Burning Off The Years

By Harriet Barovick

After a briskly paced half-hour on the treadmills at their health club, Nina Crugnola, 80, and her husband Tony, 79, are a little flushed. So before heading off for phase two of their workout--the weight machines--they take a moment to wipe away the sweat, adjust their headsets and instruct a fellow septuagenarian on how to use a hip abductor. "A year ago, I didn't think I'd ever learn how to work these machines, let alone stay on the treadmill without falling off," says Nina. "But I've had osteoporosis, he's had a blocked ventricle, and you know, this keeps everything going good."

The health club at which the Crugnolas work out four times a week is HealthFit, a pioneering new facility in Needham, Mass., that caters exclusively to women and seniors. During daytime hours, seniors make up about 80% of the clientele. With its welcoming staff, accessible layout, gleaming air-pressurized weight machines, original art that changes every few months and Big-Band music at a palatable roar, HealthFit has won over 650 fanatically loyal members in its first year. Its founder, John Atwood, 48, spent 25 years in the industry before realizing that he was sick of helping "the already fit get a little fitter. With seniors, fitness makes a real difference."

Getting sweaty on golf courses and in senior sports leagues is nothing new for adults 65 and over. But as recent research has extolled the benefits of regular, even intense, exercise, more than 5 million members of today's burgeoning cadre of seniors are running, bicep curling, sometimes even kickboxing, in health clubs up to five times a week. And with the supervision of good trainers, they are going for more burn than ever.

The trend has won the attention of a few HMOs, federal and state government officials and gym-equipment manufacturers--which are now marketing more air-pressurized weight machines with larger digital displays. Health clubs--traditional havens for beefy bodybuilders but more recently shifting to an emphasis on overall wellness--are beginning to respond. This year some 65% of health clubs offer some sort of senior-fitness program, up from 32% 10 years ago, according to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association, the trade association for health clubs. Trainers say seniors are often their most eager, dedicated and appreciative clients. And club owners find they have the flexibility to fill the workout rooms during the midday hours when health clubs are traditionally dead. At IHRSA's annual conference last month, the keynote speech focused on two new critical demographics to target: women and seniors.

All the excitement over senior fitness bodes best, of course, for seniors themselves, especially for those 70 and older. According to physiologists, strength and flexibility can mean the difference between independently handling everyday activities like changing a light bulb and sitting on the sofa, scared. "There is no pharmacological intervention that can restore people to youthful levels like a well-designed fitness program," says William Evans, professor of geriatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. "Seniors have lost the most muscle strength and fitness, and that's largely because of inactivity. With exercise, you can restore a 70-year-old to a 20-year-old's strength. Women can put off osteoporosis. Exercise helps control blood pressure and cholesterol. It's also a big factor in combating depression."

By all accounts, a good program should include a combination of cardio (which can lessen the effects of, even help fend off, chronic ailments like diabetes and heart disease) and strength training (for balance, flexibility and range of motion). But for the previously sedentary, the chest presses and leg extensions can be critical in getting strong enough to do cardio at all. And training doesn't have to be done on weight machines. For the very frail, weight training can be as simple as raising a leg to learn balance.

Just a few years back, the idea that gray-haired folks could build up lost bone and muscle strength by pumping iron was unheard of. Yet several landmark studies done at Tufts University in the late '80s and mid-'90s revealed that seniors had the most to gain from such activity. A particularly astounding 1995 study by Maria Fiatarone, overseen by Evans, showed that with a high-intensity regimen, even the oldest and frailest nursing-home residents, ages 86 to 96, tripled their muscle strength and greatly improved their balance and flexibility. All performed everyday tasks, like opening jars and getting up out of chairs, more easily. Some abandoned their canes and walkers.

Even for more youthful seniors, who are often afraid of life-altering falls, working out can have dramatic effects. Many say they have resumed favorite activities because of a newfound physical confidence. Others cite mental pluses: sharper memories, better sleep and happier moods. Some of the mood lifting comes from good old-fashioned camaraderie. "It's so nice here, you say hi, catch up," says HealthFit regular Barbara Yardley, 78, who recently hiked 33 miles in New Zealand. "There's always something going on."

For health-club owners sensitive to the fact that intimidation can be a key factor in seniors' deciding not to join, the social upside of working out is also a good recruiting tool. "We get 'em in the door with breakfasts and other gatherings, where they meet people and have fun--and gradually get used to the look of the place," says Joe Diemert, co-director of senior programming at Franco's Athletic Club in Mandeville, La. Since Franco's started actively pursuing seniors, the 13,000-member club has drawn 2,000 men and women over 65.

Once older adults are comfortable, the intensity of their workout routines can daunt any 20-year-old. Former Mr. New York City Terry Richardson, 85, who arrives at 4 a.m. for his duties as morning manager for Reebok's Sports Club/LA, works out five times a week with his younger buddy John McManus, 75. Richardson "just" maintains his physique ("My bones and joints are 85, so I try to use common sense," he says) with 20 min. of swimming, some weight training, stretching and 200 ab crunches. McManus, who was back in the gym 15 days after a recent bypass operation, rides the bike at the highest resistance for 45 min., then bench-presses 300 lbs.

For adamant couch lovers who couldn't care less about socialization and better health, vanity can be a reliable motivator. Chicagoan Merle Smith, 71, a hardwood-floor distributor, says he wouldn't be caught dead working out except for the fact that he has a cute female personal trainer--and she makes him look fine. "A 36-year-old made a pass at me the other day," he says. Two years ago at the Sun City retirement community near Austin, Texas, hunky senior residents agreed to pose for a community-events calendar dubbed--what else--Aged Beef. The calendar's creators have now launched a website to sell it to non-Texans.

Beefcake pinups aside, the senior-fitness trend is starting to catch the attention of some influential officials. An innovative, full-scale federally funded program run by the Chicago Department of Aging kicked off in 1995 with a few hundred seniors for whom a pricey health club was out of the question. Former director Alisa Markoff says that despite some initial glitches--in the beginning, women unfamiliar with the idea of working out showed up for classes in dresses and high heels--the program now teaches 7,000 participants in more than 50 facilities, for free. Keiser, the leading manufacturer of air-pressurized machines geared to the senior market, has grown from 20 facilities in 1996 to 400 this year.

Most compelling for advocates is the slow-growing attention senior fitness is attracting from managed care. For years, HMOs have offered 10% discounts on health-club memberships, primarily as a marketing tool. Based in Phoenix, Ariz., the company HealthCare Dimensions, which sells and administers a comprehensive senior-fitness program called Silver Sneakers, has taken the lead in getting HMOs to sign up for real intervention. By providing quality assurance and initial research summaries indicating regular exercisers have significantly reduced claims, HealthCare Dimensions has signed up 13 major HMOs from Florida to Oregon to fully cover the cost of 500,000 Medicare-eligible members who attend clubs that teach Silver Sneakers. In return, HealthCare Dimensions trains instructors and keeps a full-time program administrator at every member club.

"It has been a long, uphill battle," says Dimensions founder and CEO Mary Swanson, whose next study will look at the effect of fitness on medication usage. "But we've shown that covering club dues is a relatively inexpensive investment with a huge return: senior fitness is not a fad, it's the future."

As that idea continues to sink in, smart fitness-club owners will pursue the senior market ever more aggressively. They may even find that 20- and 30-year-olds appreciate Benny Goodman alongside the standard fare of Top 40 pop. Back in Needham, Mass., HealthFit's John Atwood has already begun to get calls from executives at major fitness chains interested in emulating his model, and he knows that before long, Atwood the visionary will be--yawn--Atwood the guy who runs another one of those senior athletic centers. He doesn't mind that much.

--With reporting by Matt Baron/Chicago, Hilary Hylton/Austin and Stacie Stukin/Los Angeles

With reporting by Matt Baron/Chicago, Hilary Hylton/Austin and Stacie Stukin/Los Angeles