85-year-old prevents the development of osteoporosis through strength training
EDINA, Minn. — Ronnie Laitinen, 85, has been seeing Life Time Edina personal trainer, Karina Wait, for the last two years.
Laitinen picked Wait to work with for a reason.
"I liked Karina's [profile]] because it included being interested in elderly people, and I thought that would be me," said Laitinen through laughter.
Wait feels drawn to work with Laitinen's generation for a specific reason too.
"My parents adopted my twin brother and I when they were in their 40s, so I already had older parents. so seeing them as I age and they age, it was like, how can I help them age so they can stay around longer for my life," said Wait.
Laitinen comes to Wait for her knowledge. She wanted to learn how to safely lift weights because she was determined to stop a common cause of aging.
"I was diagnosed with osteoporosis, which really made me mad because I thought I was doing all the right things. I was exercising, I was eating right, but after menopause, it's very common," said Laitinen.
Lifting weights specifically helps strengthen bones, and in Laitnen's case, slows down her chronic disease from developing.
"It has helped keep [my osteoporosis] from not getting worse because it wants to get worse," said Laitinen.
"Putting impact on the bone can help the bone repair," said Wait.
Laitinen is testing the limits of that impact by lifting a personal best while the cameras were rolling.
"I can do things that I'm not scared of doing," said Laitinen, "I really understand what they're doing is keeping us healthy enough where we're not using the doctors and hospitals as much."
All people 65 and older can get free access to Life Time and other gyms in your area through Medicare's Silver Sneakers program, but it does cost money to have a personal trainer.
To learn more about Silver Sneakers, click here.