Retirement News : Seniors : More seniors stay fit by moving to a 'don't grow old program'

More seniors stay fit by moving to a 'don't grow old program'

Date Added: 12-10-2005

Staying in shape is not just for kids.  Now senior are realizing the benefits of 'working out' in the gym. Read the excerpt below.

DetNews.com - Detroit,MI,USA

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

By Melena Z. Ryzik / New York Times News Service

Glenn Ferris never exercised. He didn't need to. As a telephone installer and repairman, he kept active, climbing telephone poles and shimmying under houses to rig wires. When he retired at 52, he cut lawns and clipped hedges for neighbors in Pasadena, Calif.

But as the years passed, Ferris, now 78, slowed down. He began to fear, as he put it, "the rocking chair coming to get me."

So when his insurance company sent him a letter in March 2004, offering to cover gym memberships for him and his wife, Mary, he didn't hesitate. Soon after, the two of them toured a local gym and signed up.

At the time, he said, joining a gym "was the furthest thing from my mind." But now he attends religiously, doing what he calls his "don't grow old program," a hodgepodge of weight lifting, marching in place and balancing drills on a stability ball. He began eating healthier and lost 15 pounds.

Ferris is one of a growing number of older Americans who are discovering the benefits of exercise. Since at least 1996, when the surgeon general released a report saying that "no one is too old to enjoy the benefits of regular physical activity," there has been an increased public awareness that fitness and growing old are not mutually exclusive. Studies have shown that exercise can help maintain both physical and mental health among older people. (The latest research suggests that it reduces pain and even generates brain cells.) And more people -- from doctors and insurers to nursing home administrators and residents -- are paying attention.

"Every time you pick up a magazine or a newspaper, you'll see articles that say, eat right, don't smoke and exercise," said Paul Cohen, 76, a retiree who suspects that his regular workouts have helped him avert another bypass. "People are taking that advice more and more."

Read the entire article: http://www.detnews.com/2005/fitness/0510/11/G08-344088.htm