Leelanau Wellness Collective hosts well-being summit

By Ross Boissoneau

Sun contributor

What does a summit look like? Well, two things: One, a gathering of like-minded individuals to learn about and discuss a topic. The other is the top of a mountain.

The two come together May 3 in Glen Arbor. The Leelanau Well-Being Summit will take place at and around The Homestead. Organizer Kat Palms says the event will include a vendor marketplace featuring local wellness brands, creatives, and makers, optional ticketed wellness classes led by regional practitioners, and a guided Bayview Trail Ruck with the Leelanau Ruck Club.

Oh, and that second definition of summit? That works too, as the event will include a champagne toast at the top of Bay Mountain, the resort’s ski hill, followed by an optional dinner at Nonna’s.

“It’s our sixth annual event for the collective,” Palms says. That’s the Leelanau Wellness Collective, a group of health and wellness practitioners engaged in yoga, qigong, art therapy, Reiki, meditation, physical therapy, exercise, Pilates and more.

“We’re bringing multiple dimensions together. It’s a full day.”

Palms says while previous have concentrated almost exclusively on meetings and presentations, this year includes more activities and engagement. “There’s less programming, people talking at you, and more one-on-one, classes … more intimate and purposeful,” she says.

Among the activities will be one of the currently hottest fitness workouts. Martin and Stacy Kimpston co-founded the Leelanau Ruck Club. Rucking is simply hiking with a weighted backpack or vest. It is one of the oldest, simplest and yet best exercises, good for cardiac health and building muscle.

“It’s new and yet old,” says Martin Kimpston, saying it has basically been around since humans first walked upright. The Kimpstons said they created the local ruck club in the wake of the pandemic, when outdoors activities became ever-more important, but their previous travels to large group-rucking events had become untenable.

The best thing about rucking is the fact anyone who can walk can do it. Kimpston says starting out with light weights or no weights at all makes it approachable for beginners, who can gradually begin adding weights.

He says that’s a key to success. “I’ll give one not-to: do not progress too fast. Take time adding weights,” he says. Another is to use the right equipment. While you can use any backpack and put any kind of weights in it, he says those backpacks made for the activity are more comfortable. The same is true of weighted vests.

Kimpston, a personal trainer by trade, will be leading the hike – ruck – along the trails at The Homestead, the Bay View Trail and the Heritage Trail. The 75-minute ruck will cover between two and a half and three miles.

Other activities and classes at the event include on-site sauna sessions and cold dips, guided Vinyasa yoga and Ayurveda in practice, which emphasizes good health and prevention of illness through lifestyle practices such as massage, meditation, yoga, diet and nutrition and the use of herbal remedies.

Among the sponsors of the event is Table Health. Dr. Jill Butryn, owner of the health practice, says her practice embraces the concepts espoused by the collective. “We support the Leelanau Wellness Collective and other wellness groups” that emphasize preventative and holistic health practices, she says.

Butryn believes that being pro-active when it comes to health is better than reacting when feeling ill. That can and does include the likes of nutrition, yoga, and other practices and remedies beyond those used in Western medicine. “Traditionally, physicians have not embraced the wellness community. We do. There are a lot of paths to health.

“When I was in med school, if it was not conventional, it was woo woo. As I got older, that did not make sense. The healthiest (people) are those getting the right sleep, movement, getting outside, (with) relationships and social interaction,” she says.

Rather than a traditional medical office that takes insurance and charges co-pays, Table Health relies on a membership model. Its medical providers, which include several doctors as well as a therapist, massage therapist and dietician, who all work with the patients – the members – to optimize their health as well as treating them when they are unwell.

Which again plays into the options offered by the Leelanau Wellness Collective, and those available at the summit. Palms says the day is designed to be spacious and flexible, allowing attendees to move at their own pace, with open hours in the morning and afternoon and a midday break for lunch and rest.

The summit is a ticketed event, and many of the classes and activities can be booked in advance. For more information, go to the-lwc.com and scroll down from Classes/Events to Well-Being Summit.