Charlotte Rising works out at Baxter Fitness Solutions in Medford. She says the workouts have eased the pain in her back, as well as strengthening her muscles. (Mail Tribune / Jim Craven)You might think pumping iron and building up muscles are for the young, but think again. It's becoming a must-do for people over 50 because it combats muscle loss that comes with aging, it prevents osteoporosis and it helps you hold your bones and joints together.
With referrals from doctors and physical therapists, the senior body building business is booming, said Andy Baxter, who just opened his second "medically-based" Baxter Fitness Solutions on Doctors Park Drive in Medford. The first one, on Oak Street in Ashland, opened two years ago.
The focus, he said, is to keep people 50 and over off the "slippery slope," where with age, they let their fitness decline to the point that a fall will lead to destabilization of their general health.
"Most of the problems we see are in the joints — knees, hips and back," said Baxter, a world champion oarsman and writer in the field of senior fitness. "What happens is osteoarthritis — or the joints wear out from carrying extra weight and losing muscle mass. When your muscle mass declines, your joints have to do more of the work."
As she works out on the seated elliptical machine, Charlotte Rising, 84, of Medford said a month of effort has made her back feel a lot better "and my three doctors heartily approve. It strengthens the muscles and relieves the pain. My goal is to achieve a good sense of balance."
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For Bill Greenstein, 58, it's a chance to get a jump on aging, lose unwanted weight and generate muscular support for knees with osteoarthritis.
"I was an athlete in college. I'm not interested in getting back into that level and competing, but I don't want to be debilitated in older age with a lack of mobility. Already, I've gained back quite a bit of strength," said Greenstein, who's been working out with Baxter for 2 1/2 years.
Age affects proprioception and the "neuro-muscular component," which is a technical way of saying that as we age, we lose the sense of where our bones and muscles are and how to confidently move them around, said Baxter.
Workouts on a score of new, digital machines — ergometer, recumbent bicycle, seated rowing machine, triceps press and old-fashioned treadmill — help bring that back, so patients are no longer cutting corners with their movements, using momentum rather than muscular control to get around, Baxter said.
Workouts for seniors, he said, focus on one or more of three directions — building strength, range-of-motion and endurance.
Baxter cited some sobering statistics from the National Institute on Aging: from age 65 to 84, strength drops 1.5 percent a year. Also, one in three people over 65 falls at least once a year — and half of those hospitalized for it will die within a year.
"It's not the fractured hip that's life-threatening," Baxter said. "It's that the person doesn't have the strength to bounce back, they lose their independence and end up in a nursing home. The fall was the catalyst for it all."
John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.
