67-year-old Thomas Mrazek is beaming with joy as he strengthens his leg muscles on the bike machine. Coming to the gym twice a week has been a part of his weekly ritual for the past six and a half years.
The vibe here at Brisbane’s Green Apple Wellness Centre is different from conventional gyms. The pace is less intense. It’s designed for members generally aged from fifty upwards. This is what appealed to Cora Zanetti when she first decided to check out her local gym 16 years ago.
At nearly 84, Zanetti works out five mornings a week from when the door opens at 5:30. She speaks with SBS as she trains on the stepper.
Professor Maria Fiatarone Singh is a geriatrician based at Sydney University. She believes that structured exercise programs a gym can offer is an effective strategy to fight the usual symptoms of frailty in old age.
She says that older people who are frail with chronic diseases are the exact kind of people who should be working out to improve their conditions. It’s not really about whether you go to a gym or not, rather, it’s about whether or not you do specific exercises like strength training or weightlifting.
The owner of the Green Apple Wellness Centre, Victoria Gill, has been running the gym for 40 years. She says many of the members are referred by doctors to improve their health such as people with type 2 diabetes who are showing signs of ageing. Or those in their seventies who can’t balance properly and thus need strength and coordination training.
With members training right up to their mid-nineties, gym instructor Darrol Enchelmaier says it’s important that novices unfamiliar with gym equipment are not left on their own.
Gill observes that cultural attitudes tend to limit a woman’s ability to participate in fitness programs. She sees that the collaboration between the doctor, physical trainer and family in coming up with a plan that everyone can agree with as the solution to breaking down the barriers.
Gill has witnessed some amazing transformations that go beyond physical health in her forty years of running the centre.
Panida Sammapuksakit is a lean 54-year-old having been working out three times a week for the past seven years. She says coming to the gym doesn't necessarily change you over night, but she does wonder at times how her life might turn out if she hadn’t been working out regularly.
As a fit 71-year-old, Victoria Gill says she doesn’t see any limitation on herself, and that's what many older gym-goers are striving for.
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