An Alliance With Muscle

Michael Stack’s fitness journey began at age 15 when he was working at the front desk of a YMCA. Teased by schoolmates as “Fat Stack,” he found being in a gym environment to be revelatory.

“It was life-changing for me,” he says on a recent episode of HFA Pod, “Aligned in Movement: HFA’s & PAA’s Shared Mission for a More Active America.”

Stack went on to earn a BS in kinesiology and exercise science at the University of Michigan, then launched Applied Fitness Solutions, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. While building his business, he had another eye-opening experience that changed his path in the fitness world: the Covid pandemic.

During the pandemic, Michigan fitness facilities remained closed for months, prompting operators across the state to organize. Stack helped launch the Michigan Fitness Association to engage lawmakers and to advocate for reopening the industry.

While preparing testimony for Michigan representatives in support of legislation that included $53 million in relief funding for the state’s fitness businesses, Stack realized advocacy could create an impact far beyond what any single facility operator could achieve.

“I remember thinking, there’s no more impactful thing that I could be doing right now than this,” he recalls.

Although the final funding totaled $8.5 million rather than the proposed $53 million, the experience convinced Stack that industry voices could influence public policy.

From Fitness Professional to Public Health Advocate

Today, Stack serves as president of the Physical Activity Alliance (PAA), chairs Michigan Moves, and has become one of the fitness industry’s most recognizable voices for advocacy. His journey—from club operator to national advocate—offers an important lesson for health club and studio owners: Advocacy isn’t reserved for policy experts; it’s a leadership skill that every operator can develop.

Like many operators, Stack initially found advocacy intimidating. Walking into legislative offices for the first time was “scary,” he admits. He assumed lawmakers possessed expertise he didn’t have. Instead, he discovered the opposite.

“I realized that we were the experts on what we’re advocating for,” he says.

Stack credits collaboration with fellow operators, experienced lobbyists, and organizations like HFA for helping him gain confidence. Advocacy, he emphasizes, isn’t about having all the answers; it’s about sharing real-world expertise with decision-makers.

That momentum carried Stack into deeper involvement with HFA, including financial support for FitPAC, the industry’s political action committee, and into national leadership roles with PAA and Michigan Moves.

As PAA president, he points to two priorities: helping more states replicate Michigan’s model of translating the National Physical Activity Plan into actionable state-level frameworks and advancing PAA’s It’s Time to Move initiative, which aims to make physical activity assessment, prescription, and referral a standard part of healthcare, including work tied to Medicare and Medicaid benefit design for reimbursable exercise therapy.

His vision reflects a broader shift occurring throughout the industry—from simply operating gyms to becoming part of the nation’s healthcare solution.

“When I’m doing things for HFA or the Physical Activity Alliance or Michigan Moves, I am literally helping to raise all boats,” he says.

Throughout the podcast, Stack returns to a message for operators who don’t yet see themselves as advocates: Relationships, not policy credentials, are the real foundation of effective advocacy, and operators, simply by running their businesses, are already the experts that lawmakers need to hear from.

The episode, hosted by HFA Senior Advisor to Government Affairs Tom Richards, was released on June 11, 2026.