At 60, she loves to exercise and train others
If she could, Lynn Heckathorn says she would like to transplant someone else’s mind onto her body so that they could know how good it feels to be fit. “Oh, to have someone understand what that feeling is, how fast I can move, how I can bend, pick up things without even thinking about it! If I could bottle that feeling, I would!”
Last fall at the age of 60, Lynn became a personal trainer at the Wellness Center, on top of her previous certifications as an exercise instructor and a Pilates and YogaFit teacher. She knows plenty of people her age who are having trouble staying active and they chalk it up to “just getting older”.
“The saddest thing is to see people my age who are already unable to do so much,” she said. “Plus, I get this comment a lot: ‘You’re so thin, you don’t need to work out’—and I have to say, ‘I’m thin because I’m here’!”
Lynn is now a staff member, but originally she was one of a handful of Wellness Center members who enrolled as soon as the doors opened back in 2000. She became a member, she says, because she just loves to exercise. “Some people say I’m obsessed. I’m not obsessed.”
After about five years of being a loyal and consistent member, Lynn noticed a flyer that said, “Love to exercise? Why not get paid for it? Join the team.”
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Lynn wasn’t even in the market for a new job. She had a part-time job she loved, working in retail in downtown Peterborough, and she wasn’t too sure she could teach. But, she finally agreed to work with Meredith Stephens, who would help prepare her and two other members for certification by the American Fitness Association.
After certification, the first class Lynn taught was Group Strength Training, which is still being taught by Warren Sponsler, another member who turned instructor. (We’ll introduce you to Warren here on FitNotesNH soon!) A bit later, Lynn got certified to teach Pilates and she now leads many of those classes at the Wellness Center. She also leads Step, Muscle Toning, Forever Fit, ABCs and some Yoga. Between her classes and sessions with trainees, she puts in about 28 hours at the center each week.
“It’s nearly a full-time job to keep up with the continuing education,” Lynn said. “That…and keeping up with the clothes, the music, the shoes.”
She currently serves six training clients, ranging in age from 47 to 75. She said the trainees are either brand new to the Wellness Center and want a trainer to assure them they have their “form” just right, or they have been members for a while and want to take their fitness to the next level. “And some might just feel a trainer will motivate them better than on their own,” she said.
Lynn says her exercise lifestyle has enabled her to bounce back quickly from some surgeries she’s had over the years, as well as to maintain an even keel when she stopped taking estrogen and “went a little wacky”—as she puts it.
She laments that so many see the problems in their bodies as just aging and that they assume, as they get older, things are just going to get worse and worse for them. “They think it’s inevitable, but it’s clearly not.”
She’s convinced her weight-lifting and weight-bearing exercises will help her avoid the severe osteoporosis her mother endured. “Just jumping 30 times a day is a good way to prevent that,” she says. “Bearing the weight of your body on your bones is so helpful.”
Lynn confesses that potato chips are one of her vices. “I have to stay away from them. My husband is so nice, he’ll bring me a bag of them, but it’s like putting a bottle of vodka in front of a alcoholic. I love salt and the carbo stuff.”
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Great blog! I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I loved your story Lynn! I’m 61 and am in pretty good shape, I think. I’m right there with you when you say people say they can’t do certain things because they’re just “getting older”.
I tried to convince my sister to start an exercise program when I was 29 and she was 40. She just whined about how much older she was and said, “I can’t.” I’m still exercising and still trying to tell her she has no excuses because now I’m way older than she was back then.
I feel so lucky to have the Wellness Center!!! I wish everyone could benefit from it.
[...] responsible for my improved posture. And I can truthfully say I feel taller. As I returned to Lynn Heckathorn’s Basic Pilates class after my 4-year absence from the Wellness Center, I kept that feeling in mind to [...]
[...] Lynn Heckathorn, who has taught beginner and advanced Pilates at the Bond Wellness Center since 2007, says that Pilates classes add strength, lengthening and control to a weekly workout. (Pilates classes are also taught by Meredith and Anne at the Wellness Center. See the various schedules for complete descriptions.) [...]
[...] According to Wellness Center instructor Meredith Stephens, the class was added to the Wellness Center lineup back in January because of numerous requests from members. She and Joan Ahern both lead Zumba™ classes. Meredith teaches every Tuesday at 4:30, while Joan leads classes on the occasional Friday afternoon designed to be a little slower-paced than the Tuesday edition. The Friday class alternates every other month with StepTonicTM, taught by Lynn Heckathorn. [...]
[...] by Lynn Heckathorn, the class is a cardio workout that builds on the “classic” moves in a Step [...]
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