I’m bicycling along the Shady Canyon trail in Irvine, gazing out at green and scrubby hillsides and breathing in the sage-infused air. I begin to make my way up the final hill overlooking the trailhead, and it’s a tough climb. It feels like the wheels are turning as slowly as the hands of a clock, but I keep peddling.

Then I hear people behind me whooping. “Go! Go!” they yell derisively, laughing at me(!) and my arduous pace. Did one of them just call me “old lady?” They pass me as we near the top of the hill, where I see that the hecklers are in fact teens — all three of them crammed onto a single e-bike. Well of course I’m slow compared to them!

I quickly see the humor of the situation — and now I remember why people hated middle school. But on the ride back, I start to wonder if I should stop bicycling this trail, a route I’ve taken for more than a decade. I start to think that I’m too old, and that I don’t belong here. I’m surprised that a few jeering teens have managed to stir up serious self-doubt, and I quickly come back to my senses, resolving to keep riding.

Later, it strikes me that embarrassment is a huge barrier to participation in physical activity for aging people, and it’s not even the most substantial one. Other obstacles include lack of money or transportation to attend an age-appropriate exercise class. In some cases, older adults are hobbled by arthritis or are wheelchair-bound. And sometimes taking a walk isn’t a viable option when a neighborhood doesn’t feel safe or the sidewalk is cracked and pitted.

Fortunately, innovative older adults and their advocates are forging solutions to some of these obstacles, and it’s a good thing too. Movement is too important to be available to only the young and the prosperous.

Body health = brain health

Everyone knows that physical activity combats heart disease and diabetes, and builds strong bones, thus extending life and quality of life. But in the last 20 years, the relationship of physical activity to mental acuity has become clearer, according to David Wing, senior manager of the Exercise and Physical Activity Resource Center at UCSD, where he researches mobility difficulties and injury risk among older adults.

Wing said that aerobics reduces brain shrinkage that comes with age by increasing blood flow. Weights get the brain talking to muscles, so they work more effectively together, and sports engage executive function.

You don’t have to pursue all three types of activities to benefit, he said.

“One exercise doesn’t do it all, but all exercise does something good,” Wing said. The first step might literally be to get off the couch and take a walk, but be aware, Wing said, that some aging adults need fitness activities led by people with an understanding of balance and bone density issues among older adults. Wing’s organization is developing Zoom-based classes where specially trained instructors teach with injury prevention in mind.

The cultural conduit

Meanwhile, some older adults find that isolation, not physical frailty, is what holds them back from being more active. Norma Tiffany of Mission Viejo, 70, has tackled this problem by creating a welcoming fitness environment for women in her age and ethnic cohort. Two and a half years ago, Tiffany, who was born in Mexico and retired from a career in the semiconductor industry,  founded a hiking group called Latinas en OC, whose participants are 55 or older and converse in Spanish during hikes.

The women come from different Latin-American countries and their work ranges from house-cleaning to finance. Group members look out for each other; when one woman didn’t have appropriate athletic shoes or another couldn’t afford a backpack, members donated or exchanged needed items. 

Tifffany’s hikes demonstrate that exercise can build social connections, which are linked to healthier aging, reducing the scourge of loneliness.

“A lot of people work from home or they’re done raising kids and now taking care of grandkids and don’t have people to socialize with and talk to other than family,” she said.

In a similar way, the Tai Chi-style exercises for aging adults at the Vietnamese Catholic Center in Santa Ana instill fitness and bring people together who might otherwise be living alone and isolated.

You can see them on the portico of the pagoda-style building most weekday mornings, doing flexibility exercises like swinging their arms skyward and down to the ground in one rocking motion. Group members also use a stretching bar (think of holding a pool stick across the shoulders and twisting from the waist).

After the workout, they often gather in prayer, said Tri Luu, program manager at Hope Community Service, which supports the informal Tai Chi classes along with providing lessons in English, citizenship preparation and other services to aging adults.

“If I told them no more classes, they would riot,” Luu said. “They really like this class.”

The public fallback

Not everyone has a cultural community, which is where city parks and recreation departments step in. At the Westminster Senior Center, participants have a choice of yoga, Tai Chi, breathwork, stretch, line-dancing, Zumba and many others, according to center director Heather Dodd.

Most city senior centers offer at least some free or discounted classes and even walking clubs, cobbling together bus and shuttle transportation options when they can, Dodd said. More aging adults who in the past went to private gyms are coming to senior centers because of reductions in the Silver Sneakers program available through some Medicare Advantage plans, Dodd added. In the past, Silver Sneakers has given older adults free access to in-person and online exercise classes.

False starts on the way to success

“Older adults have unique challenges,” when it comes to movement, explained Orange-based geriatrician Dr. Sonia Sehgal. “If you haven’t been mobile, it’s hard to know where to start.” And patients’ fears — such as inducing heart attack — need to be addressed.

She encourages patients to start small by moving around the house more or even seeing a physical therapist for guidance on strength limitations.

Sehgal remembers one patient who had an especially hard time getting active; she was in her 70s, isolated, depressed and beset by chronic pain from arthritis in both hips. Sehgal spent six months encouraging her to try pool-based exercise, but aquatics didn’t work for her. The patient finally built up the nerve to have both hips replaced, and a year later, she started walking for fitness, investing in a $10 pedometer. She joined a local senior center. Meanwhile, exercise began to work its wonders, and she eventually was able to give up her anti-depressants, blood pressure pills and blood sugar meds. 

“Most importantly, her physical activity allowed her to have a meaningful group of friends, so she had a social outlet, a sense of community,” Sehgal said. “I see these cases that inspire us all. The most important factor is you can’t give up.”

Amy DePaul is a California Health Report columnist who writes about aging and health equity.