“Am I still able to do what I could do five years ago?” asked Cairine Coulis-Brown, who started going to the gym for the first time this year.
Coulis-Brown trains at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., as part of the Bfit program designed for seniors, The Globe and Mail reported. The program costs $60 a month and focuses on balance, co-ordination and muscle maintenance.
Falls are the leading cause of hospitalization and death for people aged 65 and older, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Osteoporosis Canada notes that muscle tissue drops by roughly 3 to 8 per cent following age 30, and this reduction accelerates even more beyond 60.
For individuals 65 and older, Health Canada advises aiming for 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise weekly.
However, “for someone who isn’t currently active, the most important thing is to get any type and amount of physical activity,” said Kimberley Gammag, director of the master of professional kinesiology program and SeniorFit director at Brock.
Jane Barratt spends 75 minutes at her local YMCA five days a week, focusing on resistance training and balance exercises to maintain her independence.
Barratt spent more than 20 years as the secretary-general for the International Federation on Ageing. She aims for 10,000 steps a day and plans her routine around functional ability.
“My whole routine is geared around making sure I’m functionally able now and in 10 years,” Barratt told The Globe and Mail. Her main travel goal is lifting her suitcase into an overhead compartment.
“I don’t want to let age define me,” she said. “I’ve got ambitions for my body as well as my work. I still want to find out what my body can do.”
Lee begins his mornings walking his dogs and works with a trainer a few times a week. The chef started yoga a decade ago after a friend introduced him to the practice.
“Yoga is really giving me a lot of longevity with what I do,” Lee told The Globe and Mail. “With what we do in the restaurant business, it can be a lot of pressure.” “It’s very important to stay calm.”
Molly Johnson stays fit using 22-minute online exercise videos featuring light dumbbells, aerobics and balance work in her spare bedroom.
Johnson, a 67-year-old jazz singer who trained at Canada’s National Ballet School in her youth, described herself as not a gym person.
She needed to build endurance for a solo show at Massey Hall in 2021 and found online routines created by dancer and comedian Anjelica Scannura.
“I was able to finish the workout before 9,” Johnson told The Globe and Mail. “By the time 9:30 rolls around, I’ve worked out, I’ve had a shower and I’m good to go. It made it easy to stick with.”
Peter Sellers underwent a hip replacement earlier this year after building a foundation of movement through karate and semi-private personal training sessions. Doctors said that his gym background helped him handle basic rehab exercises that other patients struggled to complete.
“Even though I hadn’t really worked out regularly for more than a year, doctors said compared to a lot of people who were coming in for hip surgery, I was in really good shape,” Sellers told The Globe and Mail.
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