Wellness Reimagined: Dr Ryan Greene of Monarch Athletic Club On 5 Things That Should Be Done To Improve and Reform The Health & Wellness Industry

An Interview With Maria Angelova

Build a low cost/high value insurance option based on objective and evidence based metrics. You pay for what you do (or do not do). Healthy living yields lower cost insurance coverage.

In our world of constant change, and with life moving faster than ever, topics such as mental health, self-care, and prevention have become popular buzzwords. People are looking to live healthier lives, and there is superb care out there that is being offered. At the same time, there are misconceptions about the meaning of self-care and exercise. Many opt for quick solutions — surgery, pills — to dull the problem without adequately addressing the underlying cause. Meanwhile, many parts of the industry are unregulated and oversaturated. People with years of training are competing with people with weekend training. Many providers are overworked, overwhelmed, and underpaid. The general public is not educated about asking the right questions when selecting a wellness provider. In the face of all this, what can be done to correct the status quo? In this interview series, we are seeking to hear from a variety of leaders in the health and wellness industries who agree that the wellness industry is in need of an overhaul and offer suggestions about what can be done moving forward. As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Dr. Ryan Greene, DO, MS.

Dr. Greene is an osteopathic physician (D.O.) specializing in human performance, sports medicine, nutrition, and the most cutting-edge recovery methods available. Dr. Greene’s principal belief is that integration of a constantly collaborative, holistic, and evidence-based practice amongst health and wellness practitioners is crucial for an individual’s sustained success.

Prior to co-founding Monarch Athletic Club, Dr. Greene earned his Master’s of Science (M.S.) degree in Exercise Physiology, Immunology, and Human Nutrition at University of Illinois (Urbana/Champaign). He completed post-graduate medical training at Dartmouth and The Mayo Clinic in which he collaborated with a wide array of leading medical experts, culminating in numerous published research efforts.

Thank you so much for doing this interview. It is an honor. Our readers would love to learn more about you and your personal background. Can you please share your personal backstory? What has brought you to this point in your life?

Growing up as a caddy, I was fortunate to carry hundreds of golf bags for hours at a time in the hot sun discussing the intricacies of many different professions. The only field that resonated with me from those discussions was medicine. Helping people in their worst moments to heal and return to the “best” versions of themselves.

When deciding on my future career path as a medical student, surgery made the most sense, as being able to work with my hands and fix problems visually presented before me felt like the greatest contribution I could make in the world of medicine. Beyond that, working with the world’s best athletes and higher performers resonated with how I too operate as an individual. I was not a world-class athlete but being able to sit back and watch the best perform in front of a global audience and know I made a positive impact in their ability to compete brought a smile to my face.

Sadly, once I was immersed in my residency, I quickly recognized that my impact, if I were to stay working within a hospital system, would not yield the impact I had dreamed of. In fact, most people I wanted to work with would do all they could to avoid going to the hospital and working with me whatsoever. In that moment, a crisis of conscience ensued and every hour spent in this medical pursuit was questioned. Why have I done all I had done to get here, and now, am faced with the reality that it’s nothing like I thought it would be?

While serving as a Sports Medicine Clinical Research Fellow at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, I spent a weekend at The Mall of America. In this dark period, as I refer to it, where I was aimless, disheartened, and unsure of what my next step would be, inspiration struck.

The idea for Monarch Athletic Club was born from people-watching, observing the fact that people will gladly spend time and money at a place that literally “has it all.”

I compared that moment with what I had seen in the traditional health system, with the complexity and disjointedness of navigating a personal health journey causing huge logistical headaches.

Why couldn’t an individual show up to just one facility and be guided through a program of movement, preventative medicine, physical therapy, and nutrition that would yield meaningful and sustainable health improvement?

To make something like that work, convenience and efficiency are key because consumers crave it, evidenced by the continued success of Amazon, Walmart, and Costco.

Translating to health, the majority of our population does not have time to coordinate multiple visits at multiple facilities multiple times per week, thus most just choose to try and exercise somewhat regularly and hope that will improve their health and quality of life. But, we have enough data now to show that it is insufficient and ineffective. Monarch, and the Monarch system, offers all one could need in an unlimited capacity to optimize their health outcomes.

Ultimately, the health and wellness landscape needs to progress to offer a “why” to incentivize people to change — and looking good and feeling good, unfortunately, does move the needle for most.

Thus, I am hopeful that a comprehensive, data-driven system like Monarch, in addition to a shift by the insurance landscape and healthcare system to preventative or performance-based care (like the car insurance model), will allow people the opportunity to reclaim their health and also benefit financially from doing so.

What is your “why” behind the work that you do? What fuels you?

As many health practitioners will tell you, the work we do now is draining. People who go into medicine want to help others and yet, the majority of what we do now is driven by financial interest and constrained by what insurance will or will not allow. The practice of medicine is no longer an art but more of a rubric that intelligent people have to try to follow or be penalized.

This new medical model is draining, disheartening, and driving great and intelligent practitioners to burnout. Beyond that, the inherent distrust in the medical system is leading people away from opportunities to reclaim their health and vibrancy- to truly live a beautiful life as witnessed in Blue Zones around the world.

What drives me is the belief that if we can reclaim our most valuable asset, our health, we can start to rebuild not only ourselves but the communities and countries we live in. People that are healthy, happy and vibrant have no need to create conflict and would rather enjoy the freedom they have gained by being able to do what they want, when they want for as long as they want to do it.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting new projects you are working on now?

The Monarch Athletic Club brick and mortar concept has survived and thrived in a pandemic (we opened January 6, 2020 — an interesting anniversary to say the least) and are continuing to expand as the demand for our revolutionary yet simple concept is growing in markets all over the country.

Beyond that, we have identified the need for upheaval in the virtual space by recreating our model to be accessible by anyone, anywhere in the U.S. in hopes we can offer a sustainable and effective offering to people in areas that our brick and mortar concept has yet to open.

Finally, in accordance with our belief that the only way to effectively introduce change and sustainable healing for an individual is to pay attention to all aspects of our health, Monarch Mind is a mental health concept we are looking forward to launch and integrate into the model that will allow for effective and evidence based mental health treatments to augment an individual’s program (including ketamine and other modalities such as MDMA/Psychedelic assisted therapy, as it is legalized).

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I don’t know if it’s laugh out loud funny, but naively as we launched, I assumed people would be ravenous for more health data in guiding their health improvement program. I quickly learned people are going to show up when and how they wish to a training session, medical visit or physical therapy session and we have to adapt to best suit a person where they are at. If that means someone only eats tan foods or will never eat a vegetable, how do we navigate that situation? Or if a patient/member is an entertainer and they work all night — how do we mold their program to fit the unique lifestyles present in the Los Angeles area.

OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the core focus of our interview. From where you stand, why are you passionate about the topic of Reimagining The Health and Wellness industries? Can you explain what you mean with a story or an example?

As a passionate health enthusiast, I have spent decades working on building the best version of myself, mentally physically, and emotionally. As I look around and see more fitness concepts, gyms, and workout ideas than ever in human history, and yet, worsening health outcomes every year, I’m amazed at how people can continue to assume if we just improve how we exercise that we will solve all our problems. Similarly, there are more connected wearables and opportunities to measure lab data in the comfort of our home, yet those entities ignore the importance of aspects beyond their scope. In a sense, we are so focused on our single verticals succeeding that we fail to appreciate the human body is an integrated organism and if we do not focus on all aspects of health, we will continue spinning our wheels.

I have plenty of experience advising for groups that are making progress in certain sectors (which is absolutely necessary), yet I know from experience at Monarch, that if people cannot make their health journey easy and understandable, and in some sense nearly effortless (meaning all you have to do is show up), we will not make much progress and continue to descend in deeper depths of health disparity.

Personally, I am tired of focusing on funding rare disease research when the most obvious low hanging fruit to improve upon (literally 4 trillion dollars of spending annually in the U.S.) is getting people moving, eating better, maintaining healthy body weight, and connecting with other human beings in a meaningful way. We have proven the concept works with Monarch and are ready to expand this success to anyone, anywhere.

When I talk about Reimagining the Wellness industry, I am talking about reimagining it from the perspective of the providers as well as from the perspective of the recipients and patients. Can you share a few reasons why the status quo is not working for both providers and patients?

As I have discussed, the current health offerings available are reactive not proactive. Focusing on fitness alone and ignoring sleep, nutrition, hydration, metabolic health and community connection must be addressed in concert if we are to make any improvement.

From a provider perspective, we are at a critical juncture with shortages across the board in all professions because the purpose behind what we do and how we do it is being stripped away in the name of profitability. We will truly hit critical mass shortly if we can not provide opportunities for not only patients but providers alike if all desire to participate in the healthcare field is lost. Most physicians would discourage the younger generation from pursuing a career in medicine and I know similar sentiment is felt in other fields.

We are grateful the Monarch model is not only effective for the patient but also offers a place to practice for providers that invigorates the passion that led to a career in their field in the first place.

Why do you think there is a good opportunity now to improve and reform the health and wellness industry?

To put it simply, our country and healthcare system can not afford to carry 4T in annual spending for conditions that are lifestyle-associated and preventable. Insurance costs for the average American has increased nearly 250% since 2000 (even with ACA) and the system will collapse if people stop paying for insurance they can not afford, yet hospitals can not turn them away from care but are forced to cover the cost of care.

Can you please share your “5 Things That Should Be Done To Improve and Reform The Health & Wellness Industry”? Please share an example or story for each if you can.

• Incentivize Healthy Behavior: Everything in human nature is reward driven. Achieving high quality health will require people to have a reason to stick with a program. Feeling and looking good does not move the needle yet.
• Build in validated health programs that are supported and rewarded by/for the employer: We spend the overwhelming majority of our lives acquiring resources for our livelihood from our employer. Workplace wellness programs that are not only validated but effective should be sponsored by the insurance industry as well as the employer.
• Improve funding for access to healthy food and activity in our schools: Many of our behaviors are established in high school and college or even earlier. Providing resources for higher quality food and wellness education/implementation at the adolescent level will decrease disease burden as we age.
• Reduce cost and increase access for lab testing: Patients should be able to get regular lab work without significant cost or pushback from primary care or institutional lab testing companies. If we cannot understand how our system is functioning we will allow for small problems to metastasize into costly and difficult-to-treat issues.
• Build a low cost/high value insurance option based on objective and evidence based metrics. You pay for what you do (or do not do). Healthy living yields lower cost insurance coverage.

From the recipient and patient side of the industry, can you please share a few ways that patients and recipients should reimagine what the wellness and healthcare industry should provide?

Patients should seek integrated, multidisciplinary health concepts. Programs that understand the foundational aspects of health and empower an individual to access and practice all components consistently.

Look to what has already worked, such as the Blue Zone model. It is not hard and yet incredibly effective.

Quick fixes will never be sustainable. Appreciate regression happens twice as fast as progression so anything meaningful takes time.

And finally, high quality healthcare does not necessarily require significant cost. You need to have some skin in the game, but spending more does not mean better.

What do you think are the biggest roadblocks to reforming the industry? What can be done to address those hurdles?

There is a belief that achieving high quality healthcare requires significant cost. That is not true. The other aspect is the belief that insurance companies will not support a model in which proactive, value based care exists. I would argue that by providing a basic model that incentivizes basic healthcare practices (movement, sleep, body weight, diabetes/cardiovascular disease risk) that are attainable by anyone, regardless of socioeconomic background, will not only lower cost for the individual, but also be more profitable for the insurance providers as their costs for carrying coverage will likely decrease (analogy would be safe-driver discount program for car insurance).

I’m very passionate about the topic of proactive versus reactive self-care and healthcare. What do you think can be done to shift the industries towards a proactive healthcare approach? How can we shift the self-care mindset for consumers and providers alike?

We have to show people and industry alike that until someone is viscerally incentivized to pay attention to their health (financial incentive/insurance cost incentive/brand partner gamification), that we will make no progress. Human beings, since the beginning of time, have always done things to get things. Trying to get someone to stay healthy when their costs (insurance and otherwise) are only going to increase because they got one year older or had a family, will yield no improvement.

Thank you for all that great insight! Let’s start wrapping up. Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why does that resonate with you so much?

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished — Lao Tzu

There is no such thing as a quick fix when it comes to preventive/proactive health. If we want to be healthy, if we want our communities to be healthy, we have to do healthy things consistently, nearly every day, for the rest of our lives.

This is such a monumental seeming change in our mindsets of instant gratification but nature works one way and we need to recognize that we are part of nature. Thus, we have to play the game and understand if we want people to change, we have to make it so mindless that, by not doing healthy behaviors, consistently the cost will be overwhelming.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them :-)

Anyone who has built a disruptive, landscape-changing concept such as Jeff Bezos or Mark Cuban. They already know the healthcare system is ripe for change and I feel confident we share a similar vision and can create magic if we put our minds together.

I appreciate your time and valuable contribution. One last question, how can people reach or follow you?

Instagram! @dr_greene_do

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you only continued success.

About The Interviewer: Maria Angelova, MBA is a disruptor, author, motivational speaker, body-mind expert, Pilates teacher and founder and CEO of Rebellious Intl. As a disruptor, Maria is on a mission to change the face of the wellness industry by shifting the self-care mindset for consumers and providers alike. As a mind-body coach, Maria’s superpower is alignment which helps clients create a strong body and a calm mind so they can live a life of freedom, happiness and fulfillment. Prior to founding Rebellious Intl, Maria was a Finance Director and a professional with 17+ years of progressive corporate experience in the Telecommunications, Finance, and Insurance industries. Born in Bulgaria, Maria moved to the United States in 1992. She graduated summa cum laude from both Georgia State University (MBA, Finance) and the University of Georgia (BBA, Finance). Maria’s favorite job is being a mom. Maria enjoys learning, coaching, creating authentic connections, working out, Latin dancing, traveling, and spending time with her tribe. To contact Maria, email her at angelova@rebellious-intl.com. To schedule a free consultation, click here.