It's Never Too Late To Start Exercising
Illawarra Mercury
Monday October 10, 2005
Even the experts say exercise can be boring, but not at Sylvia Rice's classes.
The energetic woman has been involved in fitness all her life, is a trained teacher and lectured at the University of Wollongong until her retirement in 1994.She has been running fitness classes for active seniors at Beaton Park Leisure Centre since 1984 and says it's never too late to start exercising."However, if an older person decides he or she now has time to devote to some exercise, a visit to the doctor is in order to get a full check-up and a clearance to do some exercise," Mr Rice said."It's amazing what previously unknown conditions might show up and if that person then goes to the fitness trainer and says he or she has a bit or arthritis, is diabetic or has slightly elevated blood pressure, any trainer worth his salt will take that into account when organising a program."In fact exercise is fundamental for people with arthritis, heart disease, diabetes or high cholesterol and has great benefits for those suffering depression."I believe the only people who should not exercise are those with rheumatoid arthritis when they are in an inflammatory stage. It's a very painful condition and I believe sufferers should move a bit but should also be very careful not to stress their joints."Ms Rice said other benefits of regular exercise particularly for the over 50s included improved co-ordination and balance important considerations when there were so many older people having falls and ending up in hospital."Don't be afraid of the fact that you may have been ill, injured or operated upon - it's never too late to start exercising," she said."You just have to be careful about what you do and where you choose to do it. There are quite a few people in my classes who have angina and may even have had a heart attack and one of the men who is 81 years of age has had open heart surgery and he's a magnificent athlete."He also recently had knee surgery but was back doing his beloved exercises within about 10 weeks."He wasn't going to let those problems dictate what he was going to do and with his will and determination to succeed, he wouldn't allow himself to be confined to a wheelchair festering on the doorway of eternity."Ms Rice said the "baby" in her active seniors classes was 51 and the oldest about to turn 88."We have so much fun and it's never boring because I do different combinations of things each lesson, perhaps resistance work with dynabands and a bit of walking," she said."I like to mix it up so that it's not the same day after day and while the basic rule is safety, exercising also has to be fun."Some people go off to aerobics classes to get fit and come out with ringing ears because of the very loud music and the instructor's voice through the microphone and sore muscles - I don't believe it has to be like that."I use music but at a much lower volume to suit my clients and it really is a great deal of fun with the social side also being important for older people."
© 2005 Illawarra Mercury