Let's Get Physical

Alas, that's no longer true. When muscles that haven't been used in years suddenly get a "mammoth stretch," she says, they can rip. One of her clients, Anthony Terrano, found that out the hard way. A former runner, he gained 30 pounds after arthritis stopped him from running at 55. To keep more pounds off, "I would do some weight lifting," he says, "but I was just injuring myself all the time."

Both boomer weekend warriors and former serious athletes run the risk of injuries when they jump feet first into new workout routines—the first group because they haven't done all that much to stay in shape over the years, and the second because they go at their new exercise regimens with the same gusto, if not the same abilities, that they had in younger years.

But for both groups, there's a way to feel the burn again without actually feeling pain. Trainers now advise the boomers to "start low and go slow," working gradually up to higher levels of fitness while conceding that they may not reach the peaks of their youth. The approach seems to have worked for Terrano, who has successfully adopted a mix of cardio, weight lifting and stretching. "At first it seemed like an embarrassingly tiny amount of exercise," he says. "But patience is key. You feel sort of like a wimp, but it's so much better than doing nothing at all."

Boomers are also changing the types of exercise they do, focusing on balance and overall strength. You'll still find the occasional 60-year-old trudging along on the treadmill, but largely, the generation has traded in its ThighMasters and StairMasters. Much of its new equipment is similar to what's found in physical therapists' offices. Latex resistance bands help boomers stretch out taut muscles, while plastic exercise balls force them to flex their backs and stay on balance. Moffat even has her healthy fifty- and sixtysomething clients perform one of the easy tasks she gives her therapy patients—they "train while they're brushing their teeth, just rising up on their toes at the sink." Recumbent bikes, which put very little stress on the knees, are also popular. So are tai chi and other mind-body workouts. And, of course, there are the old standbys, golf, swimming and tennis, which remain as beloved as ever.

Boomers are notoriously demanding, and gyms have responded to that, too. The personal-trainer fad never really went away, but among boomers who need help navigating new workout equipment, it's making a mini-comeback. "Younger people like to do their own thing, but boomers are used to having a little more guidance in other parts of their lives," says Cauchi, the B-Fit gym CEO. "They've got investment people and insurance people already. So when they go to the gym, they tend to really appreciate expertise." B-Fit gives each client a trainer, and it customizes workouts for them according to their favorite sports (so long as those sports happen to be classic boomer favorites like tennis, golf, hiking and biking). Cauchi says the approach has her "beating the business-plan numbers every week," and she's in talks to put boomercentric gyms in country clubs and golf communities around the nation.

In some respects, there's already a nationwide gym that caters to boomers. Curves is officially aimed at women of all ages, but it started out with a 30-minute workout designed for busy boomer women who didn't have much free time. "The boomers live in a world that is time-restricted," says Colin Milner, CEO of the International Council on Active Aging, "and we want everything quickly."