WILLIE WORTHAM finishes up her set of chest presses and easily glides off the weight machine, ready to tackle another. Told she looks in great shape, with perfect posture and a steady gait, Wortham replies, "Yes, for a 91-year-old lady."
At this gym, she doesn't stand out so much as fit in.
Nifty After Fifty is a small, independent gym in Whittier specifically for middle-agers and beyond. It offers easy-to-operate pneumatic weight machines; comfortable, low-impact cardio equipment; yoga and tai chi classes; licensed physical therapy; balance training and even nonexercise programs such as a driving simulation course, dances and movie nights.
To the growing list of niche gyms -- for women, children and men -- comes gyms for the older set. The market is vast though largely untapped. Many older people who want to stay fit have had little interest in rubbing spandex with a younger, iPod-toting crowd at large gyms. As such, they've mostly been relegated to senior center programs, adult school classes or the odd session at a gym or YMCA.
"People walk into bigger gyms and see a younger clientele doing intense exercise, and that's sort of an intimidation factor," says Michael Rogers, an exercise physiologist and research director of the Center for Physical Activity and Aging at Wichita State University.
The new niche gyms and specialized programs in larger clubs offer a healthy dose of mostly moderate-intensity exercise in a comfortable, low-pressure environment, often with a specially trained staff.
Employees at these gyms and programs, says Rogers, are more likely to understand that some conditions, such as arthritis, call for specific types of workouts.
Among the gyms and programs wooing an older clientele is Club 50 Fitness, a new franchise of Curves-like circuit-training gyms based in Reno and begun in 2003. The chain boasts about 50 clubs across the country, with more to come (one is in Yorba Linda, another is due to open in Ventura).
Silver Sneakers fitness classes, a for-seniors program started in 1992 (free through some Medicare health plans), are in more than 1,200 gyms and YMCAs nationwide. Bally Total Fitness has them in 45 clubs nationwide and will add 22 soon. (About 23 Southern California clubs offer it now.) About 50 of the 600 or so Gold's Gyms offer the program, with four in Southern California. Even some larger independent gyms have special senior programming.
