Homewood Senior Center offering new classes

The Homewood Senior Center has added new classes to help its members and they are already seeing the benefits.

The senior center now offers Tai Chi for Arthritis and Fall Prevention, along with modified yoga, with options for utilizing a chair or floor mat. Senior chorus also has been added recently.

Classes such as Tai Chi level 2, DanceFit aerobic exercise, yoga, clay sculpting, line dancing and Bible study are a few of the more established classes offered to senior center members.

Member Margie Sharpe said she has taken classes for around three years, participating in chair exercises, yoga, Tai Chi and art classes. The exercises help physically, she said, but she also enjoys the camaraderie.

“They help me real well because I have problems with my joints, and both knees have begun to give me problems,” she said. “By doing the classes, it strengthens both knees where I’m able to bear the pain. When I get up in the morning, I look forward to coming to the center because I know I’m going to have a good time with the seniors. We enjoy one another and help one another [with problems].”

Galina Waites, a senior center instructor, said the Tai Chi classes promote a healthy lifestyle while also helping the participants learn balance.

“If older people fell, they would break something,” she said. “Recovery at that age is extremely difficult, so we have to do everything in our power to help senior people to keep their balance. Movement is the best way to do that.”

Waites, who was a former ballroom dancer in her home country of Russia, teaches classes three times a week at the senior center. Her classes include Tai Chi for Arthritis and Fall Prevention, Tai Chi level 2 and DanceFit aerobic exercises.

She was teaching her advanced Tai Chi class on Thursdays but was asked to teach Tai Chi for Arthritis and Fall Prevention after the United Way procured a grant on the senior center’s behalf to fund the class.

“Tai Chi is what I love [to teach],” she said. “It’s for all ages and all stages. It has enormous health benefits, and I totally believe that. There is more and more research done with more and more proven benefits.”

Instructor Jackie Tally teaches chair exercise, chair yoga and line dancing at the senior center. She said participants are interested in maintaining their health, physical function and brain sharpness.

“They are also very social and they love to meet up with their friends in class,” she said. “My students are very committed to their class time, their friends and keeping their body in top condition.”

There are classes and activities for all senior center members to participate in starting as early as 8 a.m. and as late as 5:30 p.m on weekdays.

Homewood Senior Center Director Aimee Thornton said there is an activity for everyone at the center. Member Charlie Bearden spoke bluntly about how important the senior center and its classes are.

“It’s changed a lot of people’s lives,” he said.

For more information about the senior center and how to join, visit homewoodparks.com or call 205-332-6500.