By Christine Thorpe.
Good news for Hays County seniors: Kyle and Buda hold the key to a better retirement with fewer medications, an expanded social life and some extra years to spend. That key is fitness. Opportunities for fitness show themselves all around the area, and particularly in group exercise classes.
Group classes in Hays County prove to have a higher attendance rate for seniors than individual workouts. Katie Rhodes of Live Well Fitness in Kyle offers several different classes through the city’s Parks and Recreation department and her classes, including Seniorfit, yoga, dancing and water aerobics, remain full.
“We average around 20 to 23 people per class,” she said about Seniorfit, a low impact to moderate intensity workout that costs $2 per class.
The groups don’t always stay the same, either.
“We have new ones coming in and regulars going away on vacation every week,” Rhodes said.
How does she keep bringing in more seniors to exercise? Word of mouth --– newbies come in mainly because, as she says, “People tell their friends about it or invite their friends. A lot of them get together at other times in the week.”
Classes are held at the Historic Kyle City Hall and Kyle Elementary several days a week.
Stephanie Pool at Elite Bodyworks in Kyle has had a similar experience- with her small group classes. She says that groups are successful because, “If it’s fun and you enjoy it, especially in a group setting, you’re more likely to keep doing it. You want to be with people who have the same passions.”
She specializes in ‘functional fitness,’ which means a bigger focus on balance and overall wellbeing. About half of her clients are over fifty, and their typical workouts are for much more than weight loss.
The goals for those clients? “When I start working with somebody in that age group, at that point in life the goal is usually making quality of life better and sustaining that for the next 30, 40, 50 years,” Pool said.
Frequently Pool fields concerns about the possibility of injuries.
“When you’re starting out, balance is always the first place to go to help prevent injury,” Pool said, especially with seniors, who frequently come in with stiff joints, back pain or high blood pressure.
At Elite, she screens for possible injuries and uses the result to form her plan. She said it’s important to do so because you need someone to “teach you the correct form and what muscles you should be working,” in order to be safe and effective.
Individual options like personal gym memberships don’t share the same popularity as group classes. Omar Overturf at Oxygen Fitness, which offers a little-used senior citizen package, believes that seniors are intimidated by the gym and afraid of injuries.
“A lot of people think you hit a certain age and have to stop, but it’s not true,” he said. “You can keep moving. It will be painful at first but it will go away.”
Not many members over fifty are members at Oxygen, but there are a few in their 70s or 80s who came in with various health problems that went away with exercise.
Overturf said, “We have lots of members who couldn’t walk or bend when they came in and they’re great now.”
Budaites may not have as many options as those in Kyle, but Onion Creek Senior Center offered their first balance class in June of this year, with the second following shortly after. Their eight-week program features two certified instructors and 15 students - those same instructors will offer a caretaker’s course soon, in addition to the popular dance class the center holds. Seniors can also hop down to Kyle and join up with a running group that meets at the old city hall, go walk the outlet malls in San Marcos or take advantage of various cycling groups in the area.
One thing everyone agrees on is that exercising late in life is absolutely possible and can be plenty of fun.
According to Overturf, “The gym is the natural fountain of youth,” and you can keep drinking from it long after 50.
