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Boomers Joining Gyms to Put Some Hop in their Hips

The Washington Post, 5/26/09

Abstract:

One morning at the Sport & Health Club in Alexandria, a telling generational tableau unfolded.

A gray-haired gentleman, bent as a tree stick, climbed aboard a treadmill next to a young, lycra-clad woman who was vigorously exercising. Peering down at the controls, he began his workout slowly -- so slowly that the young woman became concerned.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

He was fine, thank you very much, just going at his own pace.

That young woman had better get used to it. With the baby boomers' impact on demography, people older than 55 make up the fastest-growing segment of the fitness industry, and more gyms are adding programming especially for them. In places where hip-hop once blasted as buff bodies hefted weights, a grayer clientele is signing up for yoga and aquatics classes or exercising on recumbent bicycles and elliptical machines designed for older bodies.

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