Speaker 1: 0:00

Risk mitigation. What can we do to optimize our health and our outcomes, to be better for our family, for ourselves, more present, more productive? It's not about six-pack abs. It's about where we're clinically healthy. We're looking at risk.

Speaker 2: 0:09

Longevity right.

Speaker 1: 0:10

Yeah, longevity we want to be healthy longer.

Speaker 3: 0:15

Welcome to America's Healthiest City. I am your host, will Melton, and today we are at Medifit Rx with Melissa Ambrose and David Ambrose, and we are inside of the Bon Secours let's see, get this right Heart Institute inside of PartnerMD. So, if you're not familiar with this over off of Forest Avenue, excited to be here because we've actually interviewed this couple before, back in August 2023 when they were getting started, and a lot has changed since then. So this is going to be an interesting interview. If you're not familiar with MetaFit Rx, we're going to give you all the information about what they do here on this episode. Very groundbreaking stuff, nothing like it in the region, and so definitely stay tuned to the very end on this episode. I'm excited to have you guys on. Thank you so much for having me in your space.

Speaker 2: 1:01

Thank you for having us.

Speaker 3: 1:03

So we tend to kind of do this background on our guests in the first segment of this show. But if anybody has ever watched our show, they are familiar with you guys. But let's just do a quick brief on you know, how did you get into this business to begin with? Like what were your backgrounds that led you to this? And you've been doing it for a while now. So a little bit about why you're sticking with it.

Speaker 2: 1:25

Yeah, so again my name is Melissa. I'm the head clinical exercise physiologist here. This whole business was really born kind of from my background. So I did my graduate studies in exercise physiology, which was testing athletes and using all of this equipment to test athletes, and we started the business because we wanted to bring this type of testing to everybody, to the average person who was just trying to be healthy, shooting for longevity, shooting for weight loss, and that's really how all of this was born. And then I dragged him on board because of his health behavior background, which I'll let him tell you about.

Speaker 1: 1:59

Yeah, so I got, I came in and joined and having a fitness background, not the clinical exercise physiology background but more of a almost a clinical behavior background, but not quite so. When we say health behavior, we talk about sleep, diet, stress and exercise. So my degree was in that, focusing on that, particularly with worksite wellness programs and behavior change, plus a lot of courses in nutrition. So it was combining the behavioral side with deep analytics typically reserved for athletes. But we realized that we wanted to bring this and this was, this was.

Speaker 1: 2:35

This was her brainchild. And to bring this to everybody, to not have it just be for an elite cyclist or an elite runner, but for that middle-aged mom and dad that needs help managing their health.

Speaker 2: 2:46

And our partnership worked out really well because I take care of the lab side, I take care of the science side, but that if you don't do anything with it it doesn't matter. So he takes care of that health behavior side. And that's where, taking all of this information and making it personal, we just kind of married the two together.

Speaker 1: 3:02

Right, you take a lot of clinical data. That can be very black and white.

Speaker 1: 3:07

Black and white and sometimes not quite what you expected, to put it lightly. And now you have to take these, these results that are that? Are they're you? They're not met, they're not guesses, they're not estimates. They are precisely your measurements. So now we have to take it and match it to what will fit to Will Milton's lifestyle right, and not everyone has the same 24 hours in the day. If you have a wife, a husband, two kids, three kids, a dog, you know, own three businesses, there's a lot of things that pop up that you can account for, that don't show up in the test.

Speaker 3: 3:40

That become the behavioral, practical application of what we do Well, I can tell you, owning a business and working with my wife in that business, I certainly appreciate two different personalities with two different backgrounds making a hole and making it work.

Speaker 1: 3:57

So a lot of appreciation for that.

Speaker 3: 4:00

And there's an element of stress in working with your partner, but then there's also that opportunity to have a stronger relationship as a result of it, so I commend you for sticking it out.

Speaker 3: 4:14

And you know, kind of going back to August of 2023, when we first had this conversation, I had the opportunity to do a DEXA scan with you guys and I had this sort of we'll say fear that the results were positive and that maybe I wouldn't do something as a result of the results being positive. But you also asked me a question in that interview or just after it, which is what are you doing for your physical health and for your well-being, to become the healthiest, for your physical health and for your well-being and to become the healthiest? And at the time I was doing nothing and I have since gone to the gym and I go to the gym at least on a weekly basis.

Speaker 2: 4:56

And it has been as I've aged. I just turned 40 this week.

Speaker 3: 4:58

It's become incredibly important. It's going to become more important. I'll probably have to go more than once a week as I get a little bit older here. But you know, this is really important stuff and I think we're in a place in society where I think we're all sick of health care. You know, we are at this place where we have data, we have the ability to analyze that on a continuous basis and observe patterns and begin to move into a space of well care, and so you know, I really want to talk about that today, because some of this conversation is about having the knowledge.

Speaker 3: 5:30

Some of it's about managing health, and I'm not the type of person to advocate for taking drugs to solve problems, but there are legitimate drugs out there that are helping people with problems that they have. I want to talk about that as well, because I know that what you guys are doing are impacting those things. So let's talk a little bit about the updates to your business in the last almost two years now since we've had this conversation what's new since we last spoke, and tell us a little bit about how this space has been impacting your business.

Speaker 2: 5:58

Yeah, I would say. You know, we still have our core products right, what you did, the DEXA scan, the resting metabolic rate and the VO2. That's still the central testing that we do with all of our clients.

Speaker 1: 6:07

The foundation of MetaFit RX. Are those three tests Right?

Speaker 2: 6:10

are those three tests. The behavioral side has become very big because I learned very quickly that I can hand you the right answer, but if you don't do it, it doesn't matter. So he's really taken over what we call our metabolic membership, which is new. That's focusing on behavior, also focusing on reassessments when somebody wants to come back. Moving into this space has been monumental. Having partners like PartnerMD and working with physical therapists and personal trainers. We've really tried to become that central lab for Richmond where anybody can kind of come in and use us and get that data. And then we've got a lot of exciting updates coming up. So the first one is going to be MediFit MD, where we're bringing on a physician. This is going to tackle blood work, hormone testing, medical weight loss. We're also looking at expansion. We do have a couple of different locations that we're looking at to branch out and then we're also looking at offering medical scans. So we're getting into that space where we can start to do bone diagnostics with osteoporosis and osteopenia.

Speaker 1: 7:10

Right, and we've grown from the two of us to three and a half, so we have I have staff, we have one full-timer, Chris, who is absolutely phenomenal. Emma, absolutely phenomenal. She's with us one day a week and over, at literally across the hall in the Cardiopulmonary Rehab Center, right across the hall, and all three of them are JMU grads, so I'm the outlier in the group. They're all big Duke dogs.

Speaker 2: 7:36

We're all the Dukes, oh, and I won Outstanding.

Speaker 1: 7:40

Professional of the Year.

Speaker 2: 7:41

High five for that, so yeah we were recently in Harrisonburg so I got the award for outstanding professional of the year from James Madison University in the kinesiology department. I joked and said they had to because I'm hiring all JMU and because we opened up this big business. But that was actually pretty awesome to reconnect with all my professors and tell them how I'm using what I did in graduate school.

Speaker 3: 8:04

You can hang that on the wall.

Speaker 1: 8:05

It's over there, it's that little crystal. Thing nobody can see it's there.

Speaker 3: 8:10

It's over there.

Speaker 2: 8:11

So, yeah, it's been. It's been great. I would say we've officially morphed into what this business is gonna be, you know, the first couple years we were kind of figuring it out, but now I feel like we really have. We really have it down what we're doing, who we service and where we want to go.

Speaker 3: 8:25

And some of that is figuring out Richmond. Richmond is not like other places and I don't know that any place is like any other place, but Richmond is particularly insular and kind of old boys-ish. So you guys have been members of Chamber.

Speaker 3: 8:42

RVA and maybe some other organizations. I've seen you everywhere. I've seen you in video. I've seen you connecting with different organizations. So you guys have figured out the partnership side of things. Talk a little bit about how being out in the community has impacted things. What are some of the places that you know, as other people who are trying to grow businesses and start businesses are thinking about how they can do that in this very unique place. What's worked? What's been a big success for you guys?

Speaker 1: 9:07

You know, richmond is one big community, as we've seen and, like you mentioned sort of that network that was here prior to us and I've spent so much time basically going door to door and having meetings and saying how can I help you? And many meetings where I know that their clientele is not a good fit for us but we could possibly send them, refer people over to them. So the whole idea that we've embraced and coming I was in bni, I've been to synapse meetings, I've been to 212 meetings but I was a big bni guy for about three years still love it and think it's it really built in me, the foundation of. I realized I'm actually pretty good at networking and it's a real. I think it's a really simple concept that comes into it, which richmond really embraces, which is building, building relationships. And the thing I always tell people is if you're not receiving, start giving Because people go.

Speaker 1: 10:08

Oh, I went to the chamber event, whatever you know, chesterfield, inner city, bni, whatever and I'm like I'm not getting any business from it. I'm like, well, how many times have you sat down and asked someone hey, will, how can I help you? Who's a good referral for you, what's your typical client look like and how can I help you, versus saying, hey will, can you help me? And here's who I'm looking to meet and I get messages on LinkedIn daily about how people and in our email people, want to sell us whatever system.

Speaker 1: 10:39

99 out of 100 never, ever bother to take any deeper look or to ask any deeper questions. And then the ones that do I respond to, the ones that actually do take a deeper, take a deeper look and want to have sit down and have a talk, love it, yeah, but the other 99 I ignore. So it's vitally important to, I think, build here trust, likability, your knowledge and you know people don't understand what we do, so we have to spend a lot of time educating. So, right before you came in, we set up a meeting with we're going to a self-made training facility tomorrow. It's a really fantastic facility down I think it's Chesterfield.

Speaker 1: 11:16

Chesterfield yes, and we already know several of the independent owners within that business. It's a pretty cool concept where you can basically rent space inside and, uh, I'm gonna go meet with them and that's what I do. I spend several I mean probably four to five meetings a week butterfly of our business literally has gotten out there and has met everybody and that's.

Speaker 1: 11:37

That's that's what it takes right and but so it's a different ethic you have to put into it. Here we're just doing. Some social media ads won't do it. Some Instagram ads won't do it, because they want to know who you are. Still, most of our referrals come in. I mean partner. Md is massive, of course, but word of mouth.

Speaker 2: 11:54

Word of mouth, and then the personal trainers, the physical therapy, the people that he's got his way to meet.

Speaker 1: 12:00

So we are now integrating with some other local companies' offerings. So when you now integrating with some other local companies' offerings, so when you sign up with them, you'll be able to come see us too.

Speaker 3: 12:07

If only you could just fit this thing through the door. You could take it with you and show people.

Speaker 1: 12:12

Ironically, we were looking at a mobile concept earlier, but that's a whole different conversation. I don't think we'll. That's kind of a headache. It is yeah, yeah, I don't think we'll it's. Yeah, that's kind of a headache, it is, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 12:26

Well, growth, new opportunities sounds like a lot of exciting things, so let's talk a little bit about for those who haven't tuned into this our episode back in August of 23,. Tell us about how it works, what people can expect. Like I said, I laid down on this machine and got my readout and was grateful for it, and it was incredibly informative. But how does this information help people? What are they doing with it? What? How are they acting after they receive the information? What's your relationship like with them?

Speaker 2: 12:54

let's get into it so the core products again, the decks of the arm are the vo2. The decks a machine is for body composition. So that's gonna look at bone-metal density, lean mass and body fat, and you know lean mass is a longevity marker. So that's a big one that we really put emphasis on and we look for. You know, aside from body fat, aside from people wanting to be healthy, we look for sarcopenia. So sarcopenia being the loss of lean mass or just not having enough lean mass, especially as we age, that's a big one that we talk about with people that present as healthy, but maybe they come in and find out they don't have a lot of muscle mass. So that's a big one. The DEX is obviously a big one. If somebody's tracking a goal, they come back in. They want to monitor their composition.

Speaker 2: 13:37

Resting metabolic rate is the other big assessment that we do. That's the one that looks at the speed and the function of your metabolism. So the speed of your metabolism. Oftentimes people think they have a slow metabolism and what we find out is you actually don't, but maybe the function's not working for you, and what I mean by that is you might be burning the amount of calories you need to be burning, but maybe it's all carbohydrate and you're not burning any fat. So those are other things that we look at.

Speaker 2: 13:58

The combination of the DEXA and the RMR is how we're able to prescribe nutrition. That's how I'm able to look at somebody and say here's the amount of calories, here's the macros you need for X goal, whether it's weight loss, whether it's muscle build, and then the VO2 max is a fun one. Your actual VO2 max is another longevity marker. So that's how healthier your heart and lungs working together. We also are able to see how well and when your body burns fat versus when you switch over into carbohydrates. We get all these different heart rate training zones for you. All three of those tests can be done independently. Most people do them together for the first time. That's what we call the full panel, and then they can kind of check in sporadically on other ones when they need to. But those are the core services Most people I would say you know we call ourselves longevity, weight loss and performance. I would still say weight loss is the number one reason that people come in, and then performance. I just got off the phone with a big runner.

Speaker 2: 14:52

She did 50K and wants to come in here. So, yeah, that would mostly be why people would get that stuff done. They're either trying to track something, they're trying to improve something or they're trying to do stuff and it's not working and they kind of need that. What's that missing link? What am I missing? And that could be something going on with their metabolism, it could be something going on with their composition. But those are again the three main assessments. After you get that done, that's when we turn it over to the behavior, that's when we implement it.

Speaker 3: 15:19

So let's talk a little bit about this obesity epidemic that we have. I mean, we kind of had this little blip of a body positivity movement, which has its merits, but at the same time, people's lives are being cut short because they're not addressing these weight problems. And then you turn around and we've got. You know, oprah is skinnier than we've ever seen her and all of her time on television. There's there's a lot of new medication out there that people are taking and have access to dramatic changes in people's lives. How does that relate to what you guys do? How are you helping people who are going through this transformation? What do people need to worry about when they think about taking these drugs?

Speaker 2: 15:57

I am all for body positivity first. First of all, I was raised in the nineties and early two thousands with heroin chic. So I'm much more appreciate body positivity, but not when that becomes an excuse to be unhealthy. There's a difference, you know. So we really try to stay on the body positivity track. But we want people to be healthy, we want people to have longevity.

Speaker 2: 16:18

Bringing in the weight loss medications you know, when they first came around, I think most people in the fitness industry are our heads exploded because we don't need another track where people are not doing diet and exercise but, as we've come to see, especially with a lot of our research with the dexa, they can be lifesavers for some people. We just really want to make sure that if somebody's taking that kind of medication they're doing it properly, because we have seen phenomenal results where somebody's weight loss comes from majority fat. We've seen horrific results where somebody loses a lot of weight and 70% of that was their muscle. So imagine getting smaller but fatter or not healthier. So we're really pushing. You know, we want to support people that are doing these types of medications but make sure that they're still making those healthy lifestyle changes so that they're still getting metabolically healthier, not just smaller.

Speaker 1: 17:07

Yeah, we've seen enough people do them now to see how it can be done the right way, and that's what we're big advocates for. So that's why we will be offering them as part of the rx into the md service to have people have the behavioral support. Because, whether you do bariatric surgery or glp1, gip or some other medicines are in clinical trials right now you need to move your body, get your heart rate up, lift some weight and you need to eat well, right, and make sure you have enough fuel to support your muscles and your bones and growth and make sure we're not starving ourselves and that we can do something sustainably. So we never recommend anything that's not sustainable. And these medicines the way that people describe them, the way that they have helped them basically take back control of their life, because a lot of these people that have been really struggling they just could not control.

Speaker 1: 18:09

If we live in an environment where food is abundantly available, particularly highly ultra processed food, you go to any event, do anything, go on any holiday.

Speaker 1: 18:19

I mean, it's all about food. And now, if you drive down Broad Street and how many restaurants are there 30 years ago, how many were there? Probably 25% of what it is today. So it's really hard in an environment where I'd say that most of the American population is not succeeding, where I'd say that most of the American population is not succeeding, we would probably estimate upwards of 90% of a population is not meeting their health goals and we want to help make it easier.

Speaker 1: 18:49

But it does also come sort of with what with what you're doing with America's Healthiest City is you need a healthy environment, because when you don't have a healthy environment and a healthy support system, it is exponentially harder to do to achieve. If you have a positive, loving, supportive partner or someone who's like, nah, that's that's, and they're bringing home pizza and cake and every night and you're like, hey, this is not the macros that David and Melissa gave me, and you're staying up till 3 am and you have to be up, she has to be up at 6 and I'm up till 3 playing Nintendo, I guess.

Speaker 3: 19:26

Nintendo, nintendo all right, all right, dating myself playing whatever kids play now.

Speaker 1: 19:32

so you a positive, healthy, supportive environment with holistic support in the form of what we provide mental health providers, personal trainers, physicians, possibly medication all has its part, but ultimately a healthier city has better outcomes, better productivity across the board and everyone feels better.

Speaker 3: 19:55

And I think I'm going to make a note that I need to get rid of the Twinkies in my PGAcom.

Speaker 2: 20:00

Just limit them.

Speaker 3: 20:02

Since we're limiting the Twinkie it's about.

Speaker 1: 20:04

We went from having a Twinkie sparingly to now they're there at every meal.

Speaker 3: 20:11

They're just so easy to grab and open.

Speaker 1: 20:13

It's about convenience. You're a busy person, I get it. So I think understanding people's struggle really helps for them to understand that we're human and it's okay to you know. It's not about six-pack abs. It's about where we clinically healthy. Where is where we're looking at risk? It's always about risk, right? That's risk mitigation what we do to optimize our health and our outcomes to be better for our family, for ourselves, more present, more productive and happier and longevity right.

Speaker 2: 20:39

yeah, be healthy longer, and you said well-care which I love.

Speaker 1: 20:42

I've never heard well-care, which I like. We talk about healthspan, so optimizing the healthspan, and so well-care is another great term versus sick care you often hear instead of health care, right. But it makes sense Well health care is expensive and I think we have an opportunity to take data.

Speaker 3: 21:01

I mean, everybody's wearing trackers. We've got all this data. Our shoes have data in them. Now that's connected to the internet. Ai can analyze that data and give us some prescriptions. So I wanna stay on the behavior side because, while nobody should be waiting for the opportunity to come in here and learn about their body, I'm curious. What are some of the stories that you hear? What are some of the triggers that cause people to say I need to go do this?

Speaker 1: 21:25

So I asked someone at the exact same question the other day and I said to her I said what made you finally come in? And I mean she rattled off. I was taking notes, but the biggest things were I'm just tired of feeling this way, I'm tired of being in pain, and this person had three chronic diseases. I mean, it's at a point where a lot of people have the medications are needed to get them to a state to even be able to exercise without pain, right, and this is a person who is going to be doing the Medicaid, the G one of the GLP ones, and you're seeing it from people needing to qualify for surgeries, needing to lose some body weight to to qualify for a surgery for a knee replacement, hip replacement, whatever it may be. So the biggest thing is that I'm tired of feeling this way and it's something.

Speaker 1: 22:20

You see it, the average person walking in here is men and women over 40, unequivocally, we get the 25-year-old, we get the athlete, but the thing is they don't need the data. It's really cool data for a 25-year-old triathlete or cyclist or MMA fighter or whatever, for the 45 year old mom or the perimenopausal woman. That's a big crowd we're getting. Yes.

Speaker 2: 22:42

The perimenopause and menopause women.

Speaker 1: 22:44

And how do you feel in perimenopause?

Speaker 2: 22:45

It's horrible, right, yeah, but we're getting especially a lot of women who are like hey, I'm doing everything I used to do, or I'm doing all the right things, why am I gaining?

Speaker 1: 22:53

weight.

Speaker 2: 22:54

Why can't I sleep Like they're just? They were at least healthy for the most part, but now all of their efforts are just being completely thwarted by all these hormone changes. I would say that's been another massive influx. I don't know if it's that's just recently been an influx or if I've just noticed it because I've entered into that club. But we get a lot of people now again, which is why we're starting the MD side of.

Speaker 2: 23:15

MediFitRx, because we want to be able to take a look at these hormone panels. And if all of this comes back normal and you're still unsuccessful, what's going?

Speaker 3: 23:22

on.

Speaker 2: 23:23

We want to be able to take that deeper dive, because that's been a huge influx in our business is the perimenopause crowd. Yay.

Speaker 3: 23:31

Well, so I just turned 40 this week and I was at the gym on Monday morning and my gym instructor said say, can I tell folks that it's your birthday? And I was like, yeah, it's fine. And so at the very end she didn't say anything. The very end I'm like it's going to come out. At the end she's like, okay, it's Will's birthday, he's 40. Everybody now do 40 burpees. So anybody who goes to the gym knows how much burpees are a ton of fun. But I'm going to challenge our audience today and say that if you can't do we'll say, five burpees without feeling bad. Maybe it's time to come in here and get a scan, because nobody likes burpees. But I can only imagine how much more difficult it is to do one of those when you're carrying around some extra weight.

Speaker 2: 24:10

Well, it's also very beneficial for people who just don't know where to start.

Speaker 1: 24:14

Right.

Speaker 2: 24:14

They don't know about their body. They don't know about their metabolism, they don't know where to start. They don't know about their body. They don't know about their metabolism, they don't know where their cardiovascular system is. It can be really great just to get a baseline, and we often hear people say I'll come to you guys once I get in shape, and we're like no, come now, let's see where you're at, let's get that plan. And then it is so cool a year later to see how everything changes. I think that's really when this stuff becomes powerful, is when you can start to see the trend data and we can start to see how you're improving, where you're making those improvements. But just getting that baseline information about your body, getting that baseline kind of here's where we need to go, I think, is much better than just throwing spaghetti at the wall and trying to figure out what sticks. Just don't even deal with that.

Speaker 3: 24:54

Just come in here, get the actual numbers, let's put you on a plan that we know is going to work, and then we'll test you again in a year when you're in shape.

Speaker 2: 25:04

For the record I did all 40 of those burpees at the end of the workout.

Speaker 3: 25:06

So let's talk a little bit about Richmond and Richmond's future. You guys are much more familiar with the community and how you integrate with it. You mentioned earlier the need to have an environment and support systems. What are you seeing positive that's changing in our community? What still needs to change? What are some ideas that you might inject into our ideas board about ways that folks might take up a challenge or get involved with something to positively impact their health, or perhaps the broader community health and the foundations that we lean on to make that happen broader?

Speaker 1: 25:38

community health and the foundations that we lean on to make that happen. If you think about where you spend the most time either work or home so what environments can we have the biggest impact on someone's life? And that would be to have a positive, supportive work environment, a positive, supportive home environment. So employers who are more forward-thinking, that are willing to invest in their employees' health is monumentally advantageous. With our partner here, with PartnerMD and their executive health program, we see leadership teams from all around the area and those people love it and love the business, the companies they work for and it's a benefit of them working for these businesses.

Speaker 1: 26:23

So, businesses that are willing to invest in the employee's health, you're a step ahead Making time to support their health, letting them go for taking a longer lunch, leave our work an hour early, have a gym on site, have bring us in another provider, whoever, to help support the staff, give talks and help support the. The employees be healthier. The other area would be home and if it's 10 o'clock at night and I picked up some bluey cereal from costco, which is going now, you know, am I going to eat some bluey cereal from Costco, which is going out? You know, am I going to eat the bluey cereal from Costco or am I going to have some eggs and rice and broccoli? Right, I'm going to have the bluey cereal from Costco Because it tastes a lot better than eggs and broccoli at 10 o'clock.

Speaker 3: 27:11

It's easier to make Easier Right.

Speaker 1: 27:14

And that's the thing. So I don't set myself up for success if I keep that abundantly available. Right last night our girls went into the freezer and they're like wtf, where's the ice?

Speaker 2: 27:24

cream.

Speaker 1: 27:25

We don't have anything and they were kind of mad and and not mad, but they and they're perfectly fine.

Speaker 2: 27:31

But the thing is, if it's not there, we don't need it it's not there, we don't need it, yeah.

Speaker 1: 27:35

So that's, that's massive. The home environment and that's where you can see somebody be really successful or not, depending on how supportive their partner is. And and little tips and tricks of not going to the grocery store while you're starving so you don't make those poorer choices. And picking up the doritos or whatever it may be, because if they're not there at 10, 11, 11 o'clock at night, the chances of you not that you can't go get them or order it's much less likely. So barriers and setting yourself up for success, so removing those barriers and setting yourself up with also positive people and people who support your goals, also Not like don't want to go get drunk every night after work.

Speaker 2: 28:14

Also as a family.

Speaker 1: 28:15

I've really enjoyed the parks out by the by the airport, I mean, and we drive to go there with our family gets everybody outside beautiful part yeah we'll stay there.

Speaker 2: 28:32

We'll stay there all day yeah, so I love the parks and recreation. You know again, having kids this is never something I would have thought it was. We have them. Yeah, we're all over. All the parks all around richmond, the park 365. We've been to anything like that where you can get your family outdoor. Our kids are playing. We've done little workouts there because we're there and why not um so love that as part of the family environment, tons of providers here, that tons of run.

Speaker 1: 28:57

I mean there must be a dozen run clubs in the city and you just I've probably talked to 200 providers in the last. We started this technically and we say 1-1-21. Right, doesn't really feel like it, but we've I've probably had have met 200 or more complementary providers in health, fitness and wellness in the region there's so many options and there's many people, there's a lot of support available.

Speaker 1: 29:18

So our whole goal is always to help somebody get the support that they need in whatever area of that health, fitness and wellness. I want to say go see Will, go see Melissa, go see these people because they can help with X, y and Z for you.

Speaker 3: 29:34

Right? Well, do one thing for me before we wrap up, or two things rather, it's not burpees, is it Okay? We could do a contest, but they have to move the cameras. So who's somebody we need to talk to, who's somebody you've met out there that's been impressive, or is somebody that's shaping the future? And another one is obviously to tell people how they can find you guys, where you're located specifically, and your website and all that fun stuff, so they can come in here and book an appointment.

Speaker 2: 30:04

Right after listening to this episode. You can find us online wwwmetafitrxcom. Everything is listed on our website, but you can fill out consultation forms. We do 15-minute consultations, so if you have questions, you want to learn more about what you do, what we do, um, we can do that, and I want to say there's so many people I'm going to say well, I was going to say the place we're going tomorrow too, but anyway, to self-made.

Speaker 1: 30:27

yeah, self-made is great. Also the reason I was going to say endorphin fitness and Michael Harlow. There's a community pillar here. What Michael's doing is what is a massive part of the solution to what we mentioned about the obesity epidemic? Yes, work with kids. Live Red Foundation he works with kids. The answer to all of this-.

Speaker 2: 30:50

Is prevention.

Speaker 1: 30:51

Is prevention right? So knowing before the diabetes, before the heart disease, before the stroke, before the fatty liver, and having active values instilled in kids is the only solution to all of this. That if you were to give me one thing to do, it would be that the youth is where we have to make the impact foundation and what they do highly. I mean just it's the, the, the model idea of how we need to be approaching, helping get kids, get active. They train. Here's a top five youth triathlon team in a while.

Speaker 2: 31:28

He has an amazing facility, amazing facility or pool where they can. Our indoor, not pool, but it's like this tiny little pool that yeah they can do your swim analysis in. It's a very, very cool facility and Live.

Speaker 1: 31:38

Red helps to bring those services to kids that generally wouldn't have that opportunity. Right, that's the big point, yeah.

Speaker 2: 31:47

Yeah, that's a good one.

Speaker 1: 31:48

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 31:49

Anybody else?

Speaker 2: 31:52

Oh, I was saying, so we're going to self-made tomorrow. I like that because I was a personal trainer for 10, 15 years, with kind of nowhere to go when we lived in DC. In order to personal train somewhere, you had to be an employee somewhere, so it wasn't very friendly for personal trainers who were starting their own business for independent trainers, whereas that's what this whole facility is about Very cool, so that an independent trainer is supporting entrepreneurs so you can go have your own business, but use this insane facility, this awesome facility.

Speaker 3: 32:21

Hairdressers have been doing this for years, exactly so the fact that it took this long to catch on.

Speaker 2: 32:25

So I thought that was just a really cool way to support other people in that business, because now they can come run their business out of your facility.

Speaker 1: 32:32

Edgar Gonzalez is the one that owns that, and we know Sierra Morris, Ty Tuan Williams.

Speaker 2: 32:36

We know a lot of people.

Speaker 1: 32:38

April Morris has a business there, edgar Gonzalez is the one that owns that and we know Sierra Morris.

Speaker 2: 32:41

Ty Tuan Williams. We know Ty, we know a lot of people. Yeah, April Morris has a business there, makisa has a business in there and they have little offices where a bunch of people have their own businesses.

Speaker 1: 32:48

So it was a very cool idea, very community-oriented and very entrepreneur-oriented. Yeah, really nice facility, yeah.

Speaker 3: 32:50

Well, thanks for sitting down with me. Let's not wait two years to do this again, when you guys have some updates. Give us a call and we'll get you on. This is really great. I think what you guys are doing are making a big impact on people's lives and I'm glad that we can tell these stories.

Speaker 1: 33:03

I appreciate it. Thanks Will.

Speaker 3: 33:05

This was America's Healthiest City. On Channel RVA, Check out channelrvacom or americashealthiestcitycom to catch full episodes of this show. Go way back to our episode one from 2023 and hop on. Leave an ideas on our ideas board. We're trying to make Richmond and the entire region the healthiest in America by 2033. It is a community partnership. It takes all of us working together to make it happen. Join us on our next episode. I think it's going to be episode 87. So thank you.