HEALTH & FITNESS

By A.J. Caliendo | Photos by David Pinchot

Florence Brown works out at the Cecil Senior Center.

The national YMCA reports that people 65 years and older are the organization's fastest growing membership category. In response, the Y, no doubt trying to prove that those letters represent more than just a weird wedding dance, has almost doubled the number of facilities offering its Older Adult Sports programs, featuring activities like arthritis aquatics classes, a swimming program designed to relieve some of the symptoms of the joint disease.

Personal trainer and massage therapist Joe Scandale of Washington says that in the 11 years he has been working in the health and fitness industry, his senior citizen clientele has grown tenfold. But unlike the Y, Scandale doesn't view the needs of his older clients only in terms of low-impact and light activity.

“I have a 60-year-old female client who is squatting 150 pounds,” Scandale said.

While not everyone over 55 years of age can boast that kind of strength, more seniors than ever are doing what they can to keep their weight down, gain or retain muscle tone, and keep the heart and lungs in good working order by adopting (and sticking with) a fitness regimen.

In South Fayette, the fitness center at the high school building has become a popular workout spot for some township seniors. Residents age 62 and older can use the facility free of charge. More information is available www.southfayette.org/athletics/fitness.

According to Scandale, while swimming and walking are all fine and good, his philosophy for a healthy senior lifestyle is not limited to those cardiovascular activities. He says that, as long as a person is in reasonably good health and his or her doctor has no objection, more vigorous forms of exercise can and should be included in a senior’s weekly regimen, including forms of strength training, such as weightlifting.

“If you don’t have medical or joint or leg problems, why shouldn’t you lift like a 30-year-old?” he said.

The benefits of regular exercise, Scandale says, are multiple. Along with helping to keep the heart and lungs healthy and strong, exercise can also help lower cholesterol, prevent high blood pressure and ease symptoms of depression and anxiety by working out daily stress and frustration instead of internalizing life’s little setbacks.

The National Institute on Aging agrees. On its website, the group that promotes senior well-being says that older citizens should engage in four types of exercise for maximum overall benefit - strength, such as weight lifting or elliptical machine training, balance, stretching and endurance exercises such as swimming, brisk walking, (they recommend level surfaces) gardening or cycling. The Institute also strongly advises warm-ups before and cool-downs after exercise to build gradually to the most vigorous activity and prevent muscle and joint injury.

Both the trainer and the Institute caution that everyone in the senior age category should check with a physician before starting a workout program. The doctor may want to do some tests to make sure there are no hidden risk factors. Once that is done, a qualified, personal trainer can set goals and pacing for a tailor-made fitness schedule.

“We usually start out with a cardiovascular thing to get the heart pumping,” Scandale said, “then we add weights.”

“The strength conditioning,” Scandale said, “is more important for older women than for men, because of the high right of osteoporosis after menopause.”

“The majority of my ladies are post-menopausal,” the trainer said of his personal clientele. “Strength training helps them to maintain bone density and muscle tone,” which helps women to stave off or minimize the effects of the bone disease, which causes bones to become porous, break more easily, and heal more slowly.

Also important to a safe exercise program are regular blood pressure and heart rate checks to determine the frequency, number of repetitions and amount of weight to be lifted. But what if those factors don’t accurately reflect a person’s tolerance for pumping iron?

“Your body will tell you when to back off,” Scandale assures timid would-be lifters. “If you don’t have the desire to do your program anymore, if your joints and muscles ache, you’re just not going to do it any more.”

All health industry experts who weighed in (pun intended) agree that a proper diet - minimizing or eliminating most of the good stuff we all crave such as sweets and red meat, cheeses and other fatty foods - is an essential compliment to any exercise regimen.

With average life expectancy in America at an all time high of almost 78 years, why not spend the extra time healthy, happy and active? •