At about 9:45 a.m., on Mondays and Wednesdays, the Kalona YMCA starts to fill up with seniors, aged 62 or over, as they change into gym shoes and stow their belongings along the bleachers in the gym. By 10 a.m. on Wednesday, April 7, over 20 participants had shown up and readied themselves in chairs spread out across the gym floor, stowing their hand weights and water bottles underneath their chairs.

Then it was time to get to work.

Fitness instructor Angie Boyse first leads the participants through some warmup and stretching activities, such as shoulder rolls and ankle touches as “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” by McFadden and Whitehead plays from a speaker at her feet.

Before long the participants are punching with their weights, doing sit-and-stands and generally working up a sweat.

“I have been teaching fitness classes for 25 years. Moving into being able to keep seniors fit and active and knowing that they can do everything they did 15 or 20 years ago, with some modifications, that’s really important to me,” Boyse said. “It’s a lifestyle thing, making sure that they stay active. And it’s also social, which is so important for them. Especially this last year, seeing them get out and about again, seeing each other again, has been awesome.”

Boyse also teaches a senior fitness class at the Wellman Parkside YMCA on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9-9:30 a.m. Although this class is smaller, some participants have been coming to it for over 11 years.

“Really good instructors and the atmosphere keeps me coming back,” said Tish Yoder, who has come to the class since its inception. “There’s no judgement here. We all do as much as we can. It builds strength and balance and flexibility.”

Yoder also walks with a partner and participates in spin classes, but said the group environment of the senior fitness class is what attracts her to the program.

“When it comes to doing strength exercises on my own, I’m not motivated at all,” Yoder said. “Which is why this class is so good.”

Yoder said that during the COVID lockdowns, when they were unable to come to the exercise class, she still talked on the phone with other classmates. They miss each other when they can’t make it to class.

At both the Kalona and Wellman classes, the participants are welcome to gather and enjoy coffee together once class is done.

Boyse said the classes are open to all kinds of fitness levels. Every exercise can be modified in some way to meet the abilities of the participants.

“Sometimes [the participants] don’t have as much core stability, so they can lean back against their chair to help them. They can use weights, or they don’t have to use the weights. Just being able to do some movement, some range of motion, is so important. Modification is so important because it lets them know that they can still do it, that they can still come and still get something out of it.”

Boyse said one of the most rewarding things about teaching the senior fitness classes is that she can see the attendees progress, get stronger, get healthier as time goes on.

“You can see their progression, they started at one level and got stronger, better range of motion, more flexible,” Boyse said. “You can see their progression through the weights they choose — they might have started with three-pound weights, but now they’re using four pounds, and now they’re using five pounds. You can see their progression in flexibility — they might not have been able to touch their toes and now they can. It’s just incredibly rewarding.”

For more information about the senior fitness classes offered in Kalona and Wellman, visit washingtony.org.