I’m a 102-year-old fitness instructor and I don’t plan on slowing down anytime soon
A FITNESS instructor who is over 100 years old leads multiple workout classes each day and doesn’t plan on slowing down.
Jean Bailey is a fit 102-year-old independent-living resident at a senior living community in Omaha, Nebraska.
She has been leading fitness sessions for other elders in the community since the COVID-19 pandemic first started in 2020, Good Morning America reported.
“We couldn’t get out and so we just get out on our floor and started and it just got to be a habit,” she told GMA.
She also said she’s been instructing for at least 15 years.
Bailey’s classes at Elk Ridge Village Senior Living consist of about 35 minutes of exercises done seated in a chair, with moves that target the rotator cuffs, knees, hips, shoulders and neck.
Under the centenarian’s supervision, she leads her fellow fitness buffs in activities that involve swinging their arms, raising their legs and touching their toes, according to Today.
Approximately 10 to 12 residents regularly attend Bailey’s class, which is held four times a week.
Bailey is a former 4-H leader and said she is “kind of strict” about the moves.
Despite instructing her class to focus on their movements, the fitness leader encourages everyone to get started at their own pace and “just move.”
“You don’t have to start out doing this as very strict. But, and we have a couple that — one girl has had a stroke and there’s one who has arthritis — and I just tell them to, I don’t care what they do but move,” Bailey explained.
Bailey, who used to own a floral business, noted that she also likes to engage with the community at Elk Ridge Village and enjoys playing card games – dealing blackjack especially.
HEALTHY HABITS
The mother of three also confessed that she didn’t necessarily work out all her life.
“Well, (I spent) most of my life at home with the kids — I didn’t need to do exercises,” she said.
“I was a stay-at-home mom and a 4-H leader and volunteered at the hospital for 34 years and I just have always been busy. I think you need to keep your mind and body healthy.”
She even admitted that her long life may just be hereditary though she does practice healthy habits.
Reaching 102 is “partly genes, I’m sure,” Bailey said.
“[But] I spent most of my life trying to eat the right things and do the right things.”
She said that she used to walk every day and still likes to walk, just shorter distances and with the help of a walker.
Bailey has also never smoked or had problems with excess weight.
“There isn’t any secret,” she said.
Though cancer has done a toll on her family, losing both a daughter and her husband to the disease, her own life has never been threatened by cancer.
When she was 96, doctors suggested heart surgery because a valve that goes into her main artery isn’t working the way it’s supposed to but she politely declined.
“I thought if God was ready for me, He’d take me and He hasn’t yet, so I guess that means I have things to do,” she declared.
Bailey eats lots of fruits and vegetables and has eaten meat her entire life.
She said, now, she’s come to a point where “I don’t mind if I don’t have a lot of meat,” she said.
The fit longevity champ even likes to partake in the occasional happy hour, saying she usually has a small glass of wine when she is with a group of people.
Bailey may make sure she eats her greens but she also said she never passes up on dessert, noting that she loves chocolate.
“I love it,” she said.
“I don’t always eat all my dinner, but I always eat all my dessert.”
The fitness instructor spreads happiness in addition to health in her class by sharing short quotes before starting the workout.
“I always have a saying for the girls before we start exercising and today was, ‘The only way you can multiply happiness is to divide it.'”