In The News

You just feel so healthy

63-year-old credits vigor to workouts with trainer

(PRESS ENTERPRISE | Monday, April 16, 2007 | By Liz Raftery)

BLOOMSBURG - Even after knee problems and two hip surgeries, 63-year-old Helen Allen says she's never felt fitter - and she attributes her newfound vigor to exercising with a personal trainer several times a week.

Pumping away on an elliptical machine at Bloom Health & Fitness, Allen gives patrons half her age a run for their money. She hops off the machine looking refreshed and chipper.

A lifeong athlete and former physical education teacher, Allen said she started doing individual exercises when knee and hip problems prevented her from participating in competitive sports. She eventually began going to gyms rather than working out in her home. But after years of staying active by playing on a team or against someone else, Allen says, adjusting to working out alone was difficult.

"I'd come to the gym and it was OK, but it was boring," the Bloomsburg woman explained. "I was missing out on that fun."

Competing against myself

When she began working with trainer Ben Eshelman last year as part of a weight-loss competition, she says, it was like discovering a whole new way to stay fit. Having someone to encourage and challenge her provided added motivation and made working out more enjoyable, Allen says.

"You're always being supervised in a healhy, positive way, but you're alsobeing encouraged to go an extra step," she said. "It makes it more like a game for me. I'm competing against myself."

And that's a mentaility she couldn't have achieved by working out alone, Allen insists.

"You're not going to push yourself," she explained. "It's not the same. You just don't go the extra step."

After a long day of work at the Verizon store in Bloomsburg, Allen says she looks forward to coming to the gym and taking instruction from Eshelman. He designs a different program for her almost every session, and keeps track of her reps so she can concentrate on exerting physical, rather than mental, energy.

"I don't have to think," she says. "I just zone out. He does the whole program."

Since she began the weight-loss program, Allen says, she's dropped 34 pounds.

My clothes fit better," she said. "I've never worn such small sizes."

Obsession or hobby?

Allen consistently exercises five or six times a week, she says, and continues to set new goals for herself. Right now, she and Eshelman are concentrating on reducing her body fat.

"I just love doing it," she said. "You just feel so healthy. It's sort of like an all-over-your-body facelift."

Others say it's too expensive, and claim they have better things to spend their money on. But Allen says personal fitness is so important to her that she thinks nothing of factoring the cost of her training sessions into her monthly budget.

And knowing that she's already paid for a set number of sessions is an extra reason not to skip an appointment, she added.

"It's like putting years in the bank for yourself," she says, "I think everybody should do it."

Liz Raftery can be reached at 387-1234 ext. 1323 or elizabeth.r@pressenterprise.net.