Silver Sneakers helps keep seniors fit
Fresh out of college in 1968, Marsh Miller would head to the YMCA to shoot hoops and play handball. A decade later, while raising a family and lacking the time to work out, he put away his sneakers and gym clothes.
Silver Sneakers, a program that allows an individual the opportunity to join a local gym at no cost, brought Miller back eight years ago.
“It’s so well worth your time to go down there and try different things out,” said Miller, a Butler Township resident. “They have such a variety of things (that it’s) guaranteed you’ll find something you like to do. It’s going to be very beneficial for you in the long run.”
Silver Sneakers is primarily for seniors, but sometimes it’s also for people with a disability. The gym is paid per visit by the individual’s insurance provider.
“We encourage people to come 12 times per month,” said Heidi Nicholls Bowser, director of membership and healthy living at the Butler YMCA. “It’s good for them and good for us. It’s our second-largest membership type at the Butler YMCA, would be the Silver Sneakers-type membership. That gives an idea of how popular it is.”
Nicholls Bowser said the YMCA is the largest provider of the program in the region. Only the family membership includes more gym-goers than Silver Sneakers, which brings in approximately 960 people.
“We have that community center branding,” Nicholls Bowser said. “We have probably more than anybody in the area, along with the Rose E. Schneider YMCA in Cranberry.”
One of the Silver Sneakers program’s main aims is to encourage seniors to be consistent with their exercise. Miller and his wife, Sharon, are an example of that. They’ve been going to the Butler YMCA for eight years, sometimes up to five days a week.
The YMCA has a pair of designated, instructor-led Silver Sneakers courses each week, but the members aren’t limited to just those particular activities.
“A lot of people ask the question, ‘Is it limited what I can use because I’m a Silver Sneakers (member)?’” Nicholls Bowser said. “They wonder because it’s free. Once you’re a Silver Sneakers member, you can use everything we have in the Y and you have access to all classes.”
Other sessions on the schedule for active, older adults include a strength class, chair yoga and a variety of aqua classes.
“We have classes in the pool every single day,” Nicholls Bowser said. “Those would be like aqua exercise for arthritis or gentle-water exercise. Those are very popular.”
Miller has tried his hand at several of the classes offered, including those that touch upon health topics such as weight loss. He enjoys the camaraderie the courses provide and the schedule that keeps him in a routine, among other things.
“The great thing about it is the cost,” Miller said. “It’s such a variety of classes that you get. When you’re around other people, it sort of motivates you to do more and do better.”
Miller used to be able to do his favorite pair of classes, High East Boot Camp and a weight training class, back-to-back. He was hospitalized with COVID a year ago and is still trying to get back in the swing of things, he said.
“I hate to admit it, but I’m getting old,” Miller said, laughing. “I’ll be 75 here soon … My mother just passed away three weeks ago and she was 104-and-a-half. I’ve got about 30 more years of going to the Y, that’s the way I figure.”
Seniors should check with their insurers to see whether or not Silver Sneakers is available to them. The YMCA also has a portal where it can check eligibility for those prospective members in a matter of minutes.
