CLEVELAND — The American Heart Association recommends two and a half hours of physical activity each week for adults. At Cleveland Clinic, a 'smart gym' is inside the Langston Hughes Community Health & Education Center, ensuring their patients achieve that goal and more.
"If you just tell people to exercise more and more, but they don't have the physical literacy understanding or to know how to do or the resources, it's not helpful information," explained Dr. Matthew Kampert with the Clinic.
The 'smart gym' provides wrap-around care using Olympic quality equipment and free programing with the goal of improving the overall health and wellness of those in the Fairfax community and beyond.
"You will start off doing your assessment. So what that means is you are testing your range of motion as well as your strength," said Program Manager Chase Holmes, explaining the initial intake process.
The advanced technology was integrated into the facility in the fall of 2023, it allows for both the clients and their physicians to track their progress through the same system.
"So with the smart gym technology, that gives us a level of fitness," said Dr. Kampert. "So over time we can see how they build muscle and lose fat, and how their strength improves and their aerobic fitness improves. And all that data goes up to cloud."
Since its inception, the program has seen success. 22-year-old Jahiem Bryant began working out at the 'smart gym' a year ago, from the recommendation of Dr. Kampert, his physician.
"I was down like a deep hole, you know, I thought that I didn't have a problem, you know? And my problem was just junk food, you know, and not eating the right stuff," Bryant explained.
Since prioritizing his health and finding community within the gym, Bryant has loss over 30 pounds. Dr. Kampert expressed that while he’s proud of Bryant's weight loss, he's more impressed with his lifestyle change.
"What we did here was we created a safe exercise environment, and we work with our patients and our community members to educate and train them to become independent, exercise so that together we improve our communities, the health of our communities," said Dr. Kampert.
The 'smart gym' is located inside the Langston Hughes Community Health & Education Center at 2390 E 79th Street in Cleveland. For more information, click here.