Ashland fitness center caters specifically to the needs of senior citizens

ASHLAND — More and more, seniors want to be healthy and strong enough to lift their grandchildren, pick up a sack of groceries and step easily into an SUV.

And on the way to getting there, they don’t want a gym full of loud music, instructors gearing workouts for the young and bevies of hard bodies making them feel old and out of shape.

Those, at least, were some of the thoughts behind a new Ashland fitness center aimed at senior citizens and post-rehabilitation patients of all ages. It is the first of its kind in Ashland and one of just a few senior-oriented fitness centers in the Rogue Valley.

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Orienting fitness to seniors’ needs is probably "the next huge thing," said Andy Baxter, who has opened Baxter Fitness Solutions for Fifty and Beyond on Hersey Street. "Our growing population of seniors is far more educated about the importance of nutrition and fitness, and they’re not scared to work out."

Baxter, 37, knows something about the topic. He is fitness director at Mountain Meadows Retirement Community, a champion rower and a writer on senior fitness published in several magazines

His new center is aimed at helping seniors deal with osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, weight and symptoms of menopause. Machines and workouts are wheelchair-accessible.

Not long ago, said Baxter, if you developed acute arthritis, doctors would prescribe bed rest, practically ensuring it would get worse and bring on hypertension, diabetes and eventually death.

"Now, we know you need to increase bone mass — and the physicians are definitely getting it and prescribing active coping strategies," he said.

The new center is prompted not only by Ashland’s rapidly growing senior population but also by two Ashland gyms going out of business recently, funneling exercisers into the YMCA, said Carol Lee Rogers, a business partner of Baxter’s who is also a personal fitness trainer at the Y.

"Some people had to leave the Y ... and we’ve been reaching out to the older ones," Rogers said.

Retired physical education teacher Tage Pedersen, 78, who worked out at the new center recently, said seniors do most of the same exercises as young people but at a different rate. "So it’s very valuable to be with a specialist who knows how to give that special attention — and in an environment free of younger, athletic people," he said.

Seniors doing aerobics and flexing exercises can "easily overdo it, hurt themselves and strain and injure backs, hips and shoulders," Pedersen added. "You need proper training."

Irene Valadez, 66, speaks from experience, having suffered injuries trying to do the regimens at normal gyms where the focus was on muscle-building and looks.

"Now, I don’t do things beyond my ability," she said. "I’ve noticed the change in how I walk. Before, I couldn’t lift myself up off the floor and couldn’t walk up a hill. Now I am."

Goals for older people are different than younger, Pedersen noted. "What older people are trying to achieve is pain-free living, increased longevity, generally feeling better and not developing the diseases of aging or at least lessening them so you can live with them."

Baxter’s programs include a chair-based stretch/strength class, floor-based stretch/yoga, aerobic/strength circuit, a Parkinson’s mobility class, a "strength triad" class to increase strength in spine, hips, knees and shoulders and hand-rowed ergometers for shoulder and arm flexibility and endurance.

Tai chi and qigong, aimed at increasing balance, energy and flexibility, lowering blood pressure and boosting immune systems, will be taught by Lillibet Gillespie, a trainer at Mountain Meadows.

Membership at the new center is $50, plus $40 a month (couples $70), with private training $25 an hour. Membership includes a consultation to learn the member’s specific needs, and may include his or her doctor and family members.

Asked what she wanted to do to her body in a senior-oriented workout drill, Vi Atchison, 86, laughed and said, "try to keep it alive."

"What we want is just to be in shape," said Valadez, "to be able to pick up the grandkids instead of dragging along and being old and having doctors say, well, what do you expect? — you’re getting old.

"I’d wondered if I were going to make it through my 70s, but, at this point, I’ve decided I’m going to make it into my 90s."

John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at jdarling@jeffnet.org. Baxter Fitness Solutions for Fifty and Beyond can be reached at 488-9515.