Fitness Matters
| Published: 14th July 2008 21:10 |
An article about fitness for the over-50s provided by local resident Chris Honey, with dynamic thanks to Julie, Nesta and Ruth.
"Let's get started!"
I'm accompanied by fellow movers who sport tops displaying aboriginal designs, the Great Wall of China, and enticements from places like Peru and the West Indies. (No, it's not a multinational class, just a well travelled one.) We are already Step-Touching from side to side and making forward and return movements in time to the music. It seems that whatever we do fits into four or eight beats! Soon arm movements accompany our lower limbs, requiring us to concentrate more on coordination and exercising our minds at the same time.
You see, the whole point of this first sequence is to get ready for the next one really. This is the warm-up period where amongst other movements we rotate our trunks ("Keep those hips facing forward!"), turn our heads ("Slowly!"), shrug our shoulders ("Focus on the down rather than the up!") and stretch calves or hip flexors to the tune of ‘Burn Baby Burn'. Much later on these stretching exercises are repeated with a noticeable increase in movement due to our muscles behaving like warmed-up rubber bands.
"Quick water break!"
We then rush back to our positions to apparently start the previous session over again. Has the pace increased a little? Yes, and don't be deluded into thinking it's a repeat performance. It might begin with simple foot peddling, but soon advances to highly coordinated movement sequences.
"We'll just repeat that section to Rod's 'Maggie May'."
Indeed, some sections are analogous to dance: 'grape vine'; 'disco roll'; 'mambo'; 'box-walk'; and even an 'Egyptian rhythm'. Others exercise parts you normally ignore: bicep curls; heel digs and toe taps; wrist, arm and shoulder rotations; knee and heel raises; squats ("Stick your bottom out!"); leg curls to the sound of ‘YMCA'; even jumps! If you have ever seen aerobic sessions on the TV then it's a bit like that only we are slightly less glamorous! ("Speak for yourself Chris!")
"Are you puffing? We're on the way down now."
We avoid taking ‘Dancing on the ceiling' literally! Gradually the multidirectional movements reduce in intensity, with ‘active recovery' slow-motion steps interspersed, until we end up avoiding collisions, successfully, whilst cha cha-ing around the room before another welcome water break.
This has been the section where we build our stamina by working the cardiovascular and cardio-respiratory systems ,as well as improving our adaptability and reaction time. "Have you got your breath back?" I know its here somewhere...my pulse rate having ascended has now decreased and that must be good!
I have experienced quite a few ‘Golden Oldie' keep-fit classes in Hitchin. They all achieve the same result, with similar exercises but with slightly different programmes. They are all good fun to attend and motivate me to do beneficial things that I would never contemplate undertaking on my own, with the result that I am far more flexible with far less painful joints and limbs than previously. I can even rotate my pelvis - quite an achievement for a mere male! I wish a few more men would attend in fact, but when questioned most of the ladies reply that their husbands walk the dog instead! Still, I get more attention that way and can make mischievous remarks or even confuse fellow participants into making contrary movements... "Are you winding me up again Chris?!"
It's the last session that varies most - we either perform like ballet dancers whilst clutching the window bars, accomplish wall presses, balance on giant pneumatic balls (right) or heave weights up and down before retiring to the relative security of a chair-seat or floor mat.
So what have we done? We've improved our muscular strength, bone loading and balance resulting in less chance of falls and fractures, that's what! There's also no end to the variety of activity: we waggle our ‘tails' up and down whilst on all fours and contracting our core muscles; roll and unroll the top or bottom half of our spines ("Slowly, one vertebra at a time"); ‘play' the piano or clench and spread our hands; flail, flap and flair our arms; outline the letters of the alphabet with each foot; and move our heads in many directions. Plus much more before finally ‘reaching for the sky' in a total body stretch, triumphant in the knowledge that we have stretched our pectorals without increasing our breast size (a very important consideration for me!). Which reminds me of my most favourite tune in all of the sessions... no, its not Dusty Springfield, Kelly's ‘Break Away' or even ‘Guilty in the Name of Love' to which we enact the ‘Hitchin March', but a certain West Indian song celebrating the larger lady, I think triple X size 53!
So, following the claps, cheers, well dones and thank yous we exit with more upright postures, improved gluteus maximus and medius (that's bum and hip muscles to you) and smiles all round.
I almost feel like skipping up the street!
For details of your local classes see 'Low Impact Aerobics Classes'.
What do you think?
You will need to sign in to post a comment to this article. if you do not have an AboutMyArea account, you can join now for free.
