DONNA KEATING

Their smiles light up the room. Laughter and excitement fill the air as balloons are tossed back and forth. Sounds like a child’s birthday party, but it’s not. The game is being played by St. Charles Parish senior citizens during an exercise class at the parish Council on Aging Center. Conducting the class is Monica Trepagnier, an AFAA certified personal trainer, certified resistance training specialist and aerobic instructor with 20 years’ experience. She started work at Council on Aging centers through St. Charles Fitness, which offered to open its facility to members of the Council on Aging. Classes are free to members of St. Charles Parish Council on Aging, ages 60 and up. Sessions take place Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9:30 a.m., at St. Charles Fitness in Luling; Tuesday at 12:30 p.m., at the Council on Aging Center in Norco; and Thursday at 12:30 p.m. at the Council on Aging Center in New Sarpy. There are about 45 people currently attending sessions in Luling. St. Charles Fitness Center owner and program founder Allen Hebert has never seen such a successful senior program. Trepagnier feels it is successful because she makes exercise fun. Each class she teaches is filled with different activities. Among the props she uses are balls, bean bags, balloons, a parachute, rubber tubing and steps. She helps seniors develop range of motion, memory, balance and strength training, mostly through games. The instructor said her classes aren’t about losing weight, they’re about improving the quality of life. Her goal is to help enable seniors to get a full range of motion of their joints, to improve their balance, to improve memory and lift their spirits. She wants the seniors to be able to live each day to its fullest with as little pain as possible. Her class incorporates mind, body and spirit. Trepagnier said, “It doesn’t matter how well seniors can perform in class. The rules are smile and act like you know what you are doing, even if you’re not sure.” Often seniors lose coordination, but as long as they are trying that’s OK, she said. She said most times it is a chore for seniors to get out of their chairs. When Trepagnier introduces the keep-the-balloon-in-the-air game they get up out of their chairs without even realizing it. Seniors keep their arms in the air and get a good workout at the same time. A lot of people are afraid to come to the classes because something hurts or they are too tired. But if they don’t use joints and muscles they will become stiff and hurt, Trepagnier said. Exercise won’t heal seniors, she added, but it will help their physical limitations to be more bearable and it also gives seniors more energy. For people with arthritis, Trepagnier recommends working all the joints in a full range of motion. Trepagnier warned, “If those joints lock up you can’t move and the pain is greater.” To help her clients improve memory, she tries to make them remember a series of things and use their mind and body at the same time. Trepagnier contributes the main source of memory loss due to not practicing remembering things. Testimonies often come back to the successful fitness instructor, with clients often commenting how it has helped them physically and mentally. For information on free classes in St. Charles Parish call St. Charles Fitness Center at 785-8088 or St. Charles Parish Council on Aging at -6683.