A sedentary lifestyle is something many people assume as they grow older. But that doesn’t have to be the case. Regular low-impact exercise benefits many seniors throughout Scotts Valley and the San Lorenzo Valley each week.
Ben Lomond’s Carol McQuillin took over leadership of an exercise class at the San Lorenzo Valley Senior Center at Highlands Park more than 15 years ago.
The class, which meets from 10 to 11 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, is meant to help loosen and energize seniors who otherwise might sit in their homes with arthritis or simply stiffening up.
“When you first get there, you can’t lift your back off the chair — you have flabby abs,” McQuillin said.
With regular participation, though, muscles get stronger and seniors become more limber, she said. One positive outcome, McQuillin said, are fewer aches and pains related to inactivity.
“The best thing to do is move,” she said. “If you stop moving, you start sitting, and too much sitting makes you stiff.”
In class, the students stretch their hands, fingers, back and feet and lift weights of 1 to 3 pounds.
However, exercise also works wonders for the mind, according to studies.
The National Institute on Aging has found that seniors who exercise three or more times each week are less likely to develop dementia than those who do not.
Beulah Sutton, a 103-year-old Oak Tree Villa resident in Scotts Valley, exercises every day and attributes her continued health to staying active.
“It’s a positive attitude and lots of exercise,” Sutton said.
The oldest person at the assisted living community, she celebrated her 103rd birthday in October.
More than a dozen men and women at Oak Tree Villa, including Sutton, exercise regularly with Tootie Smith, an energetic one-time resident close to 90 years old who teaches an hourlong exercise class three days each week.
When she first went to the home almost 22 years ago, she noticed a lack of organized exercise.
“It really hurt me to see some of those people to start sitting all the time,” Smith said. “I wouldn’t take it. That’s no way to live the rest of your life.”
Smith runs a class that spends an hour doing seated exercises and a second half-hour class that uses resistance bands for strength training.
“She’s really good,” said Barbara Eckhardt, an Oak Tree Villa resident. “The activity, it keeps you going.”
Elsie Smith echoed Eckhardt.
“You feel stronger,” Elsie Smith said. “It just gives you more energy for the day.”
Tootie Smith said she enjoys her work with the class, and she encourages participants to go at their own pace.
Exercise for seniors helps with depth perception, coordination and strength — things it’s easy to lose with a sedentary lifestyle.
“I can’t emphasize walking enough, even if they are using walkers,” Tootie Smith said.
Oak Tree Villa activities director Amy Lathrop touts Smith’s class.
“For some of them, that’s the only exercise they get,” she said.
