Winning workplaces support their employees’ well-being, knowing that a happy staff is invested in shared success. Wellness programs offered through the workplace have the potential to provide a perk with whole-life benefit, and with Emmaus’s Life Advance Fitness, participants open up a world of fun and functionality. Owner Vince Wimberly explains how the Life Advance Fitness’s Corporate Wellness program works, and why.
...physical and mental health go hand in hand.
Exercise is for Everyone
Exercise is not just for athletic folks who have always made activity a particular hobby. “From my experience,” Wimberly says, “people these days are paying more attention to their health, and that physical and mental health go hand in hand.”
Employers who want to retain a healthy, effective workforce do well to acknowledge that stress leads to burnout. While stress can be a natural part of challenging work, giving the team an opportunity for release from that stress shows a consideration that contributes to morale.
Wimberly’s feedback has reflected a boost in self-value and workplace atmosphere. “Having another common ground,” he says, “transfers to the workplace. If your employees are feeling great about themselves and happy with their work environment, statistics show they’re going to perform better.”
At Life Advance, he works with young athletes pushing themselves to the limit right up to elders building strength and functionality into their 80s. Wherever individuals find themselves in life and activity level, if there’s an interest in pursuing greater health with his assistance, Wimberly is ready to meet them where they are.
The LAF Program
Many typical corporate wellness programs include membership to a local gym. While this free rein over the floor of dumbbells, power racks and other equipment is the perfect playground for some, Life Advance Fitness leans on its strengths to provide Corporate Wellness participants a small class setting.
Where motivation can otherwise present an uncertain ingredient, classes with direct assessment and instruction take away the onus of willpower and research. “It sets a standard for expectation and performance,” Wimberly says. “The engagement and atmosphere is motivating—they don’t have to rely on themselves to know what to do.”
Anyone who would rather attend from the comfort of home can patch in via Zoom through laptop or phone. “Not everybody is willing to be on camera,” Wimberly notes, “so it takes a little bit of persuasion to let me see them, but that helps me be able to correct their form.”
On an initial visit to the business he’s working with, Wimberly explains the program and distributes general information on diet and exercise that anyone can engage with on their own time, as their level of interest dictates, and he explains his philosophy.
Start a Habit
“I don’t want anyone coming in and feeling like they can’t do anything,” Wimberly says. The general exercise classes offered through his Corporate Wellness program explore equipment like kettlebells and dumbbells as well as resistance band exercises and bodyweight. Wimberly focuses on variations and modifications that make the moves accessible to anyone. Those on Zoom can grab a comparable object and follow along.
For some, these general classes could be the start of a familiarity with gym equipment and basic exercises that provides a launchpad to greater exploration. “One of the biggest things,” Wimberly says, “is I want everybody to be comfortable with going to a gym and exercising because they’ve used the weights or been introduced to circuit training.”
In addition to these classes provided gratis to participating employees, the Corporate Wellness program offers participants discounts on other classes involving cool things like battle ropes and tire flipping as well as a discount on personal training sessions.
Stronger Than Yesterday
One of Wimberly’s mottoes, “stronger than yesterday” focuses on the one-foot-in-front-of-the-other, short-term dedication that carries his clients from their first assessment to their greater long-term goals. “I focus on the functional approach,” he says. “I want you to move comfortably and successfully in daily life, in everyday activities, to be able to balance, take off your shoes one at a time without sitting down.” Living with less or no pain and greater ability is the new six-pack.
Wimberly aims to change the thought process behind workout and fitness. “We chase feeling good about our abilities regardless of where we’re at, understanding some of our goals are going to take time, and it’s OK. We’re still stronger than we were yesterday.”
If your work sees you or your employees sitting at a desk or laboring in ways that tax the body, continually putting off greater health goals, Life Advance Fitness could provide the impetus and opportunity to realize change with intentionality, follow-through and expert advice. “We try to get positivity flowing through,” Wimberly says. “We set ourselves up for the straightest path possible.
Published as “Ask the Expert” in the September 2023 edition of Lehigh Valley Style magazine.
