NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) - Chances are, this year’s fitness resolutions look a lot like last year’s. Just ask a few people working out at the New Bedford YMCA on New Year’s Day.
The people with the drive to work out on New Year’s Day were not the resolution-makers, but the people who have made a long-term commitment to their health.
“I feel one hundred percent better than when I worked,” said Gilberto Monteiro, 66, of New Bedford, who retired from construction several years ago.
When he worked, he felt like he was 70 years old. Now, he feels 40, he said. He has exercised almost every day since 2009, using the stationary bicycle, elliptical, treadmill and weight machines.
At first, he couldn’t even do five minutes on a cardio machine, so he did two.
No doctor told him to start working out; he told himself.
It makes him feel powerful, “thank God,” he said.
Another long-term fitness goal brought Kristine Buss, 44, of New Bedford to the YMCA on the first day of 2018. She started running last February and participated in her first Santa Run last month with her husband and children.
She doesn’t love running, but the Santa Run is a good family goal, and she runs for her health, she said.
“It’s a good way to stay fit in your 40s,” she said.
It’s a good way to stay fit in your 70s, too. But running isn’t for everyone. For 79-year-old Larry Roy of Rochester, free weights are the workout of choice.
“It tones up my muscles, and I don’t really care for the restriction of machines,” he said.
Roy estimates he has lifted weights for about 60 years, since his Air Force days. He goes to the YMCA three times a week.
New Year’s Day was like any other workout day for Tristan Souza, 25, of New Bedford, who tracks her routine on her phone. When she’s not working with children at Kids Ink in Dartmouth, she’s doing CrossFit, free weights and the treadmill.
Souza used to be in the military, and she has worked at the Y and other gyms, so fitness is a way of life, she said.
That seemed to be the case for many who got out of the house on a sub-freezing holiday to start 2018 on a healthy note.
“I think it’s part of who I am at this point,” Souza said.
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Information from: The (New Bedford, Mass.) Standard-Times, http://www.southcoasttoday.com
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