AEROBIC GRANDMA: Nonagenarian Beatrice Friedman sets fitness example

Beatrice Friedman has given a great deal to Sarasota over the 40-plus years in which she has spent time here: gifts of money and leadership to arts and human services organizations including the Sarasota Orchestra, Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee, Jewish Family & Children’s Service and the Women’s Resource Center, to name just a few. Now halfway through her 10th decade, she is giving a remarkably different kind of gift: She is sharing what she does to stay in the best possible shape.

This is a column about fitness including personal training. Was I surprised to be invited to see Friedman work out with her trainer and to write about it? Yes, I was — until I remembered what she has said so often about her philanthropy. She has counseled others to give publicly as she does: not for the notoriety — which, in truth, is as much of a nuisance as it is an honor — but to set an example and encourage others to give. That’s what she is doing by sharing her fitness routine: encouraging her contemporaries to stay as active as possible, as long as possible.

Friedman exercises with her personal trainer, Kellie Childers, who has 15 years of experience. She is a good half-century younger than Friedman and, somewhat surprisingly, she has clients of all ages and does not particularly specialize in working with older adults. Having watched the two working together, however, it is clear they are a good fit. 

They have been working together for seven years — the first five using the gym in Friedman’s building and, most recently, working out in Friedman’s condominium. There, Childers keeps a generous but simple array of equipment including assorted exercise bands, medicine balls in 2- and 4-pound sizes and a set of 3-pound weights. The size of the weights surprises visitors, but Friedman curls them with remarkable ease.

The goal of Friedman’s exercise program is simple: to maintain as much strength and mobility as possible, allowing her to get around and to enjoy the events and activities that she is part of. She has the inevitable orthopedic and balance issues associated with her age, and Childers has devised functional exercises to address them. 

Functionality really is key here: For example, Childers works with Friedman on sitting down using the quadricep muscles of the upper legs to control lowering down into the chair gently without jarring the bones. It is one of the things that they work on every time they meet, because it is one of the things Friedman does every day.

Functional exercises can be challenging as well as useful, and Childers does not hesitate to put her client through her paces. One way she does that is by laying out a mini obstacle course that makes Friedman anticipate what she has to do next. For example, a path from a starting point to a destination with an unavoidable barrier placed somewhere along the route — something Friedman must go over or around to reach the end point. It is an effective simulation of the real world in a controlled, safe environment.

Many of the moves in Friedman’s routine are the classics, cleverly and creatively adapted for her age. 

“Posture is a challenge,” notes Childers, “and we use the medicine ball to strengthen the core abs and lower back. We do seated rows with retraction for posture. We don’t do it all in every session, but we always do walking knee raises in the walker, and Mrs. Friedman does a fantastic job with those every time.”

Only weeks shy of her 95th (yes, 95th) birthday April 12, Friedman is still learning. She is working hard on her health and generously sharing her experience — and her characteristic determination. Her demonstration of the value of staying as active as one can for as long as one can and taking every possible step to improve one’s physical and mental agility is, perhaps, the greatest of the many gifts she has made to the community, and I, for one, deeply appreciate it.