The treadmills at Anytime Fitness at Grant and Silverbell are busy this morning, with people walking and warming up before their workouts. While many gym-goers are younger, older adults are also hitting the gym to get into shape.

Inside the gym, Rachel Padilla is a physical therapy assistant at ATI Physical Therapy. She works with older adults after they have sustained injuries.

“Number one, first and foremost, is always make sure that you go and speak with your primary care provider,” she said. 

Before starting a new fitness program, she said older adults should discuss it with their physician and have bloodwork and other testing done beforehand.

“Make sure you are fully warmed up before any strength training,” she added.

Warming up includes cardio, such as riding a stationary bike or walking on the treadmill for five to 10 minutes before lifting weights.

“Another thing too is you want to make sure that you’re also working on your balance and your proprioception, too,” she said.

Exercises focusing on proprioception – the body’s ability to perceive its position, movement and spatial orientation without visual input – can help prevent falls, Padilla said.

Falls are the leading cause of injuries for adults over the age of 65, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than one in four older adults falls each year, and roughly 20% of those falls result in serious injuries, the data shows. 

The CDC recommends older Americans get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise a week and two days of strength training. They also recommend activities to improve balance throughout the week.

“Slow and steady wins the race,” Padilla said.

Older adults cannot jump right back into activities they did when they were younger, such as lifting heavy weights, she said, but they can build back over time.

Personal trainer Luna Raimo said 30-40% of her clients at Anytime Fitness fall into the 50 and older category.

She encourages those clients to take things slow and “meet themselves where they’re at again,” she said. 

Training older adults can evolve as she works around previous injuries, she said. “Most often they are recommended to start because of their physician.” 

To get people back into exercise, she recommends weight restrictions or avoiding certain movements, such as lunges or jumping jacks, for those with bad knees or back problems.

Pauline Pesqueira, 63, of Green Valley tries to be active every day.

“I do a lot of walking. I at least try to walk two miles a day,” she said.

With the Arizona heat starting to build up, she said some of her walks may move inside using a treadmill or elliptical so she can get her two miles in.

Darrel Ochoa, 60, a retired Air Force Master Sergeant who lives in Green Valley, also tries to be active every day.

“I like to do resistance training and cardio,” he said. “I don’t want to be aging and get frail and not be able to do all the things I want to do.”

For Ochoa fitness is more than exercise. It is also about maintaining strength, independence and quality of life as he gets older.

Arizona Sonoran News is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.