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Seniors benefit from healthy workout

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ATLANTA -

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, 70 percent of people between the ages of 50 and 74 are overweight. To combat that statistic, some seniors have embraced exercise, and as a result they are living longer and feeling younger.

Dorothy Waites, 86, believes in exercise.

"Once you do exercise, it's so easy to do dances and it's easy for you to move. It makes you feel so wonderful when you get up in the morning. It just makes you feel so good," said Waites.

Leslie Magnum, of Young at Heart Wellness, offers a strength training class at Quality Living Services in Cascade. It's just a warm up for his most popular class. Every week, Waites and than a hundred seniors pack a large room at Quality Living Service to exercise and sweat it out. It's part of a growing trend of seniors taking control of their health.

"The seniors come in here enthusiastic. They enjoy the idea of working out. It helps them to get around. It helps them to lift packages. It helps them to be independent and that's important," said Magnum.

It's important enough that Sunrise Senior Living in Buckhead offers a low impact but highly effective exercise class twice a week to its residents.

"Heart disease, cancers, diabetes. Exercise has been known to either help prevent or treat all of those diseases," said Bradford Bailey of Bailey Fitness.

Both instructors say it's never to late to get started. Whether it's high energy or slow and steady, the benefits of exercise are long-lasting.

"That's what's keeping me going really. I can walk much further than I did when I first started and I feel much better. It's just a great thing the exercise," said 90-year-old Ida Shladover.

"My self esteem improved. My self worth improved. Now I can go back and play some of the games that I played when I was a much younger person like tennis and softball," said 74-year-old Johnny Moses.

Experts say if you want to get started, the best exercise to simply start walking. Start off with a 10 minute walk, and then gradually increase your intervals. For more information visit http://youngatheartwellness.com/ and http://www.baileyfitness.net/about.html

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