Saratoga News

Style

Aerobics ends early--and birthday party begins

By Cyrus Hedayati

Mary Murphy has been attending her chair aerobics class for more than 10 years, but today's session is special: this class ends early for the celebration of her 99th birthday.

"You can't get a better value than this," said the Saratoga resident in between bites of cake and ice cream. "Great exercise, great people."

The chair aerobics class offered by the Southwest YMCA of Santa Clara is a cardiovascular workout class that does not put stress on the joints, making it ideal for health-conscious seniors such as Murphy, who has used a wheelchair for the past three years.

"No one's trying to kill themselves out here; we're just trying to stay healthy," said John Milstead, teacher of chair aerobics and other classes at the Southwest YMCA. "We don't stress and we try to make it fun."

The class is one of several unique services offered at the Southwest YMCA, from citizen school programs for middle school students to aqua fitness classes for nursing women.

"This branch [of the YMCA], for a number of years, has had aggressive programming for people with special needs," said Liby Kava, membership director at the Southwest YMCA. "So what we do is make sure that we have programming that includes you."

One of the ways the Southwest branch includes seniors, especially those suffering from arthritis, is with its pool, which is one of the few in the area that is both indoors and heated.

Because it affects bone sensitivity, arthritis can often prevent people from swimming comfortably. "To a person with arthritis, the water will seem colder than it actually is," said Milstead, who also teaches the aqua arthritis class, which helps arthritis patients make their joints more flexible.

The Southwest YMCA offers several other specialized classes that take advantage of its pool, including aqua yoga and aqua fitness for women who are or have been nursing.

"The water is such a great medium for exercise," said Kava. "Everything is gentle there."

The branch also offers special facilities that "help people who are new to exercise get going," said Kava. Its gym equipment includes a computer program that tracks each member's workout routine, recommending areas of the body to focus on and instructing the member on how to use each machine.

The Southwest YMCA also accommodates disabled residents, including children. Through its off-site child care centers, the branch attracts disabled youth who normally struggle to find health facilities they can use.

Kava said she recalled one woman who called her looking for a place for her daughter, who has cerebral palsy, to exercise. "When she found out that's what we do, that's what we're all about, I swear she was crying on the phone."

It helps that the Southwest YMCA offers a totally accepting environment, said Milstead, who is mentally disabled as the result of a brain injury. Milstead helps many of the children with special needs, such as those with autism, learn how to use the gym.

"I really can't imagine another gym where disabled kids could participate like they do here," he said.

While getting youth involved has always been a goal of the YMCA, the Southwest branch's citizen schools program encourages teenagers to develop career skills early from members of their own community. Working with students from Monroe and Campbell middle schools, adult volunteers can teach their apprentices everything from music performance to public speaking.

It is especially important to develop career goals and community ties in middle school students, said Kava, because "that's the age when we begin to lose them."

The sense of community that Murphy and her friends experience, said Kava, is the result of the branch's inclusive approach.

"For them, I think [the chair aerobics class] is as much a social activity as a health activity," she said.

But for Murphy, the most important reason for going to the YMCA is staying active and healthy.

"I love exercise--just the chance to do it," she said.