By Setarreh Massihzadegan
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Just what does it mean to have a balanced fitness routine?

Brooksby’s Wellness Coordinator Amy Beaudette encourages residents to incorporate three components into their workouts: cardiovascular training, strength training, and stretching. She suggests getting your heart pumping with cardiovascular exercise like walking for 30 minutes a day at least three days a week. Stretching is often best just after cardiovascular exercise, she adds, when your body is still warm.

Strength training (also known as “resistance training”) should be done two to three times a week, depending on your needs and abilities. “Strength training is anything where you’re pushing or pulling against resistance—and it should be performed focusing on each of the major muscle groups,” Beaudette explains

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, strength training has many benefits, particularly in reducing the symptoms of osteoporosis, arthritis, and diabetes.

Getting started
It can be intimidating to start any new fitness program, but Beaudette and the fitness instructors at Brooksby work one-on-one with people to design plans specifically for them.

And Brooksby’s fitness center makes it easy with fitness classes, both on land and in the swimming pool. When Marjorie and Malcolm Pearson moved to Brooksby three and a half years ago, they had never participated in a fitness program.

“When I came here, I got involved in everything,” says Marjorie Pearson, who now does two fitness classes every day, five days a week, at Brooksby. “I think just getting together gave me the incentive to keep going.”

Malcolm Pearson works out at the fitness center for at least an hour, five days a week. Both he and his wife participate in the annual Brooksby Marathon, held this year on April 21. The 1-mile marathon at Brooksby raises money for the Special Olympics, and those who participate have the chance of taking home a medal. Marjorie Pearson won the bronze a couple of years ago.