BARBARA SNOW reckons the Maleny Gym has been her lifeline in more ways than one. “I had been looking after my husband Bill for eight years”, says Barbara. “He couldn’t travel or do anything and I had to keep my strength up. That’s when the people in the gym were really there for me. “
“Some of the girls just put me under their wing”, says Barbara with a smile. “They took me out, to all sorts of things because for 15 years I had hardly been outside Maleny. Since then, I have come on in leaps in bounds.”
The social support of the Maleny Gym has been very important to Barbara, but at 71 she’s also had need of special exercise routines. For some years she struggled with osteoporosis but now it’s gone, she says through a carefully constructed program of exercise.
“At first I had thought I had been misdiagnosed but my doctors told me it was mainly the gym and weight-bearing exercises that had been the most important factor in clearing it up.”
Master weight trainer Ray Louden adjusts Barbara’s program every few weeks according to her doctor’s reports.
She spends an hour, three times a week, and when she’s away she really misses the gym routine.
“When I went over to WA and the caves at Margaret River recently, I was really pleased because I left the young ones behind”, she adds with a laugh.
“I wish there were more of my age who came to the gym, just to keep their joints moving, or their arthritis under control.
“The gym is my life”, says Barbara, “and going to coffee afterwards with the girls”, she adds with another laugh.
Maleny Community Gym is at the Maleny Showgrounds. Ph: 54942 776, email: apriladsett@hotmail.com
The Gym Christmas party will be held at the gym on Friday 11 December at 6pm. Sausage sizzle is supplied but BYO salad and drinks. The Gym will be open 6am to 10.30 am on Christmas Eve and closed in the afternoon. Reduced hours of 6am to 10am will apply 29, 30, and 31 December and will reopen to normal trading on 4 January at 6am.
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