Fitness at any age

I joined a gym.

Club 24 opened in Brookfield so Marge, Cookie and I decided that the price was right and we were willing and able to work out, aches and pains and all.

Club 24 offered us a $10 per month, no penalty for quitting opportunity. We could go as often as we wanted and they were advertising a Virtual Trainer, a video component to fitness that we can access whenever we want (24/7).

They also gave us a personal training session, one on one, to walk us through anything we have forgotten over the years. Joe, our personal trainer for the evening, started us on the bike stating that we should always start our sessions with 10 - 15 minutes of cardio. We huffed and puffed through 15 minutes and he then put us through the circuit, each set of 8 - 12 exercises repeated three times.We each received individual training, focusing on strength and mobility.  We were then on our own.

Our schedule is Monday at 7 pm, Wednesday at 7 pm and Saturday at 7 am. Easy to remember and consistency each week. The goal is to shame each other into always being able to work out. We do one day of cardio, either bike or elliptical, then the exercises we got from Joe, trying different machines and doing the basics, especially crunches and push ups. We became regulars I am proud to say and rarely missed a session.

Then we tried Karen, a virtual trainer, specializing in senior exercise.  Karen allowed us to enter a room with just the three of us and a life size screen that came down as we turned on the program. She starts us with leg raises, arm swings, step touches and some stretches. We add small weights, available in all sizes at the gym, the exercise ball for a variety in push ups and crunches, and we all brought out mats to finish up with many floor exercises. Karen offered three different videos, an easy 30 minute workout, a 45 minute workout and a mostly sitting video that the three of us modified to create strenuous workout.

We tried all of the videos, adding yoga with Jeff, a fun workout with Nick, who had better legs than we do, and worked our way up to Jack with his pretty assistant Stephanie. Stephanie would provide the modifications and Jack would work out so hard that he left puddles on the floor and the mat. We are mostly able to follow and keep up with Jack, modifying his moves as needed, including jumping jacks with one foot always on the floor, and we were able to include weights in our crunches, my now favorite exercise.

From these virtual trainers, we are reminded to breath, watch our posture alignment, and learn many new moves to assist in our daily improvements. Lyssa gave us a warrior yoga move that smoothly had us lifting weights into a fluid lunge and turn. I continue to do this move at home, both with and without the weights.