Exercise — All Kinds

By Frances Kolarek — 

Frances Kolarek-150 wideThe gyms that thrive today under the patronage of our Boomers are a far cry from the exercise rooms provided by fancy European spas in the pre-WW I era. At Marienbad, a favorite with royalty, a tour guide showed off a machine designed to exercise the fingers. The exerciser sat before it and put one finger after another into its opening and the machine did all the work In those days, exercise was not designed to pop a sweat on titled brows.

Today our kinesiologists remind us that physical exercise will not only keep a body fit but it will tone the mind as well.

“Maintaining physical fitness is likely to stave off cognitive decline and maintaining cognitive fitness and activities can also help forestall physical decline,” Dr. Eric Larson of a Seattle health center counsels.

Physical exercise, however, is anathema to many of my peer group. Having benefited from exercising my arthritic knee, I recently suggested exercise to an arthritic neighbor. “Oh, it’s not that bad yet,” he demurred. Anything! Absolutely anything! But not exercise. Oh no.

So I was ecstatic when I picked up the June 21, 2014, issue of The New York Times to find, on the front page, a picture of a frail 90-year old woman doing squat exercises in a gym under the watchful eye of a trainer. Shirley Friedman, all of 4 feet 9 inches, had suffered a rotator cuff injury when a mugger snatched her shoulder bag, and for years had had trouble lifting her shoulders. Now, after a few months of exercise designed by the gym owner, “her shoulders’ range of motion had improved remarkably,” the article reports.

Her small storefront gym is a dream come true for its owner, Martin Luther King Addo, a former winner of the Mr. Ghana bodybuilding championship. It is located in a Manhattan housing development that caters to older residents.

One of his clients is a 77-year-old woman who had fallen three times in two months. After working with Mr. Addo she was able to rise from a chair without using her hands (!) and has not fallen since.

An 86-year-old client, after suffering a bad fall, started using a walker. Mr. Addos’ regimen involving balance lunges and stretching techniques, the newspaper article reports, enabled her to gradually abandon her walker for a cane.

With Mr. Addo’s guidance these women and his other clients practice active, strenuous exercises within their own capabilities.

There are other happy results. Bringing his clients out of their solitary lives into his small gym, has created a more companionable neighborhood spirit. As one resident commented, “All of a sudden it’s like there are all these new people — but, no, they’ve always been here. Addo just brought them out.”

Which brings us to another imperative — our need to exchange social coin.