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Fitness Pro Knows How Beginners Feel
Believe me, I know how to start a fitness program from scratch--I've had to learn to walk three times! No childhood athlete, I was chunky and clumsy and didn't even learn to ride a bicycle until age 29. I never knew exercise could be fun until I discovered aerobic dance in my thirties.
"I don't care about walking normally--I want to dance!" I replied. With years of determination and hard work, I got back into the aerobics room--this time as an instructor, not a student--and released my own workout video, The New LI Teknique. Sixteen years after that accident, I was again hit head-on by another out-of-control driver November 25, 1995. The same damaged leg and ankle were severely fractured. After months of excruciating pain and distress, I taught myself--literally one step at a time--to walk, bicycle, and dance again. For months I was a familiar figure walking the park on crutches or working out at the health club on any machine that could be done with two arms and one leg. I even attended my favorite line dance classes on crutches. I knew I'd be in pain whether I went out and did the things I love or stayed in bed. I decided I'd rather do the things I love. I had to get back to having a life. If you're a beginning (or a beginning-again) exerciser, I know how you feel. I know what it's like to be exhausted because you just walked down your driveway to the mailbox. But you can choose whether to be discouraged because that's all you can do today, or exhilarated because you did more than you could yesterday. Read about Joan's new
book, Better Than I Ever Expected:
Straight Talk about Sex After 60 (Seal Press, 2006). Joan's
Books | Fitness | Line
Dancing | For Meeting Planners
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I'm
not your usual exercise professional. I'm over sixty and I walk with a
limp at the beginning and end of the day, due to my uncanny knack for
attracting head-on automobile collisions. Despite these challenges, I
work as a fitness instructor, line dancing instructor, author, and motivational
speaker, specializing in helping beginners start and stick to an exercise
program. 
My
new-found fitness habit helped to save my life and speed my recovery after
an unlicensed driver hit me head-on in a near-fatal automobile accident.
I suffered a myriad of injuries, including a smashed face, neck fracture,
and shattered heel and ankle. "You'll walk again," doctors told me, "but
maybe not normally or painlessly."