AFTER-50 WORKOUT: Total Fitness

Exercises target heart health, aim to boost strength

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The image of a fitness instructor might conjure up a hyper professional encouraging his/her students to "feel the burn" and round out another set.

Well, not all instructors are created equal. Seventy-five-year-old Mary Lou Kimple, who has been a fitness instructor for more than 35 years, knows everyone has different needs when it comes to fitness.

Every week, Kimple guides a room full of active adults and allows them to keep up at their own pace.

"If we do 10, you do one," Kimple said of new students. "It takes three classes. After three classes you can do about 80 percent of the class."

The classes, called Total Fitness, use weight and resistance training, as well as cardiovascular exercises to get and keep students in shape.

"Total fitness is what I strive for. It strengthens the heart, lowers cholesterol and lowers blood pressure," Kimple said.

The exercisers, who Kimple explained are of different fitness levels, use weights and body bars to strengthen muscles, as well as exercise steps for their hips and knees.

"People our age have tremendous problems getting out of cars, chairs and beds," Kimple told the class. "You can just go to move a picture or something and pull a rotator cuff. Well, not us, we're strong."

Agnes Pittman attends the classes with her 88-year-old mother, Rose Carvelli.

"We've been coming for five years," Pittman said. "In the beginning she (Carvelli) sat down through most of the class. Now she can work."

Although the Total Fitness classes Kimple instructs for the City of Las Vegas are not limited to people over 50 years old, many of her students are.

"People get up in years and think, 'What's the use?' " Kimple said. "I always say, 'A body that rests is a body that rusts."

"Friends I know have a lot of trouble getting out of a chair," said 95-year-old participant Ina Hinds. "And they are a lot younger than me. I think you've got to keep exercising. I come to class once a week and walk my dog a mile a day."

Kimple said coming to a class just once a week can help give participants an enormous amount of flexibly, stamina and energy.

"The secret of perpetual youth is perpetual motion," she said.

Total Fitness classes are held from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday and from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday at the Durango Hills YMCA, 3521 N. Durango Drive, from 9 to 10 a.m. Monday and Friday at the Las Vegas Senior Center, 452 E. Bonanza Road and from 9 to 10 a.m. on Tuesday and Thursday at the Whitney Ranch Community Center, 1575 Galleria Drive in Henderson.

Each class is $3. Participants do not have to be YMCA members, and there are not contracts to sign.

For more information, call Kimple at 382-6357.