Paul Szmal: It is 817 on FLX Morning here on Finger Lakes News Radio, and we are joined on Zoom by Laura Clary from the Auburn YMCA. Laura, good morning. How are you today?
Laura Clary: Good morning. I'm glad to be here and glad I'm dry right now and not on the ice.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, it is a little bit slick going this morning.
So we're just past the first of the year here, just into the month of February. So what is new with the Auburn YMCA?
Laura Clary: So we are pretty excited right now for some changes that we're going through. In the health and wellness department, we just recently launched our EVOLT 360 bioimpedance piece of equipment. It's a body scanning piece of equipment, medical grade. What this provides members and non-members alike is a full scan of where you are holding on to your body fat.
So we talk about, you know, you can grab the sides of your waist and maybe you feel that little pinch. So that type of fat is the subcutaneous fat. While it's unhealthy to have an abundance of that, the more dangerous one is your visceral fat, the fat that you can't grab. It hangs out around the organs and can lead to numerous health issues. So this system you get on and in 60 seconds, we can give you 40 plus measurements of what's going on internally.
The biggest factor that we really focus on and appreciate of this machine is the body wellness index. So it's giving you an overall gauge of really how healthy your body is. And then also we like to see the age, the bio age, and ideally we want to function at our own age or maybe a little younger. And this will show that also. It also segments down into throughout the body. So maybe you're retaining water in an unhealthy way that might be of an alarm. So we can print this off. We can hand it to you and you can share with your medical provider if something is off.
We're going to use it in some corporations. We can customize packages where we can really tap into some employee wellness programs because we can transport this piece of equipment or leave it in house and you come visit us. So there's a lot of bonuses in this piece of equipment. There's another one on the market, which a lot of people might be familiar with called InBody, but we went with this company due to a lot of other reasons. So we're just really excited to bring it to the Auburn community and the Auburn YMCA.
Paul Szmal: Now was this a planned purchase by the Auburn YMCA? Was there grant money involved to make this possible?
Laura Clary: So yes, at the end of the year, the board of directors recognized that we needed to do some upgrading, I'll say, in how we approach our wellness. For example, we've had for a few years now the blood pressure machine that you can come in and do blood pressure readings, plus we have a blood pressure self-monitoring program to help with that. So I have been fighting for a few years for this type of equipment because I think it just helps complete a whole package.
So for all ages, we've had some 95-year-olds get on it all the way to the 20-somethings. And it's not just for the bodybuilder, it just reads a lot. The DEXA scan that a lot of people are familiar with when it comes to scans, that's the top, top scan. And then there are medical ones that you get into a pod with the water and CT scans and things like that that can really get into, but the medical cost of that. So this is just an amazing tool that will support if there's something else going on or support someone's health journey.
So we're using it in that aspect right now. The first scan is just your baseline. And then we kind of really talk to you how to prepare your body and what to do over the next four to six weeks before coming in. And then we will tackle things from then on, working with our trainers. And well, we have four of us that are considered master trainers with this piece of equipment because we had to make sure that we know what we're talking about.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Laura Clary from the Auburn YMCA here on Finger Lakes Newsradio and FLX Morning. I would not have thought of going to a YMCA and being able to get this kind of data and then to be able to develop an exercise and a diet plan that would help to change the results of what it is that I just got.
Laura Clary: Yeah. Yeah. So that's what's the exciting thing is, you know, types of equipment like this tend to be in the studio type gyms. So we are expanding the Central New York Y Association also got one at the same time as us. And so they will, I'm not sure what branch they're going to have it housed at, but the same thing, they can transport it if needed.
And yeah, it's, you know, I'm not going to give you a specific nutrition plan. It does kick out, it's, you know, suggested a nutrition breakdown, but only a registered dietician should really be creating a nutrition plan. And so we do work with two organizations or companies that I would refer to if I saw something extreme to work with us on the, you know, wellness package. I like to just say it's, you know, it's about the whole picture. It's about your health journey. Everybody's is different. How your body responds to anything is different. So this really just becomes that individual data for us as trainers to look at you and then help you tweak it.
So like we say, is your, you know, the weight room people, are they really training efficiently? So this is going to show that are you really doing the work the right way?
Paul Szmal: So we've talked about a brand new piece of equipment that's at the Auburn YMCA, Laura, are there any new programs or new services that are available in the new year as well?
Laura Clary: So not necessarily new, new yet. We're doing a lot of changing in different areas in the aquatic department. They have people getting trained right now on another, I call it a toy, but it's actually a tool for some of their aqua fitness classes. It's called a BOGA fit board. So if you imagine the standup paddle boards a little bit wider, it will anchor into the pool and then we'll be able to provide Pilates, yoga, bootcamps, things with the water element and really challenging that core.
I always am promoting my Livestrong Cancer Survivor program. My next session will start in April and that's a process to onboard. So anybody who is either finishing up treatment or maybe you're in treatment and you've just been handed your cancer diagnosis, just reach out to me. It is an amazing 12 week program and there's no cost involved to be part of that program. We always have our swim lessons going on and our childcare is booming. We have a toddler class and now in the infants, I believe are coming, but that's not my total world.
Paul Szmal: Totally understand. That's great that there are so many different programs that are available and some of these new additions and the new equipment, of course, are just going to make those programs that much better. If people want to become a member of the Auburn YMCA, how do they go about doing that, Laura?
Laura Clary: You can go online and get involved with us or you can contact anybody at our wellness desk. The best thing is we are working with three different insurance providers and again, I would mess it up if I tried saying it, but it's really been helpful with members being able to either submit for reimbursement or get their memberships paid for.
So I would definitely contact Liz at our membership desk because we just try to make everything accessible. If our membership rates don't match your income or your budget, we can help you there. But working with the insurance companies has been key in really helping some individuals get to us.
Paul Szmal: Well, Laura, thanks so much for the update. Appreciate you coming on and joining us this morning and stay safe out there.
Laura Clary: Yes. Thank you very much.
Paul Szmal: It is 826 on FLX Morning. I'm going to take the last four minutes to get into our meeting and we'll see you in a little bit. Thanks.
