Gravity Haus connects people who see the world as an incredible playground. We help the planet by traveling, recreating and growing with others while and learning along the way. We believe if we’re enhancing your active lifestyle, one experience at a time, then we’re doing it right. Community first, everything else will follow. Get to know the faces behind the Gravity Haus community!
GRAVITY HAUS MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
MEET: CRAIG BETTIS
Lessons on saving lives and living with purpose.
Retired Vail Police Department commander Craig Bettis calls on Gravity Haus to work and train hard.
Did you know 50 percent of first responders have a diagnosed sleep disorder? Or that 40 percent are obese? Police officers are 25 times more likely to die from a heart attack than in the line of duty. And the average civilian life expectancy is 79. But for first responders, it’s only 57.
The statistics are staggering.
Retired Vail Police Department commander Craig Bettis is on a mission to change these numbers. The Sigma Tactical Wellness Director of Development and avid Gravity Haus member — you may recognize him from Vail Starter Haus and Dryland — met Dr. Ben Stone while working out at Vail Mountain Lodge (now Gravity Haus Vail) and struck up a conversation.
Bettis and Stone partnered up and created a wellness program to assist first responders — a career Bettis says comes with baked-in levels of high stress, poor eating habits and disrupted sleep.
“When one of my officers had a heart attack after his shift and died at home, it rocked my world and I realized I needed to give my staff everything I can for their health,” Bettis says.
Bettis and Stone joined forces with Dr. John Sheinberg, a cardiologist from Austin, TX, and launched Sigma Tactical Wellness in 2017. The program now works with 300 agencies across the U.S., serving more than 10,000 firefighters, dispatchers, police officers and others.
It takes about an hour and 15 minutes to run through the program’s testing. The comprehensive physical includes an artery ultrasound, extensive bloodwork and advanced lipid panels along with a stress test and addresses diabetes, obesity, cardiac concerns and stress management. The end result: A 20-page full dietary and fitness plan.
The number one killer for first responders is cardiac illness. “People dismiss it as just part of the job,” Bettis says.
It makes sense. First responders are constantly reaching for the wrong type of foods and drinks to offset tiredness from long shifts and overnight shifts. “We eat high carbs and energy drinks and we’re under chronic stress, which over time builds plaque in our arteries three times faster than a civilian’s,” Bettis says.
Sigma Tactical Wellness is saving lives with its rigorous testing and Bettis, Stone and Sheinberg travel the country speaking at national first responder conferences to spread the word. Eventually, Bettis says, he’d like to see this service be government funded and offered as a free cardiac screening.
“I don’t think any first responder should have to pay for something that helps them stay alive,” he says. “This is why I put all my energy into this. If I can have an impact, help them through this career, then that to me is everything.”
Get to know Gravity Haus member Craig Bettis better:
Q. Your favorite ways to mitigate stress?
A. Hitting the Dryland gym and weight training and cardio is a huge stress reliever for me. There’s a lot of science behind the cardiovascular and circulatory benefits of contrast therapy — using the hot tub and sauna followed by cold tanking. I do that religiously and I love that Gravity Haus realizes this health benefit.
Q. Where do you find inspiration?
A. Sparks are easy to find in what we do. There’s not a week that goes by where we don’t get an email from a department thanking us for changing lives. We hear success stories from first responders who — had he kept going the way he was going — would have been dead in six months.
Q. What do you love about Gravity Haus?
A. The community. Being a member lets me socialize with people that I wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to socialize with. I ski all winter, mountain bike and dirt bike in the summer. I love having that connection to like-minded people.
Q. Quote you live by?
A. “You begin saving the world by saving one person at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.” — Charles Bukowski
Q. What’s on your nightstand right now?
A. Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami
Q. Three things you can’t live without?
A. My wife and kids. Fresh air, time outside with family.
