Life as a couch potato just didn’t seem appealing to Carolyn Moore.

It wasn’t that she lacked excuses for becoming less active: Diagnosed with arthritis and congestive heart failure, the Flint resident’s health outlook was bleak as she advanced into her 60’s. But no prognosis was going to hinder her daily zeal.

“I wanted to keep being mobile, not just sitting around not doing anything,” says Moore, now 71.

She learned about a special exercise program offered free of charge at Flint’s Faith United Methodist Church, so she decided to check it out. Just a few years later, Moore credits EnhanceFitness, which she still attends weekly, with literally changing her life.
Her testimony about the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) program is similar to that of many seniors who deal with arthritis: EnhanceFitness classes have attracted about 10,000 Michigan participants since 2002

“It’s helped me get up more easily,” says Moore. “The exercise classes help my joints.”

Another result, Moore adds, has been improving her heart rate by 50 percent.

Karen McCloskey, arthritis program coordinator for MDHHS, says EnhanceFitness classes are provided at community centers, churches and similar locations throughout Michigan, and are designed to help arthritis sufferers maintain independent lives. Strength, balance, flexibility, and low-impact aerobics are the cornerstones of sessions, typically held three times a week for one hour each. Exercises are designed to enhance the muscles and joints that are commonly affected by arthritis.

“It takes a certain motion to get out of a car, or to reach up and get something out of a cabinet,” says McCloskey. “We’ve found that people with arthritis who start the classes reduce the pain they experience while performing these tasks.”

Admission to all classes is little or no cost. Key to the positive response among EnhanceFitness participants nationally, including feedback that 99 percent would recommend the regimen to a friend, is a fun atmosphere, McCloskey says. Music is often incorporated and there’s even been a Hawaiian luau theme.

“In one class they listened to Stevie Wonder,” she adds.

Contrary to the impulse by some arthritis sufferers to “rest their joints,” the Centers for Disease Control recommends physical activity for pain reduction and for addressing sometimes coexisting conditions like obesity.

Barbara Nelson-Jandernoa, healthy aging contract coordinator for the Area Agency on Aging (AAA) in Grand Rapids, says the AAA hosts EnhanceFitness classes in numerous locations across the state.

“There are a lot of classes out there, and the number is growing,” she says.

Though EnhanceFitness targets seniors, Susan Thomas, an instructor at Faith United Methodist, says they’ve welcomed youth.

“It’s a diverse program,” adds Thomas. “I say we accept ages 10 to 100.”

“Some of the class members say, ‘I have my grandkids with me,’ and we say, ‘OK, bring them.’ The kids have had so much fun that they’ve come back again.”

For a partial listing of EnhanceFitness classes held in Michigan, visit: https://mihealthyprograms.org/EnhanceFitness-classes.aspx

  Arthritis, EnhanceFitness, MDHHS, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Physical Fitness