While most older women take iron for improved energy, 90-year-old Barbara Wasson pumps iron three times a week for energetic good health. This 90-year-old Centerville resident didn’t start working out until she was 50 years old but she has more than made up for lost time by being consistently self-disciplined about her exercise routine. She “kind of got hooked” on exercise later in life, when she was nearly 50 years old. Although her pediatrician diagnosed her with celiac disease when she was just five years old, he didn’t know how to treat it. As a result, she weighed only 39 pounds when she was nine years old and was so weak and uncoordinated that she could not participate in gym. Celiac disease is an auto-immune disease that affects the cilia in the intestine, causing the one afflicted to be unable to properly absorb nutrients from food. After WWII doctors learned more about how to treat celiac disease through diet changes, but Wasson didn’t get treatment until she was 48 years old. As her diet improved so did her energy level so “it seemed like a good idea to start working out.” She joined the Holiday Health Club in 1968 and the trainer there helped her to get started on a work-out routine. Now she’s as” healthy as a horse” thanks to a changed diet and her consistent exercise regimen. Three times a week she drives herself the short distance to Contours Express and does a 45-minute routine of about eight-to-ten repetitions on the ten exercise stations on the circuit . She alternates between cardiovascular exercises and specific muscle group exercises and says” as long as I don’t have to do it too long I don’t get bored.” She says her doctor ” thinks its wonderful-he shakes his finger at me if I slack off.” Wasson has more energy and she sleeps better when she exercises consistently and though she doesn’t always meet her three-times-a-week goal she just keeps pushing herself to stay in the exercise habit.
The long-term effects of exercise became even more evident when Wasson took a bad fall last spring. She says, ” I fell on my face but I might have broken bones. I think it (working out) has improved my balance, it’s better than average for my age.”
Patti Sanders, owner of Contours Express, has known Wasson since September of 2006 when Wasson joined the women’s gym close to her home. “She is just amazing!” Sanders says of her religiously faithful patron. Jill Robinette started working out at Contours about two months ago and was impressed and a little embarrassed when she realized that the elderly Wasson could lift more weight than she could. That embarrassment has since turned to admiration as she describes Wasson as “inspiring.” Both Sanders and her patrons see in Wasson the kind of woman they want to be-active, fit, and independent.
Wasson is a living testimony to the importance of keeping the body and the mind active. She teaches a couple of classes at her daughter Carol’s music store on Marco Lane in Centerville and also teaches piano for about 25 hours a week in her home. Though widowed in 2000, she and her husband spent nearly 60 years together. They started Wasson Piano Studio on January 1, 1946 in downtown Dayton and have taught hundreds of students throughout the years. Their passion for music was passed on to their children, Carol and Steven. Carol owns Wasson Music Store and Stephen has a doctorate in music composition. Wasson believes she keeps a youthful outlook since “I am dealing with young people and they are not talking about their heart passes,” and other various ills. In Wasson’s own words, “I just keep trying to keep going” and obviously she is succeeding at that endeavor.
By Ann Tantlinger
