I visit my grandmother at her assisted living community in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin about once a month, typically to chat for a few hours or to help with whatever jigsaw puzzle she has out on her table.
During one visit, she suggested that I tag along for the community’s daily stretch, and I agreed, eager to understand more about what her day-to-day life entails. I then spent the next half an hour in one of the facility’s common areas, tapping my feet, lifting swimming pool noodles above my head and wiggling my fingers and toes.
So when I recently headed to The Mather to participate in an hourlong, aerobics-based workout class, my expectations weren’t terribly high. I had an idea of what was ahead after discussing fitness programming at the life plan community in Evanston, Illinois with Anita Tomasevic, life enrichment manager, and Beth Bagg, director of resident services. But my low-intensity experience at my grandmother’s had me thinking I would hardly break a sweat.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.