SENIORS STAY ON THE BALL
  Idea Today—June 1996

In Quakertown, Pennsylvania, IDEA Master Members, Donna Duckworth, MEd, and Caryl Putchat, MEd, are raising the quality of life for a whole spectrum of fitness participants. Through Gentle Goodbodies, a Fit Pro-DUCK-tions program, this dynamic team of fitness professionals is making exercise available to people of all ages, but particularly to seniors with special needs.

Individuals with physical and mental disabilities, chronic illnesses, or impaired sight or hearing join Duckworth and Putchat’s classes to help build strength, improve circulation and promote independence in daily living. The Goodbodies instructions go out of their way to make the classes accessible by offering them at senior centers, personal care homes, adult day care centers and nursing homes.

Recently the instructors have been using the resistance ball with their seniors and have found it immensely useful. As she teaches, Duckworth explains to participants what’s happening:"Those little muscles around your spine are working to keep you steady on the ball. You’re working your abdominals, and you don’t even know it."

Trudy Luxton, 76, of Quakertown, has been attending Gentle Goodbodies for almost two years and loves the new fitness prop: "The ball helps your balance and coordination," she says. "Everyday things seem so much easier to do."

Putchat, a certified gerontologist as well as a fitness specialist, is highly satisfied with the ball workout. "It challenges muscles you may not have worked since you were a kid," she points out. "The mere task of staying on the ball uses postural strength along with coordination and balance."

—By Kate Watson

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