By ROBERT LACOSTA
“Go jump in a lake!”
That might not sound like the secret to longevity, but it’s working for 91 year-old Veva Bangert of Delmar.
When she’s not splashing in Lake George off her son’s boat, she makes sure she “works it out” at the YMCA, walking dogs or a host of other holistic ways.
“For my eightieth birthday,” she explains, “I swam a half mile. For another, I hiked a mountain.”
She hasn’t released plans for her 100th yet, but perhaps you might want to shadow her and find out.
When aging becomes an adversary to her body, she fights back with exercises designed to minimize the damage.
In 2009, a fall on black ice resulted in spine surgery and kept her in the hospital for a week and rehabilitation for another ten days.
“After rehab,” she says, “the YMCA trainer helped me little by little by learning meditation and motion; that brain and movement had to go together.”
Since that time, she’s been a literal poster “child” for the Bethlehem YMCA where you can see her conquering spirit in a large photo in the main hallway.
One of her go-to routines is Chair Yoga. It is mostly about stretching and includes the some of the same exercises as regular yoga. When Veva’s not there, she’s in the deep end of the pool in a belt class or at the Silver Sneakers cardio or moving-it in modified Zumba.
All of that gives her an appetite and so she’s constantly whipping up healthy food in her kitchen between dog walking.
“I’m too young to be that old,” she says.
When another birthday tries to spook her, Veva tells aging to go jump in a lake.
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