Redondo Beach About Town
Alison Clay-Duboff steps out in Zumba. Photo
BCHD hosts National Active Aging Week activities
The Beach Cities Health District is providing more than 60 free fitness classes, workshops, and lectures during National Active Aging Week. Classes from certified fitness trainers include Yoga, Zumba, Pilates, body sculpting, stretching, aerobics and fitness boot camp.
Physical activity and social connectivity improve the health of adults as they age, leading to fewer illnesses, better mental functioning and improved quality of life. BCHD’s Center for Health and Fitness is offering free fitness classes for a week to Beach Cities’ residents to find a program that works depending on their abilities and interests.
Manhattan Beach resident Raquel Bulman was participating in a Zumba class for the first time in two months on Tuesday morning, though she was taking it easy on her surgically-repaired knee. Her doctor advised her against jumping and twisting, so she kept to less-stressful stepping, shaking and arm waving.
She began taking classes at BCHD’s Center for Health and Fitness about three years ago.
“For me, keeping busy physically and mentally, you have to maintain everything in balance…to me, it’s really important.”
Bulman prefers CHF over other gyms because it’s well maintained and its users are respectful of the rules. She waves off the idea of going to any other gym, in part due to the activities CHF offers its members, especially the broad selection of dance-based classes.
“It frees you,” Bulman said. “No one’s looking to see if you do it well. It’s done for pleasure, and everyone is focused on their own thing. It’s great.”
CHF Programs Manager Julie Lumbao notes that the Health District’s gym has over 100 classes a week, including small group training, functional movement classes and yoga.
“We want to keep our members and guests independent for as long as possible,” Lumbao said, recalling one member who was training to make sure she could carry a case of bottled water from car to home for her and her husband.
“First we had to train her to get strong, then to get the right form,” Lumbao said.
For a complete list of activities go to www.bchdfiles.com/docs/chf/ActiveAgingWeek2019.pdf