Meet the inspiring woman who will guide us through our new healthy aging workout series.
Use it or lose it.
You hear it all the time, but when it comes to maintaining strength, balance, and coordination as we age, remaining active is key. But it’s not enough to take your morning stroll and call it a day. Staying fit well into your sixties, seventies, and beyond requires honing in on the muscle groups you may have taken for granted before you qualified for Social Security.
The best way to do that? Pilates, says Lindy Royer, a physical therapist and instructor for Lindywell, which provides online classes.
Royer is living proof of the power of this low-intensity, low-impact form of exercise. She’s 69, and when we spoke with her she’d just returned from a weekend skiing Chamonix, a notoriously difficult Alpine pass that would be challenging even for experienced skiers with much younger knees.
Royer has practiced Pilates religiously for the past 25 years, and she credits it with not only keeping her exceptionally fit but helping her turn her life around. She was 45, in rehab for alcohol dependence, and had just been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease when she got on her first reformer; the workouts centered her, she says, and helped her focus on the aspects of her physical health within her control.
That’s the “beauty of Pilates,” Royer tells us: “It can always be adapted to meet people where they are.”
That’s the idea behind this new workout series Lindywell and Royer have created exclusively for Katie Couric Media. These short guided sessions can be done by anyone — no matter your age or fitness level — and without any expensive equipment. Each video will introduce you to exercises that will gauge your strength and mobility and help you gradually improve.
They’re also specifically designed to counteract the age-related muscle loss that begins in our thirties and progresses until things like retrieving your bag from the overhead bin becomes a Herculean task. The less active we are, the more dramatic that decline. But it’s not irreversible: “Our bodies are plastic; we can change and adapt if we take action now,” Royer says.
Throughout the next few weeks, we’ll be rolling out these simple routines in Wake-Up Call and in our new women’s health newsletter, Body and Soul — subscribe (for free!) right here. And if you just can’t wait to get started, we’ve snagged you a discount: Try Lindywell’s online classes here and you’ll get 14 days free and save up to $50, just for being a member of the KCM community — no promo code required.
Stay tuned for more from Lindy and the Lindywell team.
