Advertisement 1

Sims: London seniors' outdoor exercise class epitomizes resilience

Article content

Blue sky, white snow, healthy hearts.

Advertisement 2
Story continues below
Article content

At the Guy Lombardo pavilion, the open-air remains of the old Wonderland Gardens beside the Thames River, Jennifer Short has been encouraging some seniors to join her in a joyful act of defiance against the gloom of the pandemic.

Whether lockdown, cold or snowy, she has maintained an outdoor fitness class since the fall. Four days a week at 1 p.m. she meets a class for stretches, sprint intervals, hamstring curls and marching.

Article content

“Most of these fine ladies and gentlemen have been coming every week since September,” she said between exercises Tuesday.

Short, 62, is a City of London fitness instructor, trained at Western University’s Canadian Centre for Activity and Aging, and her target audience is people older than 55. Before the pandemic hit, she was teaching Londoners at venues all over the city both fitness and skating for about 17 hours a week.

Advertisement 3
Story continues below
Article content

That stopped with everything else last March. But last September, with the encouragement of some of her students, she started one-hour outdoor classes at Gibbons Park and Wonderland. Sometimes a dozen or so seniors would show up. People walking along the paved paths that wind along the river would stop and watch. Some asked if they could join in. One woman became a regular.

As winter came and the snow fell, Short moved her little class exclusively to the outdoor Wonderland Gardens dance floor, where there was a safer paved area. The participation numbers dropped with the temperatures, but there has been a hearty group of about eight people who have carried on with her.

The lockdown in January and February meant she had to limit the size of her group to four people, so the class split up. But they never stopped exercising.

Advertisement 4
Story continues below
Article content

Only one particularly snowy day last month cancelled the class. The next day, everyone brought shovels to clear the space. That’s dedication.

It’s also testament to Short, someone who had to re-invent herself and push forward when she and her family were faced with adversity.

On Tuesday, the only man in the class was her husband, Joseph Lanza, London Symphonia’s concertmaster. Short, an oboist, and Lanza met when they were in Orchestra London together. The changes brought on by the pandemic, she said, seems minor to “the speed bump” they went through six years ago, when the orchestra folded.

Music had been her life and profession and for a while she travelled to play with orchestras around the country. But, Short said, it got to be too much and it was clear to her she needed to make a big change.

Advertisement 5
Story continues below
Article content

She had been a downhill skier when she was younger in Ottawa and always a runner. Fitness for seniors made sense. So, she took the certification course and since then, she’s been all in, helping older people stay fit.

Outside of fitness instruction, Short still plays with London Symphonia and she manages her own online jewelry business. In her classes, she’s an Energizer bunny, encouraging her students to keep going and stay strong.

That’s been hard for all of us, especially now when we seem on the cusp of the pandemic’s end. This week’s clamour for vaccinations by local seniors who are 80 and older — 5,000 appointments were made Tuesday in less than two hours — signals the anxiety and impatience that has descended on most of us.

Short understands that and sees it in her older students, but she learns so much from them. The cracks are starting to show in our mental health. “You just have to grab onto everything that you can, grab onto every little bit of help, positive things you can do for yourself,” she said.

And what’s better than being outside with nature, fighting the cold with cardio and connecting with people.

Blue skies and healthy hearts will get us through the gloom.

jsims@postmedia.com

twitter.com/JaneatLFPress

Article content
Comments
You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.
Join the Conversation

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

Latest National Stories
    News Near Tillsonburg
      This Week in Flyers