Fitness is Golden

Worried about your parents' health? There are ways to get - and keep - them active.

by SANDRA VALDEZ GERDES

Would you like your body to move the way it did when you were young - a little faster, straighter or without pain? What if you could get a parent, relative or elderly friend to exercise and feel stronger or live longer?

Research shows that exercise, even when done in a chair, can help older adults regain some of what they've lost during the years due to injury, illness and inactivity. In fact, many of the declines in fitness are due to lack of use and not just the normal aging process.

Sue Baker, 76, noticed after just a couple of weeks of working out with her daughter that she had increased her upper-body strength and no longer had trouble getting out of her garden bathtub.

"I've walked for years and I can leg wrestle anybody, but I'm a little wimpy in the upper body," said Baker, who, with her daughter, joined Curves for Women, 4343 N. Oracle Road, in March. "Through exercising I've strengthened those lifting muscles, and it makes a difference. You just don't realize what you lose if you don't use it."

According to Dr. Evan W. Kligman, a private practice family physician and geriatrician who specializes in longevity medicine and former co-director of the University of Arizona Center on Aging, a study at Hebrew Home for the Aged in Massachusetts showed that strength training improved one's ability to do Activities of Daily Living (i.e. vacuuming and going for groceries) and cognitive performance even in very frail persons.

"If we don't use our physical or mental function, we are likely to lose it. Thus, many older persons who begin a regular exercise program realize they begin to feel more energetic and alive, and that the fatigue and weakness they were feeling before they began their exercise program wasn't normal aging or disease, just disuse," Kligman said.

That is the good news.

However, starting an exercise program is tough enough. How do you persuade a senior friend or relative to begin? Kathy Matte, 55, did it by providing a gym membership for her mother and by paying for her personal training sessions. "There's really very little you can do for your parents to help their health, really. You can't make them eat right, but I can provide a membership to the gym and encourage her to go."

Matte, who began exercising five years ago after battling breast cancer, said she liked the way exercise made her feel and had seen older women at the gym. "As you get older, if you're not active, your body just kind of disintegrates or becomes unfit," something, she said, she didn't want for her mother. Matte went with her mom to a bone-building group class to start and they did it together. After her mom felt comfortable, she was able to go on her own. "One thing my mom realized is if she's regular, she feels better and she walks faster." Even the grandchildren notice, she said.

"I want her to live longer and I'm hoping if she gets healthy in one area, it will help her in other areas," Matte said, such as quitting smoking. Meg Watt, 41, said she and Baker, her mother, found a way a year ago by joining the gym together. Watt said she wanted to shed some extra pounds and get healthy because heart disease runs in the family on her mother's side. She also wanted an exercise buddy to hold her accountable. Her mother, who has walked daily for years, wanted social time with her daughter. The machines were a little intimidating to Baker at first, but Watt encouraged her mother to give it a shot.

They have both reaped the benefits of exercise including more energy, better sleep, more muscle mass and inches lost.

The greatest benefit, she said, is spending time with her mother each week and knowing it may increase her health and longevity.

Watt said, "You have to speak to the fact that you want your parents to be here longer because you enjoy them."

FACT: More than 14.2 million people age 55 and older exercise frequently. With 1 out of every 4 Americans now 50 and older, more and more will be turning to fitness to maintain or enhance their quality of life. Source: American Council on Exercise and the National Institutes of Health.