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Podcast: Fitness Rocks

Summary

If you are looking for the latest on medical research and how they relate to the average person’s life Fitness Rocks is a good podcast to subscribe. Even as a retired physician Dr. Monte Ladner still has patients he replies to via podcast or blog.  The use of a podcast is good for people like doctors, business advisors, cooks, or any occupation that requires technical skills.  Dr. Ladner speaks on many serious health issues and gives the audience different ways to prevent from being at risk in many of today’s illnesses.   

When listening to Fitness Rocks I learn that Dr. Ladner enjoys medicine and helping other people learn how fascinating the human body is.  He speaks with excitement and energy when talking about a curable diseases and ways we can prevent risky lifestyles.  He has recorded 138 episodes releasing them on a weekly bases from his home studio.    He shut down his social network site and forum due to not having enough time to respond to all the comments and questions.  Which leads me to think that Dr. Ladner is over exceeding his expectations of what his podcast could do.  

Dr. Ladner is now producing the podcast into short video series that reveal trainers doing the actual workouts so that paid subscribers could see them.  Starting from audio podcaster with a blog the former physician is now moving to video podcasting production to increase his content and also monetize his business model.  

This is a true evolution from his earlier episodes about “Lifestyle and the risk of stroke”, “Anti-aging science” to “Trusting the data on drugs” and now full video clips of people doing actual workouts.  By tapping into the fitness market and providing practical health tips for all ages, genre, athletic ability, and genders he opens a broader base of listeners.  

Review

The Fitness Rocks podcast has a introduction that starts with a woman saying “you are listening to  fitness rocks” then begins with a short segment of music.  The introduction gives you a energetic awakening since the title of the podcast has the word rock in it.  Then you hear Dr. Ladner speak on the latest news and what he has been working on since the last episode.  He normally talks about what is going on with current research on health and science.  When he speaks of these recent developments he doesn’t just mention them he explains what are some of the causes of the sickness or health concerns then provides a remedy.

The theme of the show is healthy living and personal fitness.  His fitness tips are simple and can be done without a large group.  In critic he could make the fitness tips more detailed for different athlete’s but then that would take away the general health approach he takes his with his podcast.  It would require too much time to speak about every benefit and details in each exercise if he did that on every podcast show.  Instead Ladner gives the listener short workout descriptions that can fit into his other discussions of good health.  The next best solution for a podcaster like Fitness Rocks is to do a paid subscription with video footage of the various exercises.  He has captured a large audience and now he would be wise to follow up with a video podcast for a small fee and keep the audio podcast for free.

When a podcast is giving the listener tips on how to eat, workout and enjoy a stress free life then the listener has to be entertained and kept alert.  The topics alone are not enough to keep people interested. Instead you have to engage the people who are concerned and commenting with you.  By having a open discussion about comments, emails or open questions you give the listener a sense of joining a bigger world.  Dr. Ladner does this when he answers questions on his show for previous listeners or comments made on his blog.  The ability to respond to concerns people have and answer it in a way that helps others learn more is a good tool when organizing a show for outside participation and feedback.  This is good when having a guest host come in to answer questions on “money”, “relationships” or “health issues”.  Fitness Rocks does an excellent job with responding to his listeners but can he do the same with watchers and should he maintain his audio podcast for free?