TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

100-Year-Old Local Woman Reborn Through Exercise

Tribune photo by GREG FIGHT

Ida Wasserman works out on her 100th birthday as her great-grandson Andrew Hamlin, 10, watches.

ADVERTISEMENT

By SHERRI ACKERMAN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 29, 2008

Updated: 01/29/2008 12:13 am

SUN CITY CENTER - Ida Wasserman started her daily workout Monday just after 11 a.m.

There was the ballet barre, where she stretched in a lavender sweatsuit and black orthopedic shoes.

Next came arm extensions, then a 2 mph walk on the treadmill and up and down steps before rowing for nearly 20 minutes.

On to the weight machine, where Wasserman did a few leg presses, then pulled down 58 pounds while toning her biceps.

Monday was Wasserman's 100th birthday, but the great-grandmother didn't let that get in the way of her daily regimen.

She worked out and partied at the gym.

"She's incredible," said granddaughter Ellen Payne, who traveled with her two children from New York for the big day, which featured friends and family and cheese and vegetable trays.

Back in New York a few years ago, Wasserman was "barely living," Payne said. Doctors diagnosed her with severe osteoporosis. Her ravaged body was hunched over and she used a walker.

"People don't realize how much muscle you lose as you age," said Karen Johnson, director of the Sun City Center fitness center where Wasserman works out. "Once you hit 30, it's about 1 percent a year."

Wasserman moved to the retirement community two years ago to live with her daughter, 73-year-old Rhoda Brueggeman, a former teacher and an athletic dynamo who looks so young no one at the gym dared guess her age. Daughter told mother she had to get some muscles.

"I couldn't lift her by myself," Brueggeman said.

Wasserman started small: She grabbed a chair and exercised along with the public television show, "Sit To Be Fit." Soon, Wasserman could not sit still. She did the exercises standing.

There was no stopping her from there, said Brueggeman, who has worked out avidly for the past 25 years. The pair started going to the Sun City Center Fitness Center, where Wasserman practiced walking upright using a ballet barre for balance.

Brueggeman added more to her mother's routine as the months went by. The results were dramatic.

No more hunched back. No more walker. Wasserman now spends two hours a day at the center.

"Even Sunday," she said.

Fellow health enthusiasts compliment Wasserman on her improved health. For her family, she serves as an inspiration.

"She keeps reminding me I've got to exercise," said Wasserman's eldest child, 75-year-old Ed.

Wasserman gave some of the credit to her genes. Her parents lived into their 90s. One of eight children, she's among the five surviving. Two sets of twins, 87 and 90 respectively, are still going strong too.

"Yes, we've got good genes," acknowledged Brueggeman, "but the fact is, without the exercise, the genes are nothing."

Reporter Sherri Ackerman can be reached at (813) 259-7144 or sackerman@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT