Brizdle finds fitness fun seven days a week

Monday through Friday, Barbara Brizdle plays golf and/or tennis. Saturdays, Sundays and at least one other day, she takes a 10-mile bike ride at a healthy pace approaching 15 mph. Twice a week, she works with a trainer for an hour of cross-training that includes everything from weight work to paddleboarding to juggling a soccer ball or a one-on-one game that she delights in winning.

“Nothing,” Brizdle says, “is more fun than kicking the ball past your trainer.”

“Fun” is a major theme of this fitness profile. Brizdle’s personal trainer is Don Bickel, who calls his business Fitness Forever. His fitness platform has three planks, interlocking ones at that.

“My whole thing is consistency, variety and having fun,” he says.

His concept of variety emphasizes a balanced fitness routine that encompasses strength, endurance and flexibility. And he practices what he preaches. Brizdle says her trainer is extremely creative.

“He keeps it fun so I don’t get bored,” she says. “And he doesn’t let me get away with stuff.”

Early in his career, Bickel was a bodybuilder and triathlete who managed a gym in Richmond, Va. He moved in 1992 to Sarasota and started out doing corporate and rehab work but soon developed a private training practice that includes clients at the Beaches, Beachplace, L’Ambiance and other communities. It is no overstatement to say that fitness and sharing his enthusiasm for it are his life: He will compete in his fourth Ironman triathlon in 2015, and he coaches cross-country at Sarasota High School. He also develops weekend fitness activities for children in his neighborhood. His Fitness Forever practice includes a like-minded, well credentialed partner, Chaz Mirtolooi.

Bickel and Brizdle got together about five years ago. The trainer then also worked with her late husband, Larry Schoenberg, known for his indefatigable spirit, legendary love of knowledge and passion for its transference and development via illustrated manuscripts. Since her husband’s death, Brizdle says her training sessions “keep me going.”

Brizdle comes honestly to her enthusiasm for an active lifestyle. Her father was an athlete — an all-star basketball player — and she has always done sports as well. She was a tree-climbing tomboy as a little girl and a canoeing enthusiast as a teen.

“I was a platinum canoeist at age 16 and taught it at camp,” she said.

Today, at 71, she puts that skill set to work on her paddleboard; she maneuvers it with impressive ease all the while doing wonders for her balance, strength and endurance and — here it comes again — having fun.

In addition to sports, Brizdle’s enthusiasms include extensive work on behalf of the community. She recently completed her term on the national board of the Alliance for Children and Families. She is a past president and director emeritus of Jewish Family & Children’s Service of the Suncoast. Her newest undertaking is organizing an online auction for a program benefiting Cure Alzheimer’s, a nonprofit organization that supports research with the highest probability of slowing, stopping or reversing Alzheimer's disease.

Says Brizdle: “I am trying to keep healthy to be able to do these things. I stay fit to do the things I love to do.”

Molly Schechter is an ACE-certified personal trainer since 1996. She has a specialty certification in older-adult fitness plus YogaFit Instructor Training, SCF Yoga Fundamentals I and II and Power Pilates™ mat certifications. She teaches Pilates mat classes and “Joy of Stretch” yoga classes at the Bayfront Park Recreation Center from November through April.

Email her at [email protected].