No Excuses for Mrs. Josephine

If you’re looking for an excuse to skip your workout today, this is NOT the blog post to read. It’s pretty much impossible to come up with a good reason when you consider Mrs. Josephine Martin’s routine. Jo, as many of her friends call her, gets at least five sessions of high intensity cardio in per week. She comes into the Kraft Family YMCA to work out, rain or shine, no matter what.  She and her husband are both very active; he jogs a few miles almost every day. While this sounds like the normal daily routine of an active person, it’s important to note here that Jo is 78 years old, her husband, 82.

“I’ve been pretty active for the past 50 years or so,” says Jo. “If I miss more than the occasional workout, I just don’t feel as good.”

If you’ve seen Jo at the Kraft Family YMCA, chances are you’ve seen her in a Zumba class. She tries to attend almost every class offered.

“I love Zumba, because it’s so free, happy, and just makes you feel so good to move in a joyful way. A lot of new people are hung up on getting the moves just right, or feel self-conscious. After a while, I see people just let loose and start enjoying themselves. That’s what it’s really all about: just move with energy and enjoy yourself.”

Jo says that she loves Zumba because it’s “a chance for everybody – young and old – all different kinds of people to come together.” Jo says that you’re all invited to join her at the next Zumba class, which you can find here by searching by class type. 

“I have a lot of friends who don’t like to exercise. I don’t really understand it, but I get the feeling that if they would just start off with baby steps, like attending one class a week, they would see how good it feels just to move and they’d start to want to do it more, like me.”