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Never too late to hit the weights
Mountain View physician couldn't find a gym offering the training she wanted — so she started her own

by Diana Reynolds Roome

"A lot of what we thought of as aging is in fact inactivity," said Dr. Bernadette DeArmond, founder and program director of the Reconstruction Zone, a Mountain View fitness center for men and women over 40. Lowering herself to the floor, she pushes herself up again using her thighs. "Leg strength is one of the biggest factors in whether you need assisted care. If you can't lift your own weight, how will you get up?"

Clad in a navy blue sweatshirt, DeArmond demonstrates some of the shiny new equipment in the center, which offers customized conditioning programs for older adults, beginning exercisers, and people with chronic health conditions or injuries. (The center also offers golf and ski training for anyone). Pulling on the smooth hydraulic gears of a cross-trainer, she admits that the creation of the Reconstruction Zone was partly the result of a personal quest.

"I'd spent the last 20 years sitting at a desk and was woefully out of shape," said DeArmond, a physician with a specialty in public health, who worked for several Bay Area pharmaceutical companies designing and managing clinical studies. Though she walked and hiked in the Sierras, she had ruptured a disk and started looking for a gym that could help her get back in shape. She was looking for serious weight training to build muscle strength, but wanted to avoid making her injury worse.

Searching the gyms in the area, she couldn't find exactly what she wanted and gradually realized there was only one solution: to create her own. "I didn't want it to be torture — I wanted it to be fun," said DeArmond. "And I didn't want loud rap music."

At first glance her light and airy gym may look like many others, but what it offers is unusual. Not only does DeArmond know all of the clients and their health challenges, but as a medical doctor she understands what this means for their exercise routine. She monitors programs for each individual, including people with conditions such as diabetes, heart disease or arthritis.

This quiet, friendly place encourages all comers, regardless of their age or fitness level and whether they have exercised before or not. Some are referred by physical therapists or chiropractors, but many clients are healthy, active people ranging from 40 to over 90, who come through word-of-mouth referrals from friends.

State-of-the-art exercise machines are easy enough for beginners but also challenging enough for athletes. DeArmond researched equipment for a year with her daughter and business partner, Jennifer DeArmond, a lawyer and personal training student, before deciding which would be the best fit for their clients. Most are based on hydrolics rather than weights, which offer gentle resistance and present less risk of muscle strain.

The staff helps people adapt machines to their special requirements. For example, the NuStep Recumbant Cross Trainer allows them to work arms and legs together from a well-supported seated position. It works well for a client who has problems with balance due to Parkinson's, and for another client who had a stroke a few months ago and wants to build strength in her damaged arm. A few individuals use wheelchairs or walkers, but get their exercise here regardless.

"The biggest benefit is the change from being sedentary — a couch potato — to moderately active. And being brave enough to come in the door is half the battle," said DeArmond, remembering her own reluctance to work out next to body builders. "Overall, the risk of inactivity is far greater than any risk from exercise."

Many healthy people have never been in a gym before, according to DeArmond. Some may never have owned a bike or learned to swim. Others have done plenty of walking and swimming, which are good exercise but they don't build muscle. Strength training, she points out, adds power for all kinds of daily activities, and makes a big difference in whether you can walk at the Baylands, get in and out of the tub or lift a grandchild without being afraid.

"Strength training is key as you get older," said DeArmond, "because there are no more growth hormones flooding the system. Yet a 90-year-old can make the same percent of improvement as a 20-year-old."

Gene Kershner, 77, increased his strength using the leg press — upping the weight over time from 230 pounds to 275 pounds — and the chest pull, on which he went from 65 pounds to 90 pounds.

"Bernadette was very careful in instructing me on the machines so I didn't strain my trick shoulder," said Kershner as he worked out on the Keiser machine, which provides both positive and negative resistance to each muscle group. After working out here regularly since soon after the gym opened in August 2004, he finds it easier now to get up and down stairs and work in the garden.

"I never had sore muscles and yet I was building up weights. My only complaint is I wanted to look like Tom Cruise in a year, and it's been a year and a half now and I'm not there yet," he quipped, adding that recently he had to buy a new tux because his old jacket no longer fit due to the increased muscle in his upper body.

Even though few people will achieve six-pack abs, studies have shown that exercise can bring multiple benefits — more energy, lower cholesterol and better cardiovascular health. And it can counteract many of the signs that most people take to be part of normal aging, such as muscle loss, weakness, bone loss, impaired balance and metabolic changes.

Weight loss is harder to achieve than fitness, as people need to watch their diets carefully as well as exercise with a higher intensity and frequency than is required for general health, but moderate exercise can help keep the pounds off. This in turn reduces the burden on the heart, joints and muscles, so that everything becomes easier.

"There are few reasons not to exercise, but lots of excuses," said DeArmond, who is certified as a personal trainer by the International Sports Science Association. However, she adds that there are some people who really should not exercise, such as those with unstable diabetes or acute heart conditions. Others should check with their doctors if they have not exercised for a long time.

"Exercise is the greatest thing anyone can do for themselves," said DeArmond. "The older you are, the more you need it. It's never too late to start exercising, and we never lose the chance to improve."

INFORMATION:

What: Reconstruction Zone Fitness Center

Where: 1954 Old Middlefield Way, Suite 1, Mountain View

Contact: (650) 564-9388, www.reconstructionzone.com

Cost: One-time enrollment fee is $60; monthly fee is $65, or $50 for seniors (65 and up), or $50 for families (two or more persons); daily drop-in fee (without membership) is $8. A two-week free trial membership is also available.

Other info: "Growing Stronger: Strength Training for Older Adults," www.cdc.gov