Fit & Flex group focuses on fellowship after winning volunteer award

By Willis Patenaude, Times-Register

Sitting at the Elkader Fitness Center surrounded by a group of local elderly ladies doesn’t sound like an intimidating proposition, but on this Monday morning, they’ve been fired up by a concoction of exercise led by Diane Finley, who some members affectionately jest is like a “drill sergeant.” There was also a stirring debate over the room temperature during their workout routine as members of the Fit & Flex group that meets Monday through Thursday between 9 and 10 a.m. 

They’re also on high alert, awaiting the arrival of the local reporter who needed the assistance of a fitness center member to get into the building, a small oversight in the interview planning stages. Nevertheless, approaching the gym, the group is in deep conversation about an issue irrelevant to the article, so I’m left to pace around while they look on. Diane and former group leader Carolin Phippen introduce themselves, shaking hands, and pointing out my arrival to the rest of the room, who look ready to go. I am a mouse among lions. 

The class ends early for the interview, and I am quickly informed I passed the first test for being able to join the class—climbing the three or so stairs into the gym— which they laugh about. Pulling up some chairs, we sit in a school circle, of sorts, and on this day, there are 24 members of the exercise group, eagerly awaiting the questions I meticulously planned for two people, a fact 24 sets of eyes seem unconcerned by. It becomes a group interview, reorganized into a kind of a question and answer session, with many volunteers willing to speak. 

It turns out the Fit & Flex group started almost 30 years ago in downtown Elkader, in the old Turkey River Athletic Club, before the memorable flood of 2008 washed it out, leaving everything waterlogged and members, including leader Phippen, with nowhere to go. 

That changed over a cup of coffee and a conversation with then pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church, Jim Klosterboer. A deal that couldn’t be refused allowed the group to use the church basement, with room to store their equipment as well.  

One of their favorite activities after the workouts during this time was meeting after class for coffee, sitting around socializing. Like all small town coffee clubs, they were solving all the world’s problems, but given the state of things, they’re clearly keeping the solutions private. 

One imagines they would also discuss moving out of the basement, and as luck would have it, chance intervened again, though this time it was without watery destruction and muddy weights needing to be washed. 

Instead, a new fitness center opened, and Phippen, who is on the board, found a new, more permanent home for Fit & Flex—one where they didn’t have to work around funerals, Carolin mentioned with a chuckle. That’s where everyone sits this Monday morning. 

There is a resilience among the members, and why wouldn’t there be in a room filled with women all over 65. Three members—Erika Moyna, Maggie Hayford and Winnie Holmes—are all in their 90s. They’ve seen and survived some things in life that would send the average person scurrying for a foxhole. 

The main purpose behind Fit & Flex is the exercise, the benefits of which have been well documented. According to the National Center of Aging, regular activity can positively impact physical health as well as mental, emotional wellbeing, and help prevent chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, colon cancer, diabetes, obesity, and hypertension, while minimizing symptoms for those already afflicted with a chronic illness. 

Research that has been presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association said exercise can help reduce cognitive decline, with one study showing “that participants over the age of 60 showed fewer Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers when they performed 30 minutes of exercise every day.”

Additional benefits include bone loss prevention, which can lead to fewer fractures and aid in balance and reducing this risk, allowing seniors to live independently longer. Physical activity has also been shown to reduce osteoarthritis pain, with the Johns Hopkins Arthritis Center finding that, not only does physical activity keep muscles around the joints strong, it “replenishes lubrication to the cartilage of the joint and reduces stiffness and pain.”

What might be the most important part of Fit & Flex, though, is a word that was uttered throughout the interview by multiple members. That word is “fellowship.” This is a group of women that seems to genuinely enjoy being in class, doing exercises like Pilates, bands, weights and others that focus on hand-eye coordination. The routines are designed by Diane, and set to the music of the 1950s and ‘60s— sometimes Elvis—and often accompanied by choruses of laughter. 

Apparently, one young gentleman showed up to class once never to return. When questioned about it, the story goes he labeled the ladies “Amazons” and declared, “I can’t keep up!”

When they’re not outworking young men who mistakenly wander into the class expecting nothing but a light warm-up, the ladies work on memory skills by doing three-word memory drills. Given at the start of class, Diane asks the group to repeat them between three to four times during class. On this Monday, distracted by the presence of a reporter, they received them mid-interview. Diane declared the three words would be red, white and blue, which the group confessed was rather easy, but a previous iteration was cabbage, carrots and cauliflower, which I admitted I did not remember. 

One display of fellowship, or camaraderie as one member called it, is how they all look out for one other. This is superbly demonstrated in what they refer to as the “calling chain.” The class is broken down into groups of four, and during bad weather or instances when class is cancelled, the group lead will call one of the members in their foursome, then that person calls the next and so on. The lead in the group reports back to Diane, who, apparently, the group laughed, “yells” if they don’t get it done. 

Through the jokes and laughter, though, there is an immense amount of respect for Diane, who one member called a “really great person.” 

Fellowship extends beyond the fitness center and the Fit & Flex class. This is a group that organizes get-togethers, field trips, movie nights and Christmas in July. They sing “Happy Birthday” to one another and even do a form of wellness checks when one member has been absent. It’s a group that remained in contact and as close as they could when Covid hit, making calls and sending emails with jokes and updates. In short, no matter the situation, when you need someone, they are there.  

Like when Patti Dillon had a heart valve replaced four years ago and had to stay overnight. The next morning, she received a phone call from the entire group, who spoke to her on speakerphone. For Patti, it “was the best thing” and helped her get through that period. 

Verna Lenth shared a similar story after a car accident about seven years ago. After seven months of therapy, a few of her friends who were already going to Fit & Flex talked her into coming, and she’s been attending classes ever since, declaring the class helped put her “broken body back together,” while saving her life. 

For Maggie Hayford, fellowship is a driving force behind being in Fit & Flex. Maggie lives alone, and when you’re older and alone, sometimes it’s just too easy to stay home, but the class gives her and others something to look forward to and friends to miss over the long weekend. When Monday morning comes around, there is an incentive to get up and get moving because friends, jokes and Elvis are waiting. 

“If it wasn’t for the support of this group and all my friends, I wouldn’t be here feeling like I do today,” one member said. 

Maybe it’s for these reasons that Fit & Flex recently won a Governor’s Volunteer Award, which is given to “dedicated people who volunteer their time and talent to help an agency or organization deliver on its mission.” 

Diane was “humbled and surprised” by the award. The group was not aware they had even been nominated, but once they found out, they tried to find a way for everyone to attend the ceremony in Ankeny, even going so far as to discuss getting a party bus, but the idea was nixed for lack of a bathroom and air conditioning. 

However, a few members made the trip with Diane, who, although she was the recipient, openly acknowledged the entire group shares the award. Without them, there is no award. That’s why, when Diane brought the award back to Elkader, she had the entire Fit & Flex group sign it. 

The group that traveled with her laughed immensely about the fact Diane pulled the car off Highway 20 and stopped in a cemetery on the way back and said, “exercise ladies.” They all got out and moved around because the long car ride was making everyone stiff. 

While Fit & Flex is supposed to be an exercise class for seniors, as this reporter learned, it’s about so much more than exercise. Sometimes, it’s a dance class, other times a comedy club or a weather report, which is shared each session. No matter what each class becomes, one thing it will always be is a fellowship. It’s a fellowship of women who exercise and together and support each other together. The exercise is just an added bonus.