Retirees Advocate Working Out, No Matter Your Age

POMPTON PLAINS, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- At Cedar Crest, an active retirement community where the gym is like Grand Central, retirees are advocating physical fitness for all ages.

Harvey Dwoskin is 88 years young and works out three times a week.

"If I should go somewhere and miss a Monday, Wednesday, Friday, it would devastate me," he told CBS 2's Cindy Hsu.

From his time in the Air Force, Dwoskin has always been a fitness buff. He says life flies by but it's never too late to get moving.

"If you can't walk, do the upper body. You must keep the core strong. I have muscles here that are unbelievable," he said.

Doris Woolf is 87 and had given up exercise a few years ago when her husband Gerry developed Alzheimer's. Just a couple of months ago, however, she'd gotten so weak she couldn't get up from the floor.

"I couldn't get up by myself and I had to work my way over to a chair and pull myself up and I said 'Oh, this will never do'," she said.

Woolf says working out two times a week has made all the difference.

"I was able to give up the power chair," she said.

Nicole Cox is the wellness manager and says you can easily work-out at home using soup cans and water bottles for weights. The key is to start and make it part of your routine.

"If you make it part of your day, say 10 minutes to start, you're going to start to feel better, you're going to start getting motivated about it and you're going to start to make it part of your day," she said.

If you just can't find the strength, Woolf has some advice, in the form of song.

"Stop hiding behind your pillow. Don't you know it's a lovely day? Get up, get up, get out and chase those blues away," she sang.

Fitness experts say the goal is work up to at least 30 minutes a day, three to four times a week, with strength training and cardio.

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