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How Wellness Completely Transforms Conferences with David T Stevens - E73
29 Plays29 days ago
You leave most conferences feeling exhausted, fried by information overload, and too drained to apply a single thing you learned. Fast schedules, poor sleep, junk food, endless sitting, and forced networking can turn even the best events into a slog, destroying focus, energy, and motivation for days afterward.
But what if the structure of these gatherings could actually boost your health, help you remember more, and leave you energized? This episode unpacks how simple shifts in environment and programming, built on real-world science and tested by an “Olympian” in event planning, can transform not just your conference experience, but your return on both health and learning.
David T. Stevens is a Harvard-certified Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness Coach, disrupting the meetings and hospitality industry through wellness-centered event strategy. As co-founder of Olympian Meeting and Club Ichi, he combines two decades of experiential design with science-backed wellness and sustainability. David helps top brands create gatherings that go beyond the ballroom, infusing purpose, social connection, and measurable well-being into every experience.
“You leave tired, you leave your inbox and you are both terribly inflamed, you're sleep deprived… your life is a mess when you leave a conference.” - David T Stevens
In this episode you will learn:
- Why most conferences leave people tired, inflamed, and sleep deprived, and how events can do better.
- How movement, good food options, and mindful schedules can help attendees learn, connect, and feel energized.
- Why programming for natural rhythms and offering agency in choices makes events more effective and inclusive.
- The impact of group movement on belonging, learning, and social connection at corporate events.
- How journaling and closing open loops helps transfer learning to long-term memory and encourages better sleep.
- Why holistic wellness, including movement, meals, meaning, and mindfulness, boosts business results and attendee well-being.
Resources
- Connect with David on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidtstevens/
- Listen to David’s podcast, ‘Return On Wellness’: https://tr.ee/5k2GT0rMNX
- Watch ‘Return On Wellness’ on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ReturnOnWellness
- Explore Olympian Meeting, a “wellness first” meetings and events agency: https://www.eventmarketingauthority.com/olympianmeeting
This podcast was produced by the team at Zapods Podcast Agency:
Find the products, practices, and routines discussed on the Alively website:
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Transcript
The Role of Sleep in Memory and Event Timing
00:00:00
Speaker
When you sleep, your brain converts short-term memory into long-term memory. And it also frees up space for short-term memory the next day. So if you want people to learn things at your conference, why would you keep them up until 1 a.m. drinking and then say, breakfast is at 7 a.m.?
00:00:20
Speaker
What are you doing?
Introduction to the Home of Healthspan Podcast
00:00:25
Speaker
This is the Home of Healthspan podcast, where we profile health and wellness role models, sharing their stories and the tools, practices, and routines they use to live a lively life.
00:00:38
Speaker
David, welcome to the Home of Healthspan. looking forward to a lively conversation. But before we jump in to everything you've done and are doing, how would you describe yourself? I would describe myself as a lively entrepreneur, speaker, and podcast host.
00:00:54
Speaker
Okay. That's a sound very similar in that respect to me as podcast host and entrepreneur.
David's Journey to Becoming the Fittest Event Professional
00:01:00
Speaker
But one thing you didn't include that would separate us is I believe you were the six time fittest male.
00:01:06
Speaker
Can you talk a little bit about that? Sure. Yeah. That's a, that's a self-proclaimed title. I took on myself. Uh, 2018, when the CrossFit open introduced occupational hashtags, I put hashtag event professional on there or event prof is what we use.
00:01:26
Speaker
And there was nobody on the leaderboard, male, female, no one, just me. So I said, oh, well, I guess I'm the fittest event professional in the world. And then 2019 came along, same story.
00:01:38
Speaker
There was a couple of women that showed up. And then as it grew, In 2022, there was a woman that actually was on a team who went to the CrossFit Games on her team.
00:01:52
Speaker
And that far exceeded anything I've ever done. So i had whittle it back down fittest male event professional because I still owned my portion of leaderboard. But unless some things change in the CrossFit world, don't.
00:02:08
Speaker
unofficially retired from competing in the open last year. So six, six and done. Okay. Well, congratulations. I mean, that there's a line of a different is better than better. so you know, the best way to, to create, to, to win is to create your own category.
00:02:26
Speaker
And that's, that's fantastic and innovative. Yeah. And, and that's what brought my focus to how broken our industry was. Yeah. So speak a
Event Industry's Neglect of Personal Well-Being
00:02:35
Speaker
little bit about that. So our industry, gives can you define for our listeners what you're referring to? Yeah. So I'm, I'm a event professional by trade. So I've spent the last 20 some odd years,
00:02:47
Speaker
planning, coordinating, executing various events across corporate America, association, entertainment, sports, et cetera. And one of the things I noticed is that we, for the most part, one, deprioritize our own well-being on a regular basis. It's people pleaser mentality and everyone comes before us. That's the only way that we feel validated.
00:03:10
Speaker
Um, that's a whole thing that we could dig into about trauma and that's for another time, but we, we also build events that don't support people.
Energizing Events vs Exhausting Conferences
00:03:19
Speaker
And when in late 2019, after I had my second consecutive title of self-proclamation, I had, I had brunch with my now co-founder and we were talking about why conferences are awful.
00:03:34
Speaker
Because you leave tired, you're in box, and you are both terribly inflamed. um You're sleep deprived. it's it's just every Your life is like a mess when you leave a conference. And so we we were talking about it. And at one point my career, I worked for 24 Hour Fitness in-house as their internal corporate meeting and incentive planner. So I planned all the internal events at 24 Hour Fitness in the corporate office.
00:04:05
Speaker
And those events were never exhausting. They were energizing. People left hyped. People left excited. People left with more energy than when they showed up with.
Personalized Event Catering for Health Goals
00:04:15
Speaker
But I also got to plan events where in the registration form, I can almost guarantee you've never seen this.
00:04:22
Speaker
I would ask people, are you in maintenance? Are you on a cut? Are you building? Et cetera, et cetera. Because we had to provide food for them. And I needed to know if Some guy who's, I don't know, 6'3", 250 is in a and a bulk.
00:04:38
Speaker
I can't order enough food for one person to represent that individual, let alone if I have someone on a cut, there better be egg whites and things of that nature because they're watching watching and tracking every gram, right?
00:04:51
Speaker
we would have a we We talked with our caterer about listing the macros on the labels. Right. It wasn't anything crazy, but it was intentional. And we had workouts every morning that if you didn't show up for, they were never mandatory. But if you didn't show up, you would hear about it.
00:05:08
Speaker
But they always, everyone was in there pushing each other in the right way to help each other get better. And I'm like, why can't regular events be
Integrating Wellness into Event Planning
00:05:15
Speaker
like that? Yeah. I mean, the fitness thing interesting because people think, why would I get up early to go do a workout? But when sleep deprived, fitness can actually offset some of the detriment from the night of poor sleep. Like actually working out helps when you have less sleep. So can I make a dose of creatine?
00:05:33
Speaker
yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go get 20 grams of creatine in you that will certainly help. So i I mean, I think about events and events I've gone to in the past, separate from Eudaimony. I don't know if you've been to Eudaimony, but I think they did and do a fantastic job with how they structure that. Like workouts in the morning, you have talks, you're moving around between healthy food options. Like it's all very good.
00:05:55
Speaker
But most events, like you said, if we go through the five pillars, You're sedentary all day. So i you can say I'm at a standing desk. I stand. I have a walking pad under me. I'm not used to sitting. So the idea of going to an event where you're sitting five plus hours during the day, like that's unnatural. It's not good for you.
00:06:12
Speaker
You're in conference rooms without natural light. So you're you're not getting on the circadian rhythm. That's all thrown off.
Olympian Meeting's Wellness Strategy
00:06:19
Speaker
The food, a lot of times, is crap. It's sandwiches, the cookies at breaks, like caffeine late in the afternoon.
00:06:25
Speaker
All these things that are jacking you up. Sleep deprived. the The one thing that I think may be good is the social connection because you're there with people and that's what you're investing in. Potentially, but maybe Maybe not maybe ah it's too calculated. you're You're thinking of it from a professional versus ah a deep connection aspect. But I can completely relate, I guess, to what you were saying earlier.
00:06:47
Speaker
is and was broken with events. And so I guess that's what inspired you with Olympian events. Can can you talk a little bit about what good, better, best looks like? Yeah. Yeah.
00:07:00
Speaker
So yeah, Olympian meeting is designed to leverage wellness as a strategy in corporate events. So eudaimony is great, but it's not a corporate event. It is it is a a wellness event, not a business event that uses wellness to make the event more effective.
00:07:19
Speaker
And that's our sweet spot is programming, programming, Alongside with, so we have a PhD that we partner with to ensure that the right speakers are happening at the right time in the day to accommodate for circadian rhythm and the the natural learning curve.
00:07:35
Speaker
What kind of ah offering a variety of movement classes so that you appeal to different people's interest in intensity because different people will be in different places, especially on day one, they might...
00:07:48
Speaker
They traveled from overseas or something. They might want to do yoga the first day just because they're still trying to get their circadian clock dialed in. Right. And then then day two, they might want to do a boot camp because that's what they like to do at home. But they just weren't feeling it the first day. Right.
00:08:02
Speaker
Ensuring the food isn't healthy only. If you tried to put grilled chicken and steamed broccoli only on a buffet line and that's all people had, that's no different from belonging standpoint than putting out only fried chicken and mac and cheese because it's it's it's exclusionary.
00:08:20
Speaker
So it's a yes and approach, ensuring that the people that want to make good choices or the choices that are right for them Back to like the 24 hour days, right? Like if I had people who are on bulks or had a ah refeed day, there better be donuts at breakfast because that's their sanity. That's their day, right? There better be French toast
Empowering Attendees with Food Choices
00:08:40
Speaker
or pancakes.
00:08:41
Speaker
It's not about removing things. It's about creating agency. So we jokingly say our company name is Olympian Meeting. When you hear the term Olympian, you think something very specific.
00:08:52
Speaker
And there's very few Olympians in the world. Our nickname is Om. And when you hear the word OM, you think something very different. And the beauty is between those two things, that's where attendee agency lives.
00:09:09
Speaker
And that's where the's the span of wellness, people are at different places. I'm obviously a little more on the Olympian side, you can tell. um I also went for a run this morning, so I'm still kind of sympathetic nervous system engaged. yeah um And my co-founder is very much on the own side of things, but we've done things where like a food break will have Cheetos next to carrot sticks.
00:09:31
Speaker
And it's intentional, right? Like someone sees those two things next to each other and like, oh, that's kind of funny. We'll put a fruit salad next to gummy bears. Things of that nature that just let people make their own choices yeah so that they can do what they want because we're not here to police people, but we are here to help people figure out what's right for them in that moment.
00:09:54
Speaker
And so our big thing, we talk about mindfulness, movement, meaning, and meals.
Health Pillars and Business Outcomes
00:09:59
Speaker
Those are our kind of four pillars um because all of those four things help fuel the three core measurements of health between physical health, mental health, and social health.
00:10:10
Speaker
And those things all impact the business in a positive way because a weird thing, it seems like it's a weird thing. We all know it. When they sleep well, when they eat well, when they connect well,
00:10:23
Speaker
They learn. They remember more information. And yet we program events to just run people into the ground. Content, content, content. Oh, we're not giving people enough content, so we're not providing value.
00:10:36
Speaker
There's more content on the Internet than there's ever been in the history of mankind. It's not about content. And then we're offering sessions and cutting our lunchtime in half.
00:10:47
Speaker
When social health is the single largest determinant of your physical health, and then we're depriving people of the opportunity to connect with each other. So that's really what we're trying to do. We're trying to rethink the way we bring people together so that they do leave energized instead of exhausted.
Mindful Event Planning for Enhanced Experience
00:11:05
Speaker
There's so many directions I want to take it from from all that. I do want to go back because you talked about your four pillars, but then you talked about a fifth that we have that was not in those four, and it is the the rest, the recovery, the sleep side.
00:11:18
Speaker
yeah What do you think it's by nailing these four, you are going to get better rest and recovery while there than otherwise? Yeah, I think.
00:11:29
Speaker
So when we talk about mindfulness, we're not necessarily thinking, of traditional meditation, we're thinking about being mindful of what you're expecting from the people attending your event.
00:11:43
Speaker
So being mindful of the ask of your participants. So that's where sleep comes in. That's where recovery comes in. That's where break session duration, all that stuff of pausing to think about what you're asking of people attending your event.
00:12:00
Speaker
If you're giving them inherent anxiety when they look at the agenda going, holy crap, there's so much for me to do, then you're defeating the purpose. And there is just a study in the events industry from a company called Freeman. They're a big exhibitor exhibit house.
00:12:16
Speaker
And people want less cognitive load when they go to events. They want more signage. They want to not feel like they're just running from thing to thing. And if you take care of people that way, it makes it easier to recharge people.
00:12:31
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, without a change in action, without a change in behavior, it's not truly learning, right? It's just, it's more knowledge, more accumulation consumption, but it's not learning in terms of implementation.
00:12:43
Speaker
And so going back to what is the purpose of this? So throwing on a bunch more content of, hey, we threw a bunch more at them, but they're also overwhelmed. I mean, there's so many conferences I've gone to and my advice constantly to people is just pick one thing.
00:12:57
Speaker
Because guess what? If you pick seven, you're not going to do any of them. So pick one thing And then this could return 10x, 20x on your time investment here if you actually see through that one thing. So I know you talk about return on wellness.
00:13:14
Speaker
What have you seen... in the event space with that for companies that
Wellness Focus and Participant Satisfaction
00:13:19
Speaker
yeah companies are spending money, they're losing time, the employees in the office to go send to these events. How do you get that return on wellness from the event? What what is that ROW for the business?
00:13:30
Speaker
So I've been at this for essentially two years on the, on the money. I'm enjoying my two year anniversary of this being full-time. congratulations We came up with a concept in 2019 and then we went into the pandemic and we We got time to both iterate on it, figure it out, as well as people as a whole and society as a whole changed how they viewed what wellness was and where it fell on their priorities, which has been great.
00:13:56
Speaker
But I was still an internal corporate planner at a high tech company. And I bench tested this with my own group. And that's how I knew this was special. So we took these four things. We did them.
00:14:09
Speaker
I had a lot of what I like to call trust equity at the company I was at. I'd been there for five years. So I didn't even really tell anyone what I was doing. I just experimented with a group of 500 people in Las Vegas, of all places.
00:14:21
Speaker
The KPIs made it so obvious. Our net promoter score went from an 84 to a 96. Wow. Wow. wow Because we just took care of people.
00:14:33
Speaker
We gave people the opportunity to connect with each other. We spend so much time online and in Zoom calls and whatnot that actually getting face-to-face time, we prioritize that. We shorten sessions.
00:14:44
Speaker
We did after parties because it's Vegas, but we put optional in the agenda so people knew they didn't have to go. We offered a variety of movement classes in the morning.
00:14:55
Speaker
We had... both great food and not so great food. And we leveraged people's postprandial dip, that lunchtime slump. Yeah, i was going to ask on the afternoon side.
00:15:06
Speaker
so that's So that's the clinical term for it. um We leveraged that time because we understand where people's brains are and their ability to learn into corporate social responsibility or team building things.
00:15:19
Speaker
Even OKR is still team building to give people a sense of meaning and connect them to something bigger than themselves. And on top of all of that, we we really tried to make sure that we gave people the opportunity to go to bed early, to sleep, because i I chatted with a sleep doctor because that's usually one of the big things we deprive people of at events.
Sleep's Role in Learning at Events
00:15:43
Speaker
And talking to your your fifth thing about sleep and recovery, when you sleep, your brain converts short-term memory into long-term memory.
00:15:53
Speaker
And it also frees up space for short-term memory the next day. So if you want people to learn things at your conference, why would you keep them up until 1 a.m. drinking and then say breakfast is at 7 a.m.?
00:16:11
Speaker
What are you doing? Because you think, hey, because they're here, we need to squeeze in as many hours of content as possible. But again, squeezing all the juice that's not going into a glass doesn't matter. like Yeah, you got a bunch of juice out, but it's all on the floor.
00:16:26
Speaker
so I'm going to share something with you. This was a funny chat GPT thing that happened. i I asked it to make an image of drinking from a fire hose. And...
00:16:39
Speaker
It created the image and I looked at it and I was like, I wanted something where like all the water and the cheeks were all big and full. It actually did the total opposite. It created this fire hose of stuff of the water all around this person, but not a single drop is actually going into their mouth, which is more realistic.
00:16:56
Speaker
And it was the most Freudian thing i had ever seen because I was like, actually that's dead on because when it's overwhelm,
00:17:07
Speaker
Like I'm a part of a volunteer organization and they have a terrible habit of clicking reply all. So I, I just don't ever read the emails anymore. I've given up.
00:17:20
Speaker
And that exactly is the thing. You look at the agenda. You're like, oh my God, there's so many things. I don't know. I guess I'll just go to what I go to. I think the other miss when people go to conferences is people don't set objectives.
00:17:33
Speaker
Back to what you were talking about earlier, the greatest thing you can do before you step foot onto a conference floor or even a meeting, you know, set
Setting Objectives for Conference Learning
00:17:44
Speaker
an objective. Why am I going?
00:17:45
Speaker
What am I looking to accomplish? What does success look like? Ask yourselves those questions and stick to that. I think back to the first event I planned, I was on the the planning committee for the international conference for the vacation rental management association and push them to do exactly And we, I think it was the best concert. We had a worksheet, everybody got a worksheet, the opening session, like, Hey, let's all sit through.
00:18:09
Speaker
what is it that I actually want to get out of this conference? Like, just pick one thing, think about it. And then what session will I go to help me on this? What actions am i going to take? What is the impact going to look? And then we did the same in the closing. i Like, Hey, now that you've had all this, go back to that original worksheet and then create a tactical work plan. What what does next week look like different? What does um the next month look like to just pick that one thing to see it through?
00:18:31
Speaker
Because otherwise you go and everybody thinks it's great. I mean, it I think this so many things. Like a mindset book or a rah-rah conference on mindset that you go to. And everybody's like, yeah, everything's great. And then next week, their life is the exact same because they didn't actually change anything. It feels good in the moment. You think it's great. And then you're like but what did I actually take away from this?
00:18:51
Speaker
You know, you did something else really important with that set, that follow-up session. So we were just at IMEX and we offered a, on the last day, we offered a forgetting curve journaling class.
00:19:04
Speaker
And I don't know if you're familiar with the forgetting curve. It's basically how quickly you forget things if you don't re-engage with content.
The Forgetting Curve and Content Retention
00:19:13
Speaker
Long story short, within 48 hours, if you don't re-engage with content, you're likely to forget up to 80% of what you experienced. experience
00:19:24
Speaker
Now, if you re-engage with that content within 48 hours, you are likely to remember 100% of that content. So two magical things happen when you give people the time and the space and possibly a third.
00:19:39
Speaker
I don't know that there's any information on this yet, but maybe if we find someone who wants to do a study, we'll do it. But the first one is by getting having people sit down and write down the sessions they went to, the meetings they had, the people they met, etc.
00:19:54
Speaker
Their perceived value is inherently going to go up because they're there in the moment and they are going to. understand if they accomplished their objective, what they did, and they're actually going to have something to be able to come back to the office.
00:20:08
Speaker
And if someone says, Hey, how was show? And they go, Oh, it was great. That's normally what people say. Now they can say, Oh, I met this person from so-and-so. I went to this session about blah, blah, blah. I learned this, that, that, that, like they can actually articulate that, which then provides value to the company as well.
00:20:26
Speaker
Right. That's spent, know, $26 on lunch just to get a sandwich and a soda because it was Vegas. But that's another conversation. The other thing is when they go home, that human being can actually be present because they've written everything down, all the tasks that they needed to work on, it's written down, it's taken care of.
00:20:46
Speaker
It's in a proverbial little box with a nice bow and sparkles and all the things, right? So there's this great book, the the organized mind. And so this is, this is something i learned that you're, you're saying similar to what you were talking about sleep of going from the short term to longterm. Like our short term is like ram Maybe we have 16 megs or 16 gigs, whatever it is, it is limited. But our long term is way bigger.
00:21:09
Speaker
And by writing it down, it frees up the cognitive load on that front end because our our brain says, hey, I don't have to keep reminding you of this and being worried you'll forget because you
Cognitive Loops and Sleep Quality
00:21:18
Speaker
physically went through writing it down.
00:21:20
Speaker
And so it's saved and it clears that up to to bring more in. So yeah, it's there's science behind this. Right. So then... You've been gone for three or four days, right? And your family and your loved ones and everyone wants to be all up in your business when you get home.
00:21:36
Speaker
You can actually be present for that. Yeah. Then the third thing, going back to what you were just talking about, this is the thing I said, maybe we'll get to do a study at some point is In theory, this should improve your sleep because you don't have open loops.
00:21:51
Speaker
And that's what keeps you up at night is having open loops, right? Your brain craves closed loops. So if you actually sit down to process that information, you're going home with closed loops and you're even if you did behave a little outside of your norm and stayed up a little later or got up earlier, whatever you very well might sleep better when you get home because you made that time.
00:22:13
Speaker
But conferences inherently don't build that time in. They make you have to find it yourself and then do it on your own. Which a lot of times are too exhausted. You're trying to catch out. like that There's less capacity to even do that on your own coming out of a conference than normal.
00:22:31
Speaker
can i Can I ask, because a lot of what we've touched on, especially some of the examples on 24-hour fitness, it's about creating a space and an environment and a culture that allows you to stay into a healthy routine you might already have. Hey, normally I like to do a book camp, et cetera.
00:22:52
Speaker
What is the opportunity or the responsibility or whatever you want to call it for events to help inspire change, right? Like conferences are about learning and taking away and changing something.
00:23:06
Speaker
Is there an opportunity, not just for professional content, but also because it's compounding, right? The healthier you are, the better you're going to implement the learnings, everything in the work environment. So how can event planners and events and the companies putting on these events think about how could we use these as nudges or triggers to maybe change their trajectory and once people get home in this realm of health?
00:23:29
Speaker
Yeah, I think... There's a couple ways that we can do this.
Group Workouts and Sense of Belonging
00:23:33
Speaker
um There was a Lululemon study that came out last year that said people who participate in group workouts felt an increase in belonging by like 21%. Literally i quoted this stat in a TED talk.
00:23:47
Speaker
That's massive, especially when 89% of the same survey respondents felt like they were pursuing wellness by themselves. So an event can theoretically take 21% off that 89% directly.
00:24:01
Speaker
That's the power and opportunity we have. Now, in order to do that responsibly and or to take advantage of that, We have to word things in a way that is appealing to people who may not otherwise be and interested in going. So it's little things of like, um, if you said, oh, we're going to CrossFit in the morning, then the CrossFitters are going to be like, hell yeah, let's go. And, but people who have always been curious about CrossFit are going to like, I don't think I'm in the shape to do CrossFit, but but bo but they'll him and ha.
00:24:33
Speaker
If you call it functional movement, it's a very different threshold, right? So that's one of the reasons we don't really call it fitness at most of our events. And that's why we call it movement.
00:24:44
Speaker
And we also try to offer a variety of intensity levels so that meets people where they are. So that's that's one thing. But yeah, you can do something that then triggers a relationship.
00:24:59
Speaker
66, if you saw the Strava study, 66% of Gen Z is making their new friends in group fitness classes. That's huge.
00:25:10
Speaker
So there's an opportunity for us to ah really forge new relationships because of this enhanced social connection that comes from group fitness.
00:25:22
Speaker
And by offering that, not only will you potentially trigger someone to have a life changing behavior or get them interested in something they haven't done before, That might happen because of who they met in there.
00:25:36
Speaker
And going back to the importance of social health, if they make a new friend at your conference, like a real meaningful friend, that's so valuable to people.
00:25:47
Speaker
And then let alone they're both into this new thing. are you going do this when you get home? there's There's a ah level of accountability there. And this thing perpetuates. And then they always think about your conference in a different way because they made friends. Now, here's the other thing.
00:26:02
Speaker
that nine times out of 10 is missing in movement classes at conferences, let alone a lot of times in the world. No one's explaining the value or physiological benefit of doing any particular class.
00:26:20
Speaker
And that's something that we do. I'll give you an example. So there's a book called Spark. I'm guessing, okay, your nod tells me you're familiar with it. And what it comes down to is every time we do a bodyweight bootcamp or a HIIT class or something that something of the higher intensity, I tell i ask everyone if they're prepared prepared to be smarter than everyone else at the conference that day.
00:26:41
Speaker
And they all kind of look at each other and they're like, what, what do you mean? And I said, well, here's what happens. And I break down the fact that if you get your heart rate above 80% of your max, of your max, you engage your sympathetic
High-Intensity Workouts and Brain Function
00:26:53
Speaker
nervous system. It turns on your hippocampus. It floods your brain with BDNF.
00:26:57
Speaker
The hippocampus is the learning center of the brain. Those effects are residual post-workout. So not only are you getting your post-burn of calories, but from your body temperature being elevated, but your brain is also primed for learning.
00:27:11
Speaker
And the vasodilation, I would think, right? Like the increased blood flow. Yeah. yeah it It just goes on and and on, right? Yeah. yeah yeah But when's the last time you heard anyone talk about the neurological benefits of puppy yoga?
00:27:25
Speaker
Have you ever heard anyone talk about that? Not specific. I will say with JJ Virgin, I mean, she was very good about that. Like, Hey, here's just this 10 minutes. Here's the impact they can have in this 20 minutes. And so she, she would be very good tying it all together, but right. The, it's the exception that shows the rule of basically no one else does this. just like, Oh, you go work out, but,
00:27:47
Speaker
I mean, it's the same. you You mentioned the creatine for sleep deprivation, right? Like everybody thinks, not everybody, but there's a huge portion thing. Oh, creatine. It's just those like gym bros.
00:27:58
Speaker
Like, no, I'm, I want my parents on like, it's a neurological benefits. It seemed way more exciting at this point. And so it's similar with exercise. it It's, it is the magic pill. Well, and, and it, if you explain to people,
00:28:12
Speaker
why, what their groggy butts are going to learn when they drug themselves there. It motivates them. And two, you can remind them of those benefits during the workout after they've gotten past the first, you know, the, the that like first, like five to 10 minute window of like, why did I do this?
00:28:30
Speaker
ah and And your heart rate has gone up and then they start pushing themselves and they leave with that elevated feeling and their friends and everybody high fived and blah, blah, blah.
Positive Experiences and Fitness Habits
00:28:43
Speaker
And, and, and they go, what? I did something good for myself today. i need to do that again tomorrow. Or I might take tomorrow off, but that feeling was amazing. I need to do that again soon.
00:28:54
Speaker
And that's how you can leave the impact by educating people specifically on why the activity they're doing is benefiting There's another benefit that maybe you even want to bake in or use, or you may already know, but you know, the the study Ellen Longer did with the cleaners at remingham Remington hotels back in the day where the one control group was just like, hey, you're cleaners, you're doing your thing. And the other is like, hey, did you know the level of activity between the mopping, the making the beds, cleaning? It meets the daily allowance and recommendation for
00:29:28
Speaker
movement. You're like, you're getting your exercise. That's the only thing changed. One group told that the other not. And what they found was the group that was told they lost three pounds more on average, their glucose levels went down, they had burned more calorie. And so it's unclear once they heard that, did they move a little more while they're doing it? Is it just purely psychological? it We don't really know why, but knowing what the benefits are can amplify the benefits themselves. So knowing going be smarter, then we'll make you even smarter knowing going in. So yeah. Yeah.
00:29:57
Speaker
Then you can get into the whole conversation around epigenetics. And I had a woman on my show. Her name is Dr. Kelly Harding. She wrote a book called The Rabbit Effect. I don't know if you've heard
Social Interactions and Health Benefits
00:30:09
Speaker
of it. um the Long story short, it's about the study from the 70s when they had genetically identical rabbits and they were feeding them a control diet and a high fat diet.
00:30:20
Speaker
And there was this subsection of the test group that was defying the results by 60%. And they're like, what is going on with these rabbits? It turned out it was because of the lab tech who had picked them up and cuddle them and pet them and love them. And it was just kindness that changed there their outcome so and or social health, right? So and mental health. It was kindness checks the box on both.
00:30:52
Speaker
Because when someone's kind to you, you feel different. and But that can impact your physical health. So I think it's your your brain is incredibly powerful thing. And that's why none of these things are siloed activities.
00:31:03
Speaker
Mental health is not this only thing and whatnot. Your physical health impacts your mental health. Your mental health impacts your physical health. And your social health impacts all three of those things and vice versa.
00:31:14
Speaker
So that's why we try to think about... wellness, incorporating wellness into events as a truly holistic model and not a box checking. Well, we did puppy yoga, so we did wellness.
00:31:28
Speaker
and No, you phoned it in. That's what you did. Well, David, this this has been phenomenal for anyone that wants to learn more, especially someone maybe planning events and and want to think about them differently.
00:31:39
Speaker
How do they get in touch with you, learn more about OM, et cetera? Yeah, they can find us on Olympian meeting.com. I'm on LinkedIn at David T as in Tango Stevens, um or you can check out our podcast and some of the guests we've had on all the platforms.
00:31:58
Speaker
It's called return on wellness. Fantastic. Well, David, thank you. Not just for today, but for the work in changing what wellness can mean at events, both from people leaving home and going there when they're there, but also what they take home with them.
Podcast Wrap-Up and Listener Appreciation
00:32:13
Speaker
It impacts the business and events are frigging expensive. So get your money's worth by taking care of people. Yeah. Well, thank you for everyone for joining us for this episode and i enjoy a lively day.
00:32:25
Speaker
Thank you for joining us on today's episode of the Home of Healthspan podcast. And remember, you can always find the products, practices and routines mentioned by today's guests, as well as many other healthspan role models on a lively dot com.
00:32:38
Speaker
Enjoy a lively day.