Joey Wahler (Host): It can help improve your quality of life. So, we're discussing the Capital Health Wellness Center. Our guest is Maria Fierszt. She's manager of Capital Health Wellness Center.

This is the Health Headlines podcast series from Capital Health. Thanks for joining us. I'm Joey Wahler. Hi there, Maria. Welcome.

Maria Fierszt: Hello. How are you? Thanks for having me.

Host: I'm good yourself?

Maria Fierszt: Doing great.

Host: Excellent. So, in this context, Maria, for those uninitiated, what exactly do we mean by wellness?

Maria Fierszt: So here at Capital Health, we have a wellness center that we provide exercise and education and activities to our employees, to patient populations and to our community around both hospitals.

Host: And so, what's the goal in terms of the wellness center overall?

Maria Fierszt: The goal is to support all of our clients, the ones that I just mentioned, and help them with improving their health and their wellbeing, giving them constant reminders, and giving them avenues to help increase their fitness and their activity levels and their overall wellness and health.

Host: And so, you do that through what services exactly?

Maria Fierszt: We offer classes and a lot of different types of activities. Some of our classes are specifically for our employees. We have some complimentary classes that are for our employees. And we have a good number of paid-for classes that are open to everybody, patients, employees, and our community members.

Host: And so, before we go any further, where is the wellness center located exactly? And what does it look like? What's the physical space like? 

Maria Fierszt: So, we are located physically in the Hopewell Hospital on the fourth floor. We share space with Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehab. So, our space does look like a fitness center, a gym if you will, small gym. We, the wellness center, during the course of the business day, do not use what looks like a gym area. That is for our Cardiac, Pulmonary, and Vascular Rehab patients. We have a studio and an education room, a really nice studio in this area, in the suite that we share. And we will have exercise classes or education classes in our classroom.

Host: And so, give us some examples, please, of some of the classes that are offered.

Maria Fierszt: So, we have a number of classes that are just for our employees. So, we have some complimentary classes for our employees really to help encourage them to move throughout the day. We have a 2:00 virtual stretch break for our entire organization every day on Zoom. We have complimentary classes at lunchtime at the Hopewell Campus at 12:00 and 12:30 on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. We do stretch breaks at different departments. So, we'll do a 10-minute stretch break at a department or at all departments that invite us. We do nutrition webinars monthly that are recorded so employees can access those even if they're not able to join live. We put them on our department page. So, they're recorded. And then, we'll do different monthly activities. Like we are just finishing up a Take The Stairs Contest for our employees, just encouraging them, if they're moving around the hospital to take the stairs. We're just going to start a walking program in May. And that's some of the things that we have just for our employees.

We also have classes that have a small price to them. And they're all different types of classes, like aerobic classes. We have a Latin dance class. We have yoga and tai chi, and basic strength training classes using dumbbells and other strength equipment. And then, we have classes that are for specific patient populations. So, we have a number of classes during each week for our cancer center patients that are complimentary to that patient population. We have classes for prenatal, postnatal, and pelvic floor classes for women. We also have a 12-week weight loss class that is a Sodexo-sponsored class. So, our dietician is a Sodexo employee. She leads a 12-week weight management class that also has sometimes a component of exercise with that. And then, we have popup classes at different times where we will just do a popup yoga class or something that might be something that we think is interesting to some small population that we might want to try something fun. But we actually do a lot of different types of classes.

Host: Wow. I was just going to say, it certainly sounds like there's something for everyone there. Let me ask you a couple of things about what you just mentioned. You said there's a virtual stretch break for employees on a regular basis. Sounds like kind of a takeoff on the baseball 7th inning stretch. What goes on during that time?

Maria Fierszt: Oh, I like that analogy. So, that is across the board for 6,000 plus employees. At 2:00 every day, Monday through Friday, they can join our stretch break wherever they are. Whether they're a nurse and at a nurse's station, they can put it up in their little area. It could be for folks that are in more sedentary jobs, and they can join from their desktop or from a phone in a break room and we'll do a little bit of movement, a little bit of type shoulder roll type things and hip hurdles and maybe some squats, and then basic stretching for 10 minutes. At our organization, we really want our people to take that break. It's a physical break, but it's also a mental break to step back from what you're doing, kind of clear your mind. It's good for the body, but it's also good for the mind, and I believe helps prevent mistakes, just by having kind of that little fresh restart in the middle of the afternoon.

Host: Absolutely. And how much do you think it helps with productivity as an employee to be involved in something like that, as well as comradery for that matter?

Maria Fierszt: Comradery, it's really interesting because people, they get excited and sometimes they'll put in the group chat like that multiple people are in a break room together and you can just kind of feel their sense of-- comradery is a great word, but there's a little bit of excitement and it brings people together. It's nice.

Host: Absolutely. So, who's eligible to participate in all these things? Or perhaps I should ask if there's anyone that's not?

Maria Fierszt: Everybody's able to participate in mostly everything unless like the cancer patient classes are strictly for our cancer patients. Obviously, the prenatal classes are for people that are pregnant. But most of all the other classes are open for everybody and we try to make the classes well-rounded enough that they're really not excluding anybody at any level.

Host: How about cost? You mentioned earlier, Maria, that some of these things are free, some do have a cost attached. Can you give people an idea of that Please. And of course, naturally, people always wonder if things like this might be covered by insurance as well.

Maria Fierszt: The classes are not covered by insurance. They range around $8 to $12 a class. So, we are part of the nonprofit part of the hospital. We try to provide these classes at a price where everybody can afford them. 

Host: Since you did discuss the virtual stretch breaks, along with that, are there any classes that are offered virtually for people that can't go in-person?

Maria Fierszt: We have a couple classes. For the most part, our classes are in-person. I had mentioned, the weight management class, the 12-week weight management class, right now, that is a virtual class. It meets twice a week for a half hour. We have some classes, like some yoga classes, that are offered both in-person and simultaneously virtually. But the majority of the classes are in-person.

Host: Okay. Couple of other things, Maria. First, since as you've said, there seems to be something for just about everyone. Let's say you're wondering what exactly is for you. Where do I start? Perhaps someone's been away from being active for a while, maybe they've never been very active and are looking to get started, what's step one in terms of heading down that road with you and yours? And what kind of guidance do you provide there?

Maria Fierszt: Anybody can reach out to us at any time. So they can reach out to us. Our email is wellnesscenter@capitalhealth.org, so that's the easiest way to reach out to either myself or someone here at the wellness center. And if they have specific questions about a class or they really don't know, they just want to start someplace and they want to talk to somebody about what we have to offer and where they are and what their goals are, we're happy to have a conversation with someone and give them some direction. That's very common.

Host: How about for those wondering how this might be different than joining a regular run-of-the-mill gym? I would imagine when it's associated with a hospital that that provides something of a different. From perspective and expertise, doesn't it?

Maria Fierszt: I would say, yes, we're a small group training, I would say. So, the class sizes are number of eight and less to our classes. All of our instructors have specific training to the classes that they provide. And also, everything that we use, all of our equipment is pristine. Meaning if there's a little cut in a mat that we have, we no longer keep that on the floor because we are a hospital. So, our setting is immaculate and our equipment is perfect. And that is definitely different from going to just a regular gym around the area.

Host: Nice to hear. So, germaphobes are welcome, yes?

Maria Fierszt: Right.

Host: That would be me, for instance. All right. So in summary here, Maria, what's your message to those joining us that are thinking, I might want to get started with this, but I'm just not sure it's for me. How do you kind of give them a little nudge to at least explore what's going on here?

Maria Fierszt: I always want people to think about putting themselves first and making themselves important. So planning, what are you going to do for yourself this next week as far as fitness? Put it in your calendar. Make you important, because we don't do that all the time. And some people feel that exercise maybe is something that they've never done or they don't have a good relationship with exercise, or they got out of the habit of exercising on a regular basis and don't really know how to get back into it. So, reaching out to us, we will assist with any kind of direction. A little bit of handholding we will do for sure, but help guide people to make some goals for themselves so that it becomes part of their routine that their exercise is important to their overall wellness  

Host: Well, folks, we trust you are now more familiar with the Capital Health Wellness Center. Again, Maria says, among other things, their equipment is pristine. Love to hear that. Maria, keep up the great work and thanks so much again.

Maria Fierszt: Thank you.

Host: And for more information or to register for an upcoming class, please call 609-303-4884, or as Maria mentioned, you can email at wellnesscenter@capitalhealth.org.

Now, if you found this podcast helpful, please do share it on your social media. I am Joey Wahler. Thanks so much again for being a part of the Health Headlines podcast series from Capital Health.