THE STORIES BEHIND THE NEWS

Advocacy Beyond Politics

How HFA's collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Association positions exercise as essential healthcare.

BY CHELSEA KLINE, SENIOR ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, HEALTH POLICY, ALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION, & MIKE GOSCINSKI, HFA CHIEF OF STAFF

When most people think about advocacy, they think about legislation, regulations, or meetings with elected officials. At the Health & Fitness Association, influencing public policy will always remain central to our mission to protect, promote, and grow the health and fitness industry.

Some of the most meaningful advocacy happens long before a bill is introduced or a regulation is drafted. It happens by bringing the health and fitness industry into conversations that shape how public health organizations and healthcare leaders, researchers, and employers understand the role of exercise in improving health.

This is why HFA has partnered with the Alzheimer’s Association through its Brain Health Roundtable.

These relationships are significant. They reflect a broader strategy to ensure the health and fitness industry is recognized not simply for providing places people go to exercise but also as an essential, community-based partner in preventing disease, improving quality of life, and advancing public health.

As the evidence supporting physical activity continues to grow, so does the opportunity for our industry to help shape the future of healthcare.

The Science Is Clear: Movement Protects the Brain

Last summer, the Alzheimer’s Association announced findings from the landmark US POINTER study, one of the largest clinical trials to examine whether lifestyle interventions can help protect cognitive health in older adults at increased risk of cognitive decline.

Published in JAMA, the study found that participants who engaged in structured lifestyle interventions, including regular physical activity, healthy nutrition, cognitive engagement, social interaction, and cardiovascular health management, experienced measurable improvements in cognitive function over two years. Importantly, participants following the more structured intervention, which emphasized consistent aerobic exercise alongside strength and flexibility training, demonstrated even greater improvements than those receiving a self-guided approach.

While no single intervention is a silver bullet, the message is unmistakable. Physical activity is a foundational component of lifelong brain health. For the industry, that conclusion is both validating and inspiring.

Exercise is not simply about building stronger muscles or improving cardiovascular fitness. It supports healthier brains, healthier aging, and better quality of life. Increasingly, it is being recognized as an essential part of preventive healthcare.

As the evidence supporting physical activity continues to grow, so does the opportunity for our industry to help shape the future of healthcare.

Why Collaboration Matters

This is where advocacy extends beyond traditional policymaking. HFA’s engagement with the Alzheimer’s Association’s Brain Health Roundtable demonstrates that some of the industry’s most important advocacy happens through collaboration. By working alongside healthcare organizations, researchers, clinicians, and employers, as well as public health leaders, HFA helps ensure that the voice of the health and fitness industry is represented where important conversations about prevention, healthy aging, and chronic disease are taking place.

These collaborations accomplish something legislation alone cannot.

They elevate physical activity within conversations that have historically focused on clinical care. They help healthcare leaders better understand the infrastructure that already exists within communities across the country. They also reinforce that health clubs, studios, and fitness professionals are uniquely positioned to help people build and sustain healthier lifestyles.

Every day, millions of Americans walk through the doors of health and fitness facilities. No other community-based network engages so many people so consistently around healthy behavior. That reach makes our industry an indispensable partner in improving public health.

By working alongside healthcare organizations, researchers, clinicians, and employers, as well as public health leaders, HFA helps ensure that the voice of the health and fitness industry is represented where important conversations about prevention, healthy aging, and chronic disease are taking place.

Building Understanding Before Building Policy

Successful advocacy doesn’t always begin with asking policymakers to pass a bill. Often, it begins by building understanding.

Before healthcare systems integrate exercise into care pathways, before insurers consider new models of prevention, and before policymakers develop legislation that expands access to physical activity, there must first be broad recognition that exercise is an essential component of health. Organizations like the Alzheimer’s Association play an important role in shaping that understanding.

By aligning with respected leaders in brain health, HFA is helping ensure the industry’s perspective is represented as new research is translated into public health recommendations and future healthcare strategies. These collaborations build credibility, foster trust, and create opportunities to demonstrate how community-based fitness can improve health outcomes at scale.

That credibility benefits every segment of the industry.

Advancing HFA’s Mission

HFA’s mission is to protect, promote, and grow the health and fitness industry:

• Protecting the industry means ensuring decision-makers understand the role health clubs and fitness professionals play in improving health outcomes.

• Promoting the industry means demonstrating its value to society.

• Growing the industry means creating greater awareness among healthcare organizations, employers, insurers, policymakers, and the public that exercise is an evidence-based intervention that belongs within the broader healthcare ecosystem.

Our work with the Alzheimer’s Association reflects each of those priorities.

It positions the industry as a trusted partner in one of healthcare’s most important conversations. It strengthens relationships with an organization that influences public health policy and clinical practice. It also helps build a future where community-based fitness is recognized as an essential part of improving both mental and physical health.

A Message and Strategy We Control

The growing body of evidence surrounding physical activity and brain health represents more than an exciting scientific development. It represents:

• an opportunity to reshape perceptions;

• an opportunity to strengthen relationships across healthcare and public health; and

• an opportunity to ensure that the health and fitness industry is recognized for what it has always been: One of the nation’s most accessible, effective, and scalable resources for improving health.

Advocacy will always include working with legislators and regulators to advance policies that strengthen our industry. But advocacy is also about building relationships, contributing to scientific and public health conversations, and ensuring exercise has a seat at the table wherever the future of healthcare is being discussed.

That is advocacy beyond politics. By advancing exercise as essential healthcare, HFA and the industry can chart its own path to attain a more prominent role in public health policy.

Health & Fitness Business is a publication of

Health & Fitness Business (HFB) is the leading health and fitness industry publication. Published monthly by the Health & Fitness Association (HFA) and distributed free to the industry, HFB offers analysis of the opportunities, challenges, issues, and news that impact the industry.

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