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Healthy living at every ageDate: 11.01.2007
Posted by: Anabolic Info Team Canada
An elderly woman struggles to lift a bag of milk from its crate, and she cannot shift the weight of the other bags to free it. She does not have the strength.
It is times like that, said Roger Adams, a Carleton athletics mature fitness instructor, he wished he had a business card.
Adams delivered his lecture, Powerful Fitness for Healthy Aging, Jan. 6 and is no stranger to fitness and athleticism.
Adams moved from Peterborough, Ont., to Ottawa in 1983 to pursue his decathlon goals.
Bobsled driver Jim Carr approached him one day as he trained.
Carr was looking a medium-sized crewman for the national team and urged Adams to try out.
Adams turned out to be the right fit and participated with the team from 1985-88. And yes, he even met the Jamaican bobsledding team at the track in Calgary. And yes, they hid out in their van in -10 C weather.
When he returned, Adams started teaching part-time at Carleton while enrolled in teachers' college. He taught a men's bodybuilding course and sometimes, older men would join.
At this time studies were published about strength building and its positive results with the elderly. They were able to gain more mobility and independence. Some people traded in their wheelchairs for canes, he said.
Adams' boss then introduced a trial weight-lifting course for mature adults. It was a success and Adams has taught the class for 14 years.
The course, Lifetime Fitness for Mature Adults, is one of four classes offered to mature adults at Carleton.
Now 45, Adams plays hockey in a travelers' league to keep in shape. And keeping in shape, not age, he stresses, makes all the difference.
While he said he is "preaching to the converted" when he gives his lecture, sometimes it helps push those teetering on the edge to try fitness.
He said his course gives people more time to orient themselves in a gym and get used to the equipment.
Ideally, he said he wants to teach people things they can revisit once the class is over.
"[Fitness and exercising] has been misrepresented as a chore or a job because people do it wrong or were instructed improperly," he said.
Adams said older people might be uncomfortable going to the gym.
"Fitness is often sold for young people. It's sold with sex," he said.
Janet Beach, 58, an audience member, agreed. "It's very intimidating, seeing the younger people and the jocks," she said.
But Adams said one of the differences between Carleton's facilities and a regular gym is that it is promoted as a fitness centre versus a weight room to discourage the bodybuilder-only mentality.
"We're interested in keeping an atmosphere open to everybody," he said.
He said he notices the younger crowd is supportive of the adults who visit.
"I think they'd like to see their parents [engaging in fitness]," he said.
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