At Last! A Gym Geared for Older Adults
Walk into most gyms and chances are you will encounter loud rock or rap music, a staff that offers little assistance or instruction (unless you pay extra for a physical trainer) and throngs of people competing for exercise equipment and space while hurrying to complete their workouts.

Enter Phytness Connection, however, and you're in for a very different experience. For starters, the club, located in Oakland's Montclair neighborhood, is never crowded. Instead, members are required to schedule their visits in advance and there are only a handful of men and women at any given time independently exercising or using the state-of-the-art stationary bicycles, treadmills and other machines. And in place of a blaring soundtrack, there is soft-playing music and an interior décor that exudes calm.

"Our facility was specifically designed to be a comfortable, pleasant environment for older adults to work out and stay in shape," says owner Laura VanHarn, explaining that Phytness Connection is aimed at Baby Boomers and their aging parents. Although the club is used by people of all ages, about 60 percent of its 200 members are older than 50, and 20 percent are over 70.

"The noise and the fitness frenzy you find at most gyms is intimidating and doesn't jibe with the bodies of older people. I'm 51 and I know," adds VanHarn, who has a doctorate from UC Berkeley in physical education with an emphasis in exercise physiology and kinesiology. "Here there's nobody showing off and people who may feel self-conscious aren't on display...This is the only facility of its kind in the country."

Among Phytness Connection's chief selling points is the individual attention its members receive from VanHarn and her staff of nine fitness coaches. "At most clubs, the staff has been told not to help people because they want them to pay for a physical trainer," says VanHarn. "We spend a lot of time teaching people how to exercise using good form and how to achieve their goals. We think of ourselves as educators rather than personal trainers."

Indeed, the personalized service begins the moment you enter the club. VanHarn, who developed fitness and corporate wellness programs for numerous Silicon Valley companies before opening Phytness Connection in 1995, interviews all prospective clients to review their physical needs and to get a sense of their goals and interests. If the person decides to join, he or she is scheduled for 10 hour-long appointments, at a cost of $700, to form a complete assessment and design an appropriate exercise program.

Membership, which costs $175 per month, includes one free coaching session each month plus unlimited access to the club's fitness coaches, who can answer questions and review members' individualized exercise programs.

"We find that our older members are generally more concerned with feeling better and operating with less pain than with looks and performance," says VanHarn. "We tailor their exercise routines to meet their goals, emphasizing posture and joint health. We want our members to be able to be independent and take care of themselves without help."

Phytness Connection's fitness coaches all have extensive training and experience in working with older people, including club members with Parkinson's, cognitive impairments, incontinence and other health problems. "It's important to understand the differences between what an aging body and a 30-year-old body can do," says VanHarn. "Our coaches understand that you need to take things more slowly and achieve goals more gradually. Movement with resistance is very different for older people. You can hurt them if you don't know what you're doing."

The health improvements that result from regular exercise at Phytness Connection are often dramatic. "I've seen many of our members gaining control of their bodies and doing things they haven't been able to do in years," says VanHarn. "We've had people who've been able to avoid hip replacements and women who've reversed osteoporosis. Their doctors are sometimes surprised and ask them what they did, and they say they worked out at Phytness Connection."

"Exercise with weight-bearing and resistance training is better than a lifetime of drugs for older people," she adds. "An older person's exercise program may start with simple stretching, but as it progresses they become strong as an ox. It's very gratifying for us to see people aging with dignity."

As Phytness Connection's reputation has grown around the East Bay, largely through word-of-mouth referrals, so has its size and membership, which VanHarn plans to cap it at 350 members so individual attention won't be sacrificed. The club moved two years ago from a smaller spot in the same neighborhood to its present 8,000-square-foot location, which includes saunas, a Pilates studio and a soon-to-open swimming pool equipped with underwater treadmills for aquatics therapy.

Phytness Connection is located at 6125 Medau Place in Oakland's Montclair District and is open from 6 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday and 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, call (510) 339-6546 or visit www.phytnessconnection.com.

(This article originally appeared in the Spring 2004 issue of Bay Area Summit)

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