Woman exercises right to good health

KXAN (AUSTIN) - Susan Henderson is not a workout buff, never has been.

“I’ll go to the trail and walk, if I have company,” she laughed, “but I’ve got to have company.”

So the idea of “dead lifting” 205 pounds never occurred to Henderson. Neither did raising her knees to her waist against downward pressure from a physical trainer’s arm while hanging from a pair of arm slings.

Those, however, are just a couple of the once unimaginable workout drills that the 56-year-old woman now performs three times every week.

Henderson’s journey into a steady workout commitment had its beginnings in trip to a doctor’s office two years ago. It was time in her life to start testing for bone mineral density levels in her body and the results were troubling.

“They said I had the early stages of osteopenia,” she said, “especially in my hips, which is, you know, a precursor, or can be, not always, to osteoporosis. So (they said) I should do weight bearing exercise, take calcium, vitamin D.”

Henderson crafted a plan of attack.

“Chronologically, biologically, I'm one age,” she said, “but in my head I'm much younger and I thought, 'I have to do something for myself.'

“I started walking sometimes with wrist or ankle weights and joined a gym, just a gym that you paid a membership to. (I) didn't work with a trainer, but that didn't go anywhere because I'm not a self-motivator, honestly.”

A year went by and Henderson returned for another bone density test. This time, the numbers for her hip bones were worse and osteopenia has spread to her spine and her neck.

“It upset me,” she said. “It upset me greatly. I thought I had to do something about it.

“And getting that result…was the push. I knew I needed to do something. It made me nervous, scared, I would say scared.”

So Henderson started investigating the possibilities. She settled on Austin Simply Fit, a North Central Austin gym that has now expanded to a south Austin location, as well.

Gym owner and personal trainer Mark Rogers offered her a free workout.

“It liked to kill me, seriously,” said Henderson. “I used muscles that I probably hadn't seen or used since I was a kid, literally.”

The woman pressed on. She decided on a ten-session package because it came with a discount. Then, grudgingly, she committed to two sessions every week.

“The emphasis was on strength training,” Henderson said, “and it was 30 minutes and that was the key. I was like, 'I can do anything for 30 minutes.’

“If I had to do an hour I wouldn't do it. I get a lot done in 30 minutes, feel it, feel good about myself and leave.”

As the weeks dragged on, though, she sometimes questioned her decision.

“There are days that, honestly, I don't want to come here,” she said, “or I'll lay out here and be almost like, 'Please, are we over yet; is it done yet?'

“You know, it's hard! But I've made great strides.”

Indeed, Henderson noticed greater strength, balance and energy. Then came the day for bone density test number three.

The results came in a telephone call: no further deterioration in the spine and neck and “vast improvement” in the hip bones.

“It's compression on the muscles and the tendons into the joints,” Rogers explained. “It's the compression that builds the strength in the bones.

“Over and over, different types of loads, different types of relevant intensities that makes the bones want to multiply their bone cells and continue to get stronger. The bones are responding; it's a use it or lose it type mentality.”

Henderson was simply thrilled.

“When I heard the words, 'vastly improved,' particularly in my hips; in a woman my age in your mid-50s and later, that's an area that you're really concerned about: falling, breaking it, you know, a hip. So I just felt like it was working.

Henderson boosted her trips to Austin Simply Fit to three times a week.

“She went from a person,” said Rogers, “who did not like exercise to, I don't know that she likes it yet, but she's seeing the benefits. So she can stand it more.

"And I would say most of our clients are the same way: They don't really enjoy exercise to begin with. We can get it done in 30 minutes, which is why they get in here. They start seeing the results, they don't have to spend a lot of time doing it and they can spend the rest of their life enjoying what they really want to do.”

One of those other clients now is Henderson’s husband.

“He comes twice a week, you know, good for him,” she said.

So as the nation continues to wrangle over the swelling costs of health care and to debate how to rein them in, Henderson is a living example of one way to get the job done: She gets off her butt bones, goes to the gym and creates her own good health.

“You're the most important person to yourself,” she said, “and taking care of yourself and being healthy and living the best life you can live.

“I'm not one of those self-help, whatever, but if you want to live a long, healthy life, you've got to do something to enhance that, I would think.

“I got a lot of living left to do, you know. I really do; I mean I have plans. It's become the bucket list thing, but I've got a lot of places I want to go and a lot of things to do.”

First, though, it’s time for another personal best on the ”dead lift” of life.