Henrietta Pushes Iron

I can't imagine any sight less inspiring than an 88 year old women in baggy pants and a T shirt carefully lifting 3 and 5 pound weights, surrounded by buff young men and women tossing around 100 pounders. Fortunately, the young people are much too polite -- or self-absorbed -- to stare.

I am, believe it or not, working out again -- working out with weights, if you can call 3 pounds a weight. I really feel pretty silly with my white hair and my southward bound body, working away on my triceps and biceps and lats and quads and all the other long forgotten parts of my anatomy. After much prodding (nagging is more like it) from my friends and recommendations from my doctor, I have agreed to back to improving what is known in the health world as my "upper body" strength. Just walking doesn't cut it, so they tell me.

Several years ago I worked out quite seriously for a while, but got lazy and quit. Now that I have started in again, however, I find myself looking forward to the sessions - well, sort of. I remembered "working out" as a somewhat esoteric activity indulged in mostly by jocks with bulging muscles and young things with lithe, hard bodies. Not so. It's for everybody.

I see people of both sexes and all ages and degrees of physical fitness working to the limit of their individual ability. Even the young ones who are already in shape are exercising to stay that way and they are quite tolerant of the rest of us, although I think I have detected a slight snicker now and then. After all, we all have one thing in common -- pain. I watch with awe as big men and tiny women lift weights that I would merely sit down on.

There are as many reasons for being in the gym/athletic club/health club/fitness center are as there are people. Many are rehabilitating muscles that have been injured in some way. Some are re-building strength after heart attacks or strokes. Athletes are in training for their sports. Of course many are there to lose weight. Most of us are there simply because we want to maintain or increase our physical strength and overall health, and we feel better when we do it. And the individual trainers that I have worked with are an inspiration.

One group that is fairly new to the gym scene consists of the aging. That's a polite term for people like me. According to the 2000 census, 35 million Americans are 65 or over and more than a million are over 90. Researchers are finding that many of the changes which we assume are an inevitable part of the aging process are really due to neglect and abuse. So, well into our 80's a lot of us are getting out of the rocking chairs and trying to make up for lost time.

Dr. Alex Leif of the Harvard Medical School says, "Exercise is the closest thing to an anti-aging pill there is. Regular daily physical activity has been a way of life for virtually every person who has reached the age of 100 in a sound condition."

Dr. Evans of Tufts University adds "...Barring disease, a weight lifting regimen increases muscle function in oldsters by 200 to 300 percent. We can make a 95 year old as strong as a 50 year old person."

Well now wait just a minute. I think that is going a little far, but If I could make it back to 70 I might really have a chance to see a woman President.

So I guess I'll try to work up from those huge 3# weights to 4 pounders. Which is not to say I like it, but if it will give me the energy of a 70 year old, who's to complain!