The body whispers: Why your health needs Wellness Hub, not just a gym

THERE is a particular kind of exhaustion that many Sabahans carry, a quiet heaviness that settles into the body long before any doctor diagnoses it as a disease. You can see it in the breathlessness that appears during a simple climb up the stairs at work. You can see it in the way young adults wake up with back pain in their 30s because the body is strained under long hours, stress and irregular sleep. We have normalized this exhaustion until the numbers began revealing what our bodies have been trying to tell us.

The latest National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2023 painted a clear picture of what is happening.

More than half of Malaysian adults, specifically 54.4%, are overweight or obese. Abdominal obesity affects 54.5%, which is worrying because it is the type most strongly linked to diabetes and heart disease. About one in three adults do not move enough and almost half lead sedentary lives, spending long hours sitting or lying down while awake. About 95% do not meet the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables. One in ten adults consume alcohol and almost half these drinkers consume it in a way that increases harm. Even sleep quality is affected. About 38% of adults sleep fewer than seven hours a night, a pattern linked to obesity, depression and poor metabolic control.

These are not statistics meant for conferences. They are the lived reality inside homes from Semporna to Kota Kinabalu. They explain why someone says “Cepat betul saya penat sekarang,” or why a dish tastes sweeter than it used to because sugar sensitivity is changing.

Sabah reflects the same concern. Adult obesity remains in the mid teen range, but the more alarming trend lies in the young. A total of 30.5% of Sabahan adolescents are already overweight or obese. This is the background that makes the Wellness Hub not merely a facility but a lifeline that many still do not realise exists.

The Wellness Hub is not a gym and it is not a premium studio. It is a national initiative under the Ministry of Health Malaysia and it is anchored within the Agenda Nasional Malaysia Sihat (ANMS). The idea is simple where healthy living should be free and accessible. The Hub sits within or beside Klinik Kesihatan and offers services many people assume exist only behind expensive membership counters.

And the cost remains the same for everyone. FREE.

More than 30 Wellness Hubs now operate across the country, with a national target of 81 by the year 2033. Wellness Hubs in Sabah are currently located in Putatan, Kudat, Lahad Datu and Keningau. If you walk into one of these hubs on a weekday morning, you will see what the Health White Paper has been calling for. It is a move from treating sickness to preventing it, long before disease grows heavy enough to disrupt a family’s life.

The clearest example of this shift appears as soon as someone enters the Hub for the first time. At a typical gym, the first conversation revolves around packages, preferred coaches or fitness goals. At the Wellness Hub, the first conversation begins with your own numbers. Your weight, blood pressure, body mass index, blood sugar, cholesterol, and mental health risk. These indicators are not meant to intimidate but to show how your body is coping and offer a starting point for change.

I spoke with Froline Pius, a Health Education Officer and Coordinator of the Wellness Hub in Putatan. She said “Many people come in thinking they are healthy, but once they see their own numbers, they realise the body has been whispering for help all along. It is not fear that changes them. It is finally understanding themselves” Someone who believed their constant tiredness was normal learns that their blood pressure is quietly rising. Someone who thought their glucose level was fine discovers they are already in the prediabetic range. The Wellness Hub does not expose risk and leave people feeling helpless. It catches them early and connects them to primary care in the same clinic so that proper follow up can begin immediately.

The structured programme called IFitEr adds another layer of support. IFitEr stands for I Fit and Eat Right. It is Malaysia’s national weight management programme and it blends weekly exercise, nutrition lessons, self monitoring and behaviour change strategies. In one cohort from a uniformed agency, more than 80 % achieved meaningful weight loss.

In Putatan, the IFitEr cycle usually runs for about 24 weeks (six months) and the change inside these groups is often greater than what numbers can show. People joined quietly at first because they are unsure if they can keep up. As the weeks move forward, the room grows warmer. Participants cheer for one another, arrive with new determination and sometimes bring their spouses along. Near the final sessions, the shift is clear. They compare their step counts, celebrate better stamina and smile when their sugar readings begin to improve. The friendships that form in the programme often continue long after the cycle ends.

People should also know that Klinik Kesihatan still provides routine screenings even in districts without a Wellness Hub. The difference is simply the layout. Clinics offer the core checks, but the Hub brings everything together in one dedicated space with organized activities and equipment.

The Wellness Hub is not limited to IFitEr participants. Anyone can walk in for screening, advice or guidance.

Some come because they feel unusually tired. Some want to understand their blood pressure or sugar levels. Others simply need someone to explain what their numbers mean or to exercise. The Hub even opens from 8am to 7pm in the evening on weekdays so that those working during the day still have a chance to seek support and exercise. The door is open for every individual who wants to take the first step.

Wellness is more than toned bodies or perfect photos. It stretches across physical, emotional, social, spiritual, intellectual, occupational, environmental and financial wellbeing. The Wellness Hub supports many of these at once through exercise sessions, health screenings, small group conversations, free services and simple lessons that make health feel achievable. The Hub also runs creative and resilience activities, community gardening through My Green Hands, health talks and senior support groups, and even trains local health ambassadors through the MyCHAMPION programme. These elements create a warm community environment that ordinary clinics cannot replicate.

This naturally leads to the question many people quietly ask. How does the Wellness Hub compare to gyms.

The honest answer is that they serve different purposes. Gyms offer equipment and structured training.

Many people thrive in that environment, and they should continue if it suits them. However, gyms do not screen for high blood pressure or prediabetes. They do not check cholesterol or mental wellbeing. They do not provide clinical referrals. For many families in Sabah, paying between RM80 to RM300 a month on gym membership fees is harder than people realize.

The Wellness Hub exists so that health does not depend on income. It fills the gap for those who cannot afford paid programmes. It complements rather than competes with gyms for those who want both. When someone walks into the Wellness Hub and later learns that their glucose has dropped or that their blood pressure has improved, they rarely feel fear. They feel relief. They finally understand what their body has been trying to say for years.

This is the heart of the Wellness Hub. It is not about perfect bodies but it is about giving ordinary Sabahans the chance to live long enough and well enough to see their children grow, to celebrate life’s milestones, to move without breathlessness and to reclaim the energy that daily life has quietly taken away.

If a free space already exists in Putatan, Kudat, Lahad Datu and Keningau where you can be screened, coached, supported and guided, the question is no longer whether you can afford wellness. The question is whether you are ready to step inside and begin again.

Footnote

Melvin Ebin Bondi is a PhD candidate in Public Health at Universiti Malaysia Sabah. He writes a weekly public health column for The Borneo Post.