Hooked on weight-lifting — in their 90s
Source - With Pics
Monday, March 28, 2005
Ann Payne and Faye Kelly don't look like ordinary body builders.
Their biceps don't bulge. Their abdominal muscles aren't honed into glistening six-packs. They can't bench press hundreds of pounds.
Yet every week they spend an hour or two hoisting barbells and pressing weights under the watchful eye of a trainer. That fitness investment, they say, has made it easier to get in and out of chairs, reach items tucked on high shelves and walk in a straight line down the hallways of their retirement home — all critical tasks, especially when you are a gray-haired great-grandmother.
"You're used to seeing a person near the edge of 90s stoop, and these ladies are not," says certified trainer John Payne, who is Ann's son.
Walking tall
"When I first started training with John six years ago, I told him, 'Don't get your hopes up because in my generation, exercise is a dirty word," says Kelly, 90.
She works with John for about an hour once a week, and trains by herself once or twice more. She also takes tai chi classes and water aerobics. But it's the weight lifting that's really got her hooked. She loves the results.
"The first thing I noticed was I went to the grocery store and had two heavy sacks of groceries, and I could tote them up the steps with 10 pounds in each hand," she says. "I've gotten terrific calf muscles I didn't know I had . . . and I'm getting on my tiptoes, being able to reach into tall cabinets."
Although Kelly says she was sore after her first session, she now has more energy after lifting weights. "When I began I would be so worn out I couldn't do anything the rest of the day," she says. "No more. It's increased my energy. Besides, I've never been one to quit at a challenge."
Now fellow residents of the Summit at Westlake Hills Retirement Center ask her about her weight lifting. They can see the change in the way she moves. They comment on how straight she walks when she cruises down the hallway. And she doesn't have trouble standing up after she's been sitting in a chair.
"There used to be a group of men who sat at a round table in the dining room here," Kelly says. "When they'd stand up, they'd pause. We wondered why. It turns out they were waiting to see if their knees would work."
All that has convinced her that exercise is an important part of life no matter what your age.
"Any money that I spend on myself that makes me feel healthier and feel better is worth every penny," she says.
Another of John Payne's clients, 92-year-old Virginia Walker, agrees. She has worked with Payne for six years and exercises with him twice a week, for an hour at a time.
"My children decided that a physical trainer would be a very good thing for me," Walker says. "I'm much more energetic and agile than most people my age — I have maintained a lot of capabilities that I never would have dreamed I could, the bending and reaching straight up and touching the floor."
Dr. David Kessler, a cardiologist at Austin Heart Hospital, says people of all ages can benefit from a weight-lifting program.
"One of the best things you can do to prevent both the onset of and progression of osteoporosis is any kind of weight-bearing exercise," he says, adding that anyone starting an exercise program should first consult their physician.
Beyond fighting bone loss, lifting weights can improve flexibility and endurance and, in elderly patients, even provide aerobic exercise. "The concept that you don't have time is ridiculous," he says. "Everybody should be doing it."
Customized workout
Ann Payne, 91, warms up for her training session by rolling her head, taking a couple of deep breaths and swinging her arms a few times.
Soon, she swings her leg over the bench of a small weight machine. John Payne hovers over her as she performs a warm-up set of lateral pulldowns. The first time she did one four years ago, she could pull only 10 pounds. Now she can handle 35 pounds at a time.
"Pull, and involve your back," John instructs, counting her repetitions.
Finished with one set, Ann moves across the room for a series of modified pushups, done leaning against the wall instead of on the floor. John knows his elderly clients can't do the same workouts as his younger ones.
After a few minutes' rest, Ann switches to dead lifts. John spots her carefully, reminding her to breathe while she goes through the motion of lifting a barbell off the ground, keeping her legs straight but unlocked. After a series of knee lifts — with John calling out an encouraging "Work those hip flexors!" — she moves to a chair, where she stands up and sits down several times while holding an 8-pound weight in each hand. Then it's a quick set of curls and triceps pushdowns.
Ann moved to Austin from Shreveport to be closer to her son after suffering two heart attacks. She'd never done any serious gym work but didn't flinch when her son suggested weight lifting. Medical experts have emphasized in recent years the importance of weight-bearing exercise, especially in women.
"John thought it would be good for me," she says. "Now I look forward to it. I can move better and get out of chairs."
These days she trains with her son twice a week, in a lounge area down the hall from her apartment at the Summit.
A training specialty
John Payne, 53, a former elementary school teacher and, later, geologist, always had an interest in fitness. While working out at the YMCA in Midland in 1986, he saw posted on a bulletin board an article about seniors who had doubled and tripled their strength by lifting weights. It stuck in the back of his mind.
In the 1990s, he moved to Austin, earned his trainer certification through the National Strength and Conditioning Association and opened a combination laundry and gym in Hyde Park called Clean and Lean. The gym eventually closed, but he continued training clients. One day, he mentioned his interest in working with older clients to one of those customers, Jody Kelly, 67. Jody thought her mother might be interested. She introduced him to Faye, who's been a client ever since.
Today, about half of John's work is with older clients, including three who have osteoporosis. Sometimes, it takes a little convincing to win over an elderly client.
"They tell me, 'I don't want to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger,' " he says. "I say, 'That's OK.' They're worried I'm going to ask them to do something far beyond their capability. But I tell them we're working one on one, and we start at the base. If I'm doing my job right, you're always going to be tired when you leave here and a little sore, but not really sore."
He encourages his elderly clients every session, telling them as they lift that "this is the hardest thing you're going to do until I see you next week."
Like the younger clients he trains, most of the seniors he works with begin to plateau, instead of increasing the amount of weight they are lifting, between six months and a year. "They're fine with that. They're not looking to compete."
He's learned that the exercise sessions strengthen more than muscles. It's re-empowerment at a time when a senior is forced to move out of his or her home, quit driving and cope with the loss of hearing, eyesight and close friends.
Weight training pumps up attitude.
More than just for Mom
Now that they've seen what weight lifting has done for their own parents, John Payne and Jody Kelly want to share their techniques with others. They're co-writing a book tentatively titled "Feeling Good: Strength Training with Your Significant Elder."
"Its main point is to enable people between 35 and 65 to motivate and help their aging parents get into weight lifting," Jody says. "The payoff for the grown child is far less worry about their significant elders."
The book outlines how elderly people can exercise safely, but its subtext is aimed at the baby boomer generation. The purpose is to encourage the health and strength of the elderly population, to show that they shouldn't just sit in their rocking chairs, and their children should not let them.
"It's look at what strength training can do for your parents — and it's also about getting off your own bum," Jody says.
"What I really hope is to honor older people and show that they can accomplish a lot more than younger people think they can — even physically. I'd like to do just a little to change the common perception of older people as has-beens who should be put out to pasture."
One look at Ann Payne and it's clear she's not ready for the grassy fields. A weight-lifting session, she says, leaves her a little tired, but not depleted. She feels ready to go home and have a cup of coffee.
"It's not exactly that I'm proud of myself, but I say, 'Hey, I did that,' " she says. "And I'm glad I can."
pleblanc@statesman.com; 445-3994
ON THE WEB: To read the first chapter of 'Feeling Good: Strength Training with Your Significant Elder,' go to
www.significantelder.com.
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