CLEVELAND, Ohio – Older adults are being welcomed into the YMCA branches across Cleveland to help keep active and independent.
Loni Beverly, the YMCA of Greater Cleveland’s director of older active adults program, said the initiative can be life changing.
She said: “The importance of healthy aging grows as many experience loved ones getting older and watching physical activity levels decrease over time.”
“Whether it’s due to concerns of getting injured, uncertainties around how to safely workout or not having a group to exercise with constant physical activity is one of the most beneficial things older adults can do to prevent health issues.”
And the YMCA is keen to do its part to help older adults stay in shape. She said: “We try hard to have our exercise programs be both progressive and regressive, aiming to help people get stronger but we can also step back if someone gets an illness or injury.”
“One of the things we focus on a lot are the cues for independent living, such as how to safely get up from sitting in a chair or how to get up off the ground as it suddenly becomes something a very long way away.”
The YMCA branches offer warm water pools and strength training for older adults to enjoy and benefit from and exercises can include twisting wrists and reaching up to top shelves. Beverly said: “A shoulder press isn’t just a shoulder press anymore, it is putting laundry away on a high shelf. The more someone does not use their joints the less they work the way they should.”
“These exercises encourage people to stay independent and in their own homes for as long as possible,” said Beverly. “For the majority of seniors that is their own goal as well.”
Beverly said her background is in wellness and for her the benefits of the group exercise sessions includes connectedness. “Group fitness is group therapy for the body, it is a great way to see people and make friends, people realize if they have not seen someone for a few days, or they will have lunch together. People tell us how much of a boon it has been to their lives, and they are very open to having new people join the groups and that is the community side of it which is truly remarkable.”
She said the Greater Cleveland YMCA is one of the few in the country focusing on active older adults – she generally does not call people ‘seniors’ as she focuses on their activeness.
“We see over 50,000 visits a month and serve over 10,000 active older adults across our branches,” said Beverly. “It is an underserved population and in my opinion a lot of baby boomers do not want to go to senior centers as hat is where their parents went so the YMCA is a great place to meet people their age.”
“Wellness is about staying in your home and that comes from walks and fall prevention and knowing you can get up off the floor and community and connection, not being isolated. The fact of the matter is we are not just focused on exercise programing, older adults tend to feel tired a lot and they talk about fatigue and the lack of energy which is linked to stamina more than age. If you have gone from working every day to sitting round the house you will feel tired as you have lost that stamina, so we are helping increase that quality of life and improving training and exercise levels so people can enjoy their grandchildren and people in their lives more.”
The programs are continually developing and Beverly said: “This is my passion. We take older active adults and the small aspects of classes and grow them, we have developed knitting groups and pickleball and fundraising groups, anything where we can help our seniors keep moving we will sneak in and do.”
“Your neural pathways can become like dirt roads rather than paved roads and when we ask people to do exercises they are having to listen to us and that allows the neural pathway that controls the body to work a little smoother so their body is a little quicker to react. If we ca do some exercise we can keep those pathways a little more paved.”
She said the YMCA can be covered as a benefit in some programs, and added there are also scholarships available for those who may need help with the membership fee.