🏥💪 A Certified First in Medical Fitness: How One YMCA is Reshaping Community Health

🎙️ In the latest episode of the Medical Fitness Podcast, we sat down with Veronica Lopez, RN, Vice President of Health Strategies at the YMCA of Greater Brandywine—the first YMCA in the country to become Medical Fitness Association certified.

Hosted by David Flench, President and CEO of the MFA, this episode is a playbook for any organization looking to elevate their impact, credibility, and partnerships in the health continuum.

What you'll learn:

🔹 How a vision became reality: Veronica explains how her team took a bold idea—positioning the Y as a legitimate healthcare ally—and executed it across nine branches.

🔹 Behind the scenes of MFA certification: From culture shifts and weekly task-force meetings to scoring a 97+ on the audit, this is the blueprint for making medical fitness real in a community setting.

🔹 Why now?: With healthcare access gaps, transportation deserts, and chronic disease on the rise, the Y leaned in—not away—and created solutions like the Fit Truk, a mobile fitness and screening center.

🔹 What’s next? “Prescribe the Y” is launching soon, powered by encrypted EHR and real clinical referrals. Their team of certified professionals (mostly NASM) is trained, connected, and ready.

🔹 Key takeaways for leaders:

Don’t wait for the perfect time—start with your “why.”

Create cross-functional teams and track progress visually (think: red-yellow-green dashboards).

Certification isn’t about checking a box—it’s about credibility, partnerships, and long-term sustainability.

A certified facility gets a real seat at the healthcare table.

Whether you’re in healthcare, fitness, public health, or community leadership, this episode shows what’s possible when standards meet passion—and when strategy meets service.

👇 Tag a clinician, YMCA leader, or fitness professional who needs to hear this.

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🎙️ NEW EPISODE ALERT: “From Policy to Pavement: Building a Physically Active Nation” 💪🗽

In this powerful new episode of the Medical Fitness Podcast, co-hosts Jeff Young (MRF Institute) and David Flench (Medical Fitness Association) sit down with Greg Mihailovich, National Advocacy Consultant for the American Heart Association, to break down what it really takes to make physical activity a national priority.

🔥 We’re not just talking about guidelines — we’re talking about action:
✅ How the AHA pushes for policy, system, and environmental change
✅ The origin and evolution of the Physical Activity Alliance
✅ The inside story behind the launch of the New York Moves Coalition
✅ The challenges and equity issues in state-level planning
✅ Lessons from success stories in NYC, Michigan, and West Virginia

🎯 Whether you're a healthcare provider, policymaker, fitness professional, or someone fighting for a healthier future in your community — this episode shows how advocacy and collaboration can drive measurable change.

📣 “You can’t just tell people to move more. You have to create the conditions that make movement possible — and sustainable.”

👂 Tune in to learn how we’re scaling the blueprint for a movement-friendly nation. From state coalitions to national campaigns like “It’s Time to Move,” this conversation lays out what’s working, what’s scalable, and why your voice matters.

🎧 Available now on all podcast platforms.

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🎙️ NEW EPISODE: When PT Ends, What’s Next? A Physiatrist’s Answer to the Follow-Through Problem

Dr. Sarae Jandreau is not your average physician. A Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, athlete, and former assistant strength coach, she’s now a newly minted physiatrist with a mission: bridge the disconnect between therapy, medicine, and fitness.

This episode is a masterclass in what can happen when a physician is trained in the science of exercise before they ever wear a white coat. Sarae gets it — the underdosing, the communication breakdowns, the passive referrals that never go anywhere. She’s not just treating back pain, she’s addressing the root cause and planning for what the patient’s body should look like 20 years from now.

We dig into:
🔹 What physiatry is — and why it’s uniquely positioned to bridge medicine, rehab, and fitness
🔹 How Sarae plans to use intake forms and lifestyle screening tools (like ACLM’s Epic integration) to prime patients for behavior change
🔹 What really happens when therapy “didn’t work” — and why that phrase should always prompt follow-up questions
🔹 Why physicians need to vet fitness pros — and how most clinicians don’t know how
🔹 What true collaboration across specialties should look like — not just in theory, but in practice

Physicians: if you’ve ever felt like you’re sending patients into a black hole after discharge... this one’s for you.
Fitness professionals: if you want to earn the trust of clinicians... listen closely to how Sarae evaluates potential collaborators.

The field is changing. We need more doctors like Sarae — who speak the language of strength, who understand dosing, and who aren’t afraid to teach, question, and collaborate.

Connect with Dr. Jandreau: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarae-sager-jandreau-do-cscs/

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