self-care is not selfish. Self-care is not selfish. So that we are our best selves for the others in our lives.

[00:15:54] And whether you're a parent and a role model, modeling active lifestyles, modeling good nutrition, modeling balance, all critical. Or if you're just doing it, really doing it for yourself. So I'm constantly, self-care is not selfish. That should be our mantra. Yeah, I like that a lot. When you look at being a fostering community or kind of being a steward of social connectedness, it happens organically, of course, right?

[00:16:24] But is there any ways that as operators or practitioners, we can help kind of guide that along? And maybe you can use an example of something you've done or somebody who's doing exceptionally well. Just give us some insights on how we can push toward that kind of holy grail. Yeah, it's a great question. And as I was developing my program, I really was thinking about connectedness and community. And it's woven throughout. It starts with an icebreaker at the beginning of a small group training session.

[00:16:54] Harder to do in a group fitness class, but certainly can do in a small group training. A little bit of an icebreaker, something, some type of story about ourselves that will open the conversation. That will help people know more about us, remember us. And so start with that. And as really finding ways to have people celebrate each other as they go through a program.

[00:17:25] It's interesting. It's not just high-fiving at the end of a program, but it's truly, it's partnering. It is doing fun activities, fun games so people can laugh at themselves. Laughter is a wonderful way to get people connected and comfortable.

[00:17:48] And then I incorporated group activities as quote-unquote homework assignments outside of class. I love that. People would get together to do some type of new activity, and then they would send a picture of themselves doing that new activity to the coach so that they knew that they were together. And not really, not forcing that, but really try something new. Try something new with someone new.

[00:18:17] And really sort of opening people up to that around shared interests, shared goals. You know, I want to bring this up. This is anecdotal. This is my own observations in my little town here. You know, we have one health club and I go to one group class per week. I do a spring class to kind of keep my legs fresh for spring. And I just noticed that the women, maybe it's because I go to 9 a.m. You know, there's only a certain pound of the population can go at 9 a.m.

[00:18:46] But I noticed that the women in the group are much stronger connected, strongly connected than men. But like the guys in the class, which are, you know, we route number a little bit, but like we come in, we're quiet, we observe and we leave. Women, on the other hand, you can see it, you can feel it. They're connected, right? Like they knew where each other was. Like, oh, you're back from vacation. Welcome back. How was your trip? Like things like that, right? And I also noticed in the other places is the coffee shops that I go to and I work quite often is that, especially in that 10 o'clock morning, 10 a.m.

[00:19:14] morning hour of, you know, I see a lot of groups, but they're mostly older. So I would say people on their 65 and up tend to be more connected and tend to have a better, but I don't see that in the younger generation. So when you look at social connectedness across the whole life cycle of a woman's life, is there certain particular generations that you're a bit more concerned about right now when it comes to that? Oh, that's an interesting question.

[00:19:39] I mean, if I take what the newspapers are telling me, I should be most concerned about Gen X, which is my generation. Yeah, me too. You know, we're being skipped over for everything. Yeah, we have a lot of problems that we don't talk about. We're a mess. We're not getting promoted. We're not taking care of ourselves. I mean, it's a problem. But I do notice, so yeah, 65 plus, they take the time.

[00:20:06] They have the focus on social connectedness. They're actively cultivating community. They are, yes. And, but programming that some of my clients are implementing, it's cross-generation. So it's, it's a middle-aged or maybe a young mother coming with her mother, coming with her child.

[00:20:30] And so taking that time to cultivate community across, across generations. So I do think that as health and fitness operators, as fitness professionals, really being very mindful of targeted programming. And, and you and I were talking, we just got back from the HFA show.

[00:20:57] While we were there, the HFA Foundation, which I am the executive director of, we were able to announce two new community innovation grants. One was for programming specifically targeted to women, 30 plus, at risk for cardiovascular disease. And it's run out of a health and fitness center called RayFit up in Canada.

[00:21:25] And a 12-month behavior change program for women, 30s plus, at risk for cardiovascular disease. And focusing on all the pillars that you and I have been talking about, about not just nutrition and movement, but also stress management. And really able to make significant impacts on women's health.

[00:21:52] The other winner of the community innovation grant is a facility out of Columbia, Maryland. And that focuses on kids and connecting public school students who meet certain academic standards, connecting them with a health club membership. Fitness programming, recreational programming, but not just them, also their families. That's great.

[00:22:20] Getting their entire families moving. And so I love thinking about that. It's innovative. It's community oriented. It's focused on women, but not just women, also their families. And so how can other fitness professionals and operators be really mindful of how to reach all different individuals at different stages in their lives? That brings up another question.

[00:22:49] This is probably a really difficult answer to come up with that's relatively short in the context of our recording here. But when you look at the needs and priorities across the entire lifespan, right, from, you know, youth through reproductive years, perimodipause, menopause, and into older adulthood, like how do priorities shift over that period of time? Yeah, and I got really interested in getting kids moving during the pandemic.

[00:23:18] And this was really because of my experience as a parent to three kids who during the pandemic were elementary school. It was actually, to be honest, it was even before the pandemic where I realized they weren't getting a lot of activity during the day. And so I thought, what can I do as one person? Yes, I'm a fitness professional. Yes, I understand the research and the science. I understand movement. But how do we implement that? And how do we support them?

[00:23:47] And I think about it as different touch points throughout their days. So I was thinking, okay, what do I have control over as a parent? So I have control over before and after school. During school was like this black box. I was like, what on earth are they doing? So I got a little bit more involved in community, physical activity, advocacy. And so really thinking about how we can support kids to grow up to be active adults.

[00:24:17] They need to be active kids in order to be active adults. And if they're inactive kids, they're likely going to be inactive adults. So I guess fundamentally start early and stick with it. And just thinking about how parents can be role models for that and how they can support that. And it's not that different from what fitness professionals can do.

[00:24:43] It's really about making it fun, making it a group, a family, a community activity. And interspersing it throughout the day. So it's not this like one session, but it's, you know, maybe it's a game of tag. Maybe it's running between here and the stop sign. Maybe it's a pickup game of Frisbee. And so just really incorporating.

[00:25:09] So again, starting with kids and supporting kids over time. The fact that girls drop out of organized physical activity at a much earlier age. So how do we keep girls in movement? And maybe they don't want to do team sports. Maybe they want to do individual sports. Or maybe they don't want to do sports at all.

[00:25:35] But are they moving and do they see movement as a necessary part of a healthy lifestyle? And really encouraging them and supporting them to do that as they go into high school, as they get busier and busier. Time. Time is a huge barrier for women to be physically active. Significant barrier. How do we support girls as they go through high school and through college and on?

[00:26:04] Where some of them were, if they are playing organized sports, some of those activities start to move away. And I presented at a national youth sports conference last November. And my co-presenter said, 1% of your kids will grow up to be professional athletes. 100% of your kids will grow up to be adults.

[00:26:31] And our job and our goal is to make sure that they are active adults. That's awesome. When you look at like, you get past the years into like the middle age, you start getting into pre-menopause, perimenopause, menopause. Is there any significant shifts that you notice with that population that we need to focus on? It's been covered a lot, right? I think it's been talked about a lot. But anything from a holistic view? I mean, it is incredible.

[00:26:59] We've gone from not talking about menopause to only talking about menopause. Yes. Good observation. It was taboo. And now it's all anyone wants to talk about. I sit on a lot of panels where it's all men and me. I sit on a lot of boards where it's mostly men and me. And it's fascinating that we're now having conversations about menopause and pelvic floors.

[00:27:24] And I'm delighted by the attention on women's health. I think that's fantastic. I think it's critical. Now, if only the research and the funding would follow. And I'll bring you back to that statistic where we're really thinking about 80% of funding is around pregnancy. And there is life after pregnancy, to your point.

[00:27:53] And to me, it's really supporting women in overcoming the barriers that are in the way of them pursuing active lifestyles. And I already mentioned time. It's when one is at a stage in one's life, when one has kids to take care of, one has a career to nurture, and one has aging parents. This sandwich generation. You said, who are we worried about?

[00:28:23] I made a joke about Gen X. But it is the sandwich generation, really thinking about kids and aging parents. And time for self-care, which is perceived as selfish. It's just taking care of oneself by pursuing physical activity just falls farther and farther and farther down on the list. And so I spend much of my career focused on expanding access to movement.

[00:28:53] And in order to expand access to movement, we need to think about what are the barriers that get in the way of movement and to try to knock down those barriers. So time, yes. Money and resources. So how do we support people in finding access to movement that is affordable to them? Absolutely critical there.

[00:29:20] And coming back to my initial observation about my students in my program, it's a marathon, not a sprint. And we want them to be healthy. And a shoulder injury, a knee injury, a back injury can set people back significantly. And so how do they continue this movement over their entire lifetimes?

[00:29:47] And so it is sticking with it and preventing injuries so they can stick with it and coming back after an injury so they can reintegrate and remind themselves how important movement is to their lives. Well said. And I feel like it all comes back to kind of like the beginning of the conversation of social connectedness, right? The thing that drives a lot of this, like it's something to look forward to. It brings you amongst people who have, who can resonate with your day-to-day life, right?

[00:30:14] Who understand where you're coming from and you can confide in. And that's very rare. And I'll speak for, you know, especially men of Gen X generation too, is like we're horrible. We're terrible at social connectedness. So we just, we have no clue what to do. It's like, it's so awkward. Like, hey, do you want to hang out? Like, do you want to like, do you like, I don't know. We just don't do it. We got to get over it. But we definitely have some issues. That is for sure.

[00:30:38] It is, it is interesting because it's, it's not necessarily quantity of social connections. It's quality, right? And you just need one or two to truly make in a difference. And what I find, I've chatted with podcast guests over the years and, and it's so critical to find something you love to do.

[00:31:03] And when you find something that you love to do, you're naturally connected to the people that are there because they also love to do it. They have a shared interest. They have a, they have a shared goal. And I, and I always talk about when I, when I teach cardio dance is when I truly find my flow state.

[00:31:24] I completely forget about all the to-do lists, all the things that I have to do for my career, that I have to do for my kids, their medical appointments, their carpools, this, that, and the other thing. And I just focus on the music and my students and the moves. And so really, I, I chat a lot with behavior scientists about, you know, what's the best exercise to do?

[00:31:51] It's, it's what you love and will do consistently over time every day until the day you die, which because you're moving will be much further in the future. Yeah. Well, I mean, this is awesome. Thank you for doing this. I think we, we get, we can, it's really easy to get bogged down in the tactical, right? Aspect of what we do. Like I was talking about, you know, the time and the program design and the class and the gym design and what equipment we have and all this stuff.

[00:32:17] But like having a good philosophy for the holistic person is really at the center of what we do. That's one of the things I like, quite frankly, like AI is never going to be able to do, right? Like this being able to relate and see things at a much higher level. And I've always, you know, no, like this in my terms, right. But like, uh, I've always considered the difference between like a trainer and a coach being a trainer, someone who kind of steps in during an hour and counts the reps and does all that.

[00:32:40] But a coach does that and sees everything else in life and has a good strategy for that person's overall health and wellness. And I feel like that's the important thing that we need to grow into as an industry over the next few years, because a lot of the tacticals are going to be taken care of. So super insightful. Really appreciate the work you do. If you want people to, to go follow you or learn more about your work, what's, what are the good places to go to? Yeah.

[00:33:03] So Move to Live More is the name of my company and people can find me at movetolibmore.com at movetolibmore on all social media platforms. Right on. Thank you so much for joining us. It's been an absolute pleasure. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Amy Bantham. Thank you. Hey friends, thank you for tuning into this very special women's health series presented by Grow Solutions.

[00:33:29] We're purposely dropping the series during National Women's Health Week because this conversation is critically important and frankly, a little overdue. So please share it with someone in your life. Better yet, pick up the phone and call her. Subscribe to the Future of Fitness wherever you listen. Leave us a review if you found value here. If you want to learn more, go to futureoffitness.co. Thank you for tuning in and we will see you next time.