A health scare last year caused Brunswick resident Adriana Philips to rethink some of her lifestyle choices. Now, every Tuesday at 2pm, the 66-year-old parks her laptop on a table in her backyard and joins a Zoom call. She is met by a personal trainer and other senior adults from her area. They are all looking to begin their fitness journey through participating in Merri-bek City Council’s ‘Fitness and Friendships’ program.

‘Fitness and Friendships’ is only $6.90 a session, making the program more accessible for the community. The hour-long sessions are specifically designed to help build a fitness foundation for those getting into exercise. This means focusing on exercises that anyone can do at home or at the gym, targeting major muscle groups to help with flexibility.

“I found it was a really good starting point for me to be a bit healthier,” Philips tells upstart.

“Everyone who was on the Zoom was in a similar place in terms of their capabilities of being able to do the exercise that we did.”

Sam Collins is a personal trainer at Top Gym Brunswick whose main area of expertise is coaching older adults. He speaks about the importance of tailoring exercises to suit his clients.

“When I plan a program for them, I really focus on trying to improve their flexibility and I make sure that when they do lift weights, the weights are light, and we focus more on form, so they get the full benefit of it,” he says.

The council program also encourages using weights that are under 1kg. The equipment is loaned out so that participants can use it at home, in an environment they are comfortable in.

Philips takes full advantage of this loans service, and even uses it as an excuse to squeeze in some extra exercise. On Tuesday morning, she collects the equipment from her local YMCA and carries it home. Then the next day, after the program, Philips walks back and returns the equipment borrowed.

“Walking on a Wednesday morning, returning the equipment is very good for me,” she says. “It forces me to exercise as my husband takes the car to his work.”

This helps her get at least two walks a week on top of the hour workout she does on a Tuesday.

“It forced a habit on me to keep me exercising and I don’t know the science of this, but I think it has been good for recovery I have found,” she says.

“There have been [times] when the car was left at home and I drove to drop off the equipment and I found that I was very sore throughout that day, but when I walk there, I feel a lot better.”

The program is one of the ways the Merri-Bek council is responding to the nation’s unhealthy trends. Over the last decade in Australia, the amount of people who are considered overweight or obese has increased significantly. In 2012 the number of adults who were above a healthy weight was 62.8 percent. In 2024, this figure grew to 66 percent. The risks of increased weight include heart disease, stroke, type two diabetes and high blood pressure.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the older people get, the more likely they are to live unhealthy lifestyles. Data shows that 78 percent of males and 69 percent of females over the age of 55 are overweight.

Philips credits the exercise program for helping her begin a healthier lifestyle, which she thinks has made her a much happier person.

“Before I started going, I was nervous about my capabilities in the gym, so I would always find an excuse not to go,” she says. “But after some motivation and after I found the program, it alleviated a lot of my fears about starting to go and exercise again. It’s like getting your own program at the gym from a personal trainer, but a lot cheaper.”

In a society where there is access to mobile phones and streaming sites, it is very easy to lean towards entertainment and neglect exercise. Collins says that programs and initiatives like ‘Fitness and Friendships’ are going a long way to motivate older Australians to live a healthier and better-quality life.

“When training old adults, it is important for them to do a program that they know and are comfortable doing,” he says.

“It is also important to remember that they’re most likely not training to be the world’s best body builder or athlete, they’re just trying to stay healthy and feel comfortable in themselves.”

Article: Hugo O’Callaghan is a third-year Bachelor of Media and Communications (Journalism) student at La Trobe University. You can follow him on Twitter @hugo_ocallaghan

Photo: An Elderly Man and Woman Sitting on Yoga Mats with a Laptop by Mikhail Nilov is available HERE and is used under a Creative Commons License. This image has not been modified.