Optimal Aging

Not All People Over 50 Are Alike – With Dan Ritchie

• Jay Croft

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In this compelling follow-up to last week's conversation, Jay Croft is joined by Dan Ritchie, co-founder of the Functional Aging Institute, to explore the diversity within the over-50 fitness market. While most gyms target deconditioned older adults, Dan and Jay discuss the often-overlooked segment of active, high-performing individuals in this age group who still seek challenge, adventure, and high-level coaching.

They share practical strategies for fitness professionals to market to all older adults by showcasing a variety of real client stories — from someone wanting to hike glaciers in Patagonia, to another preparing to summit Mount Kilimanjaro. If you're in the fitness industry and you want to serve the full spectrum of people over 50, this conversation is a must-listen.

Guest: Dan Ritchie

Bio:
Dan Ritchie is the President and co-founder of the Functional Aging Institute and a former longtime gym owner. With decades of experience training older adults, Dan specializes in helping fitness professionals serve the unique needs of clients over 50 — from beginners to elite performers.

Main Topics Covered:

Not a One-Size-Fits-All Market

  • Why the over-50 demographic is more diverse than many gym owners realize
  • How to avoid alienating active older adults by assuming everyone is a beginner

The Power of Storytelling

  • How real-life client stories like summiting Kilimanjaro or traveling Europe inspire belief and action
  • Tips on using storytelling in marketing to connect with a variety of client types

Program Design for Every Fitness Level

  • Why you must scale programs for different abilities
  • The importance of making experienced clients feel seen and appropriately challenged

Marketing to the Advanced 50+ Client

  • What gym owners can do to attract fit, motivated clients over 50
  • Balancing welcoming beginner messaging with high-performance program offerings

Timestamps:

00:00 – The power of believing what's possible after 70
 01:00 – Jay introduces Part 2 with Dan Ritchie
 02:00 – Overview of Andrew's fitness question from last episode
 04:00 – Stats on low exercise rates over age 65
 05:30 – Why we need to speak to all fitness levels
 07:00 – Stories that resonate with high-performing older adults
 08:30 – Kilimanjaro, Patagonia, and client adventures
 10:00 – Fitness goals like golf, tennis, and pickleball
 13:00 – Making clients feel seen and supported
 16:00 – Jay's story about "Papillon" the grandfather
 18:00 – Creating a gym where everyone feels they belong
 20:00 – Reversing decline through consistent training
 21:00 – Lance's story: feeling better at 75 than at 65

🎤 Host: Jay Croft
Jay helps fitness professionals grow their businesses by better connecting with people over 50 through content marketing that works.

🌐 Podcast Website: https://primefitcontent.com

📬 Contact: jay@primefitcontent.com

📱 Instagram: @primefitcontent

💼 LinkedIn: Jay Croft

👍 Rate the show on Apple Podcasts
 📥 Contact us – jay@primefitcontent.com

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Speaker 1:

People see themselves in other people's stories and they go. Oh, maybe that could be true for me. Maybe I could go to the Galapagos Islands. I remember when Paula came in and she had already given up on her dream of going to the Galapagos Islands and I was like Paula. You know, joanne went when she was 80. And I said to her you're only 72, right, I mean, I approached it from you're so young at 72.

Speaker 1:

Of course she's thinking I'm so old, at 72. It's over for me. I can't go to the Gulf Coast Islands. I'm like she's like you think I can go. I'm like I don't think you can go, I know you can go, right, you know. So that sort of stuff is attractive for that new prospective client. They need to see what's possible, believe what's possible.

Speaker 2:

Hi everybody, welcome to Optimal Aging, the show for gym owners and other fitness and healthcare professionals who want to grow their businesses with more people over 50. I'm your host, jay Croft of Prime Fit Content, and I'm very excited about the episode today because it's part two, so to speak, of last week's episode. Last week I presented an interview I had with a friend of mine named Andrew, who's 69 years old, and asked a really interesting question about fitness over 50 at a book signing event that I had a couple of weeks ago. Andrew is not in the fitness industry. He's an ideal client for it. He's 69. He's retired, he has plenty of money, he's also in spectacular condition, and his question was about that. What can the fitness industry do for me and others like me, instead of just always focusing on slightly older people who are deconditioned and who might be intimidated to go to a gym, that kind of thing? It was a good question. I was happy to take it at the event and to talk about it with Andrew separately a little bit later in the episode that I shared last week.

Speaker 2:

Now for part two. I bring on Dan Ritchie, who is a longtime gym owner former longtime gym owner and the president and co-founder of the Functional Aging Institute, and we talked about this from his point of view as a fitness professional and mine from a storyteller and communicator. It was a very fruitful part too, and I'm excited to share it today. Interestingly to me, we talked a lot about understanding that the over 50 market is not monolithic. It's all kinds of people over 50, including a substantial minority that is fit and confident, and the other thing that pleased me was we kind of naturally ended up talking about how gym owners can and should present a diverse range of storytelling in their marketing content, which is, of course, near and dear to my heart.

Speaker 2:

So I hope you enjoy this part two with Dan Ritchie and if you missed last week, go back and check it out. It's really interesting. I usually have professionals of some sort in the fitness industry or related industries on the show, so it was illuminating to hear questions from a consumer. In any case, here's Dan and enjoy. So let's just do it. What do you think about that?

Speaker 1:

Well, I think, first of all, we have to honestly look at the statistics, and they're kind of daunting, right? Only about 15% of people over 65 are engaging in regular exercise. 15% of people over 65 are engaging in regular exercise. Now, part of that is we define exercise as certain things, right? So there might be more people that walk right, or they, you know, do certain activities but they're not really hitting the exercise criteria.

Speaker 1:

So when you're like only 15% of people are exercising, that leaves a huge pool to market to that 85% that a lot of them know they need to exercise but they are intimidated or they're fearful or they've had an injury, right? So I think a lot of fitness studios and gyms are right to target a lot of their marketing to hey, don't be intimidated, we got a place for you, we're safe, we'll be nice to you. You know all of these things that gyms should be doing anyway. But at the same time, make sure you make it clear that you do have programs for intermediate and advanced exercisers too, right? So it's not a one size fits all and it's not a hey, we're just for beginners, because, you know, a guy like Jay Croft might say, well, yeah, but I've been working out for several years. I don't want to be treated like I'm old right.

Speaker 1:

I want to be treated like age appropriate, but that I'm fit, and so I think, as long as you make it clear, hey, we have fitness trainers and professionals that can scale our programs five, six levels, right. Then you get a 70-year-old like I had one time. Lance came up to me and he's like Dan. I think you got me on the wrong program right.

Speaker 1:

What are you talking about? Right when he realized he was doing some of the same exercises NFL players do to prepare for the NFL Combine right, Because we had him at the highest functional level of challenge because he could do it. Now it took him a couple of years to get there. It's not where he started, right, but we were able to keep him as a client. I think he trained with us from about the age of 72 to the age of 80, eight years, right, but we didn't keep him on the same beginner 72-year-old program. When he came to us with an injury. We progressed him.

Speaker 2:

Right. So what kind of marketing messages do you think would be effective to someone like Andrew, who raised this question at my book event, understanding and I explained this to him that you know, unfortunately, the vast majority of people in this demographic are not regular exercis exercises, and so the bigger economic opportunity is there. But the point is really a good one that it's not a monolithic group. And so what can you do if you're a gym owner who wants to include or even focus on people like Andrew perhaps, who you know are a little older? I have a friend in Alaska who she's 71. She runs Ironman triathlons, she is on a hockey team, she rides those wide bicycle tire bikes in the snow in the wintertime, um, and she's, you know, she's not scared of anything. She'll do anything. So she travels a lot, she goes out of town, let's say she goes to minneapolis to visit her son or something, and and um, she wants to find a gym.

Speaker 2:

she's not going to silver sneakers right right, she would run screaming from that, uh, and she doesn't want you to hold her hand, but she does want a good experience for someone who is, you know, a little bit older. So what can a gym do to to make that clear without blowing its whole marketing plan?

Speaker 1:

well, you know, the first thing that comes to mind, jay, is to hire you hire you I know that's not the point of your podcast interview here, but get diverse stories.

Speaker 1:

And so the thing I thought about was your client who posed the question. If I put in front of him, you know, our 58-year-old Dr Summer who said I will come pay whatever it costs because I want to summit Mount Kilimanjaro with my daughter, right, that's the kind of thing he wants. Right, he's like that's what I want to do. Right, put in front of him clients that are doing these amazing adventures, not just put you know friendly older adult stuff.

Speaker 2:

Right, so we have to have a mix.

Speaker 1:

So I would share Joanne's story of I just want to go to the Galapagos Islands. So I would share Joanne's story of I just want to go to the Galapagos Islands and I'm 80, and I have Parkinson's. Well, that's not going to resonate with you, right? You're going to be like, oh, I'm not 80, and I don't have Parkinson's, but the Mount Kilimanjaro story and the fitness level you have to have to summit that, I want that level of fitness. So intersperse real people, real client stories, and you know this as well as anybody. You got to tell real stories of real people and then people see that and they go oh, I want that. That's attractive to me, right? I'm a 62-year-old male and I want to stay fit and strong forever. I saw that guy summit Mount Kilimanjaro. I had a couple they were 70 and 65, and they went to Patagonia to hike on the glaciers.

Speaker 2:

Nice.

Speaker 1:

And the story was fascinating because they're like our whole group had to get a special exemption from the country because they don't let people over 65 on the glaciers Wow, right. So National Geographic had to submit a letter to the National Park in Patagonia, like our whole tour is people over 65, right, that kind of story again. It attracts people who are like I want to be fit and healthy over 65 and hiking on the glaciers in Patagonia, right. So you have to have a mix of stories of beginners, stories of advanced, stories of intermediate, and then I just like all kinds of different programs. Right, you want to improve your pickleball performance. You want to improve programs? Right, you want to improve your pickleball performance. You want to improve your golf game. You want to improve your tennis game?

Speaker 1:

I know I'm already hitting people that are performers and want to be athletes and want to keep performing, so they're probably in the intermediate fitness level, but they realize my golf game's slipping. I can't move as well in the pickleball court as I used to. I can't move as well in the tennis court, so maybe these guys can help me, right. So you have to have a mix. I think that's the best thing is, have a variety and obviously, jay, you know this, writing so many stories of so many people across the fitness industry that if you put real people in front of people, real pictures, you know the whole before and after picture. I'm not big on the before picture, just tell the story of what they did, what they accomplished, right. So I think that really helps because then people see, oh, they have fitness programs for people that want to do crazy stuff like summit Mount Kilimanjaro or, you know, go explore Alaska or whatever it happens to be.

Speaker 2:

Hey, are you a fitness professional trying to grow your business with people over 50? If you are, then you need to know how to communicate with them, how to market to them and how to get them to trust you with their fitness, well-being and money. We're talking about millions of people who are a little older than the typical market that the fitness industry usually pursues. They have more money, more time and better motivation to make the best long-term fitness consumers you'll find anywhere. If you're not focusing on them, you should be.

Speaker 2:

Prime Fit Content is the only content marketing company designed specifically to help you engage people in this group and to help you distinguish yourself from competitors in your community. It's effective, affordable and super easy to use. Check it out at primefitcontentcom. That's prime like prime of your life fitcontentcom. Back to the show, right, and I guess we should say that this is relevant only if you want to pursue the whole range of people. If, however, your gym is devoted to deconditioned people who have never been in a gym in 40 years, then that's cool. That's a fine business model, but that's not what we're talking about.

Speaker 1:

It's fine. But if you do a good job, then in a year they're not going to be deconditioned, then they're going to be fit and they're going to be like oh, I can go do stuff now I can take. You know, we had Barb came to us and she's like I just want to keep traveling to Europe every year for as long as I can.

Speaker 1:

I mean she didn't really have a fitness goal, she just wanted to keep traveling. And so if we allowed her to do that, we wanted to share that story and, of course, encourage other people in their 70s like her, like, hey, if you start training with us, keep training with us, you too can keep going to Europe in your 70s. I mean, why not? And we know, if people have the aspiration to travel to Europe every year, they probably have some money to afford training to do it.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, and you know, beyond the marketing, once you get them in, you've got to provide the user experience that's appropriate for everyone, and some people need some welcoming overtures, perhaps as an excellent reminder for me. Excuse me, it's an excellent reminder for me and maybe for everybody listening that people over 50 or people over 65 or whatever whatever you're calling it, it's not a monolithic thing, right? So you focus your business plan on who you want to help, why you want to help them, and then how you can keep them around forever. Because, to your point, I want to climb Mount Kilimanjaro is awesome. But then you do it. And what do you do after that? Well, by then you've got them convinced that this is the way to live and that you can help them continue to live, whatever their next big goal is right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they're hooked. I mean, think of companies like Mercedes and OXO. Right, oxo was birthed out of let's make a better kitchen tool for someone with arthritis in their hands. But you know what Everybody likes the OXO kitchen tools, whether you have arthritis in your hands or not. Right? People in their 20s and 30s don't know why OXO was created, right? The same thing applies to gym service and personal training service.

Speaker 1:

Just because some people need a kinder gentler, you know, approach and beginning like non-intimidating doesn't mean that won't work for someone who's already fit.

Speaker 1:

Right, somebody who's already fit will be like, okay, you don't need to hold my hand, but it is nice that you know my name and you call me by name and you, you know, confirm my appointments and when I show up, you are kind to me, you know.

Speaker 1:

So, like, all of those things still work for the whole spectrum of like, I don't think super fit people are expecting well, I'll show up and you're going to be mean to me and it's like no, we're going to train you appropriately, you know, and it might be a lot harder, but we're still going to be kind and compassionate and generous and warm and welcoming and, you know, it's sort of that cheers mentality where everybody knows your name, everybody wants a place to belong.

Speaker 1:

The reality is, you want an appropriate place to belong. So I think the fit people are just saying, hey, wait a minute, I just want to make sure I'm going to be pushed hard enough, right? And so I always say for the personal trainer training a 60 year old, you got to be prepared for joint replacements to super fit marathon. You know ultra endurance athletes and everything in between, right. But all of those people still want to be known and they want to be seen and they want to be understood. And so that personal service you know, treating people the way they want to be treated applies regardless of fitness level.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I met a man at the same gym just yesterday. It's first time I'd seen him and I overheard him talking to some other people and then, of course, being a pushy reporter, I got myself in on the conversation because I liked what I overheard. This guy had just become a grandfather for the first time, and so the friends were asking him what is the child going to call you? And he said I settled on Papillon and then he pointed to a tattoo of a butterfly on his bicep and this guy cut quite a figure. He was really tall and stacked broad shoulders, major biceps. He was really tall and stacked broad shoulders, major biceps, white hair that looked like a special effect in the movie and just this huge smile and clearly very happy with life. So I said, pardon me, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation, tell me more. And so I got a story out of it. I'm going to talk to him some more and write about him for Prime Fit content.

Speaker 2:

This guy rides his bike everywhere. He goes to yoga every single day. I met him at the gym while he was lifting weights, and you know what a perfect customer for a gym, you know? And and this guy's only he's only 58 years old now he looks 58 as, despite being in magnificent condition, he's got white hair and wrinkles and everything. You know that there are plenty of gyms that would blow him off if he walked in wouldn't even look right yeah, yeah, especially if they weren't able to see his biceps, right?

Speaker 1:

if he just walked in and they're like, oh, who's, why is this gray-haired older man in our place? You know, so they would. They would see right past him. That that's the whole thing. If I think people want to be seen, they want to be known, they want to be understood. You know it's like just because he's 58 doesn't mean he doesn't have desires to be healthy and fit for the next gosh 30 years, right? I mean, he just had a grandchild born. I always think so. Was it a granddaughter or grandson? Do you remember Grandson? I mean, I always think, how fit do I have to be to dance at my granddaughter's wedding, right?

Speaker 1:

You know, his grandson is probably not going to get married for 25, 30 years, right? What's he going to look like, you know, at 83, 88 years old? Is he going to be, you know, fit and striding down the aisle at his grandson's wedding? Or is he going to be, you know, feeble and frail? And and I think if we talked to him, his dream would be to be fit and robust and, you know, having a party at his grandson's wedding someday, you know? So we've got to see people where they're at and understand them and not put them in a box or a category or any of those sorts of things.

Speaker 1:

So I think, typically too often, a lot of gyms and fitness centers, their outbound marketing, is very much for the beginner, right, which is the bulk of the market, right? Most people I mean our primary competitor is Netflix and TV and doing nothing right. But I do think if we share real people's stories, if we share our clients' success stories, if we share what our clients are doing right Like our clients are golfing four days a week back pain-free, hip pain-free that gets the 65-year-old who never thought about working out in the gym related to their golf game gets their attention right. I mean, it's like whoa, I would love to golf four or five days a week without hip pain or back pain. That's something so I'm big on and this is why I think, jay, you serve such a great need.

Speaker 1:

We got to tell clients stories. People see themselves in other people's stories and they go. Oh, maybe that could be true for me. Maybe I could go to the Galapagos Islands. I remember when Paula came in and she had already given up on her dream of going to the Galapagos Islands and I was like Paula. You know, joanne went when she was 80. And I said to her you're only 72, right, I mean, I approached it from you're so young at 72.

Speaker 1:

Of course she's thinking I'm so old at 72. It's over for me. I can't go to the Gopko silence. I'm like she's like you think I can go. I'm like I don't think you can go. I know you can go, right, you know. So that sort of stuff is attractive for that new prospective client. They need to see what's possible, believe what's possible. And then I think we just got to. We got to do a better job of taking care of people, right, you know, we got to do a better job of hearing oh, this guy just became a grandfather. He's got a whole bunch of new reasons to be in the gym, right, and to be doing yoga five days a week. I love it when I hear oh, I lift weights on the side because my regular routine is yoga seven days a week, right, I mean that's great. He obviously cares about his fitness and health.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I want to talk to him again and do a full article on him because, as striking as he is when you see him, he wasn't always that way. I believe until fairly recently he was, you know, a little deconditioned, maybe a little overweight. His hair hadn't turned white yet and I'm really interested in how you go from being kind of an ordinary 45 year old to this really striking almost 60 year old, yeah, but more of the daily yoga had and the gym visits and the biking everywhere you know.

Speaker 1:

he talked a lot about rebirth and, yeah, butterfly being his, his main motif and totally and those are great stories because I guarantee you, there are 55, 56-year-old men thinking, oh man, I've peaked, this is it for me. I can't get my health back. And then to hear someone like him go hey, I didn't get started until I was 55, or I don't know what age he started.

Speaker 1:

But I remember when Lance said at 75, he's like I feel better than I did at 65 or 70. This is the reverse of the way I thought it would be. Well, of course I mean if at 65, you're just declining, you're not exercising, At 70, you're going to feel worse. You expect 75 is going to feel even worse, and we completely flipped that on its head for Lance in a couple of years. And again, those are stories that all aspects of people need to hear, right.

Speaker 2:

Dan, thank you so much for making the time to talk to me. This was a quick request and you came through for me spectacularly, and so I thank you. I appreciate it and always good to talk to you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you too. Thanks for having me.

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Jay Croft

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