By Ken Sakamoto Star-Bulletin
Walking for health at Windward Mall are, from left,
Andrea Asato, Betty Imai, Pee Wee Lam and Helda Chang.
Seniors are reaping the health benefits
They’d Walk a Mall
of a daily stroll -- and they're feeling better than
they have in many, many years
By Nadine Kam
Assistant Features Editor
Star-BulletinAlien rocks and a swimming pool brought mobility back to a bunch of achy, ailing senior citizens in the movie "Cocoon." Real seniors know it takes far less to feel young again. All they have to do is keep walking.
Windward Mall might as well be the Fountain of Youth to a host of seniors who say ailments that have plagued them for much of their lives have disappeared since they've adopted the mall as a gym.
"Most of us are past 70 years old, but we feel 30," said Liz Paik, who takes part in 7 a.m. Wednesday through Friday luk tung kuen classes led by Arlene Wong. It is a form of Chinese exercises similar to tai chi. Different groups sponsor classes throughout the week.
By Ken Sakamoto Star-Bulletin
One tired mall walker massages his foot.
"I used to go to the doctor all the time with some kind of ailment," Paik said. "Since I started coming to these classes I feel better. I feel that I'm living a whole life."Art Fujita said, "I had back problems for 35 years. In two months time it's gone."
Neither wind nor rain can keep these fitness buffs away from the controlled, protected environment of a shopping mall. Doris Foy said she feels sluggish when she skips her morning exercise and walk. "I missed two weeks and good grief, after that you're just ready to go out and do your exercises. Without it, my body just feels yucky. I don't sleep well.
"It took a long time for me to convince my husband to come with me but now he loves it. He comes here seven days a week. He's off his blood pressure medication after taking it for 20 years. Now he says he should have started a long time ago."
By Ken Sakamoto Star-Bulletin
Participants in the Luk Tung Kuen exercise program
stretch at Windward Mall.
Thelma Poland, who will soon be 80, starts her day at 4 a.m., with a walk around her Kaneohe neighborhood. She follows up with a 6 a.m. exercise class at Benjamin Parker School, before arriving at Windward for more exercise. After that, she might go bowling or to more tai chi classes before tackling real work such as trimming the hedges around her yard.Those who start shopping when stores open between 9:30 and 10 a.m. miss this swirl of activity that begins when mall doors open at 7. With walkers, classes and a bunch of people having breakfast at McDonald's, it looks like a thriving, self-contained community.
"We've made a lot of friends and that's just as important as the physical exercise, to have the social network, someone to listen to us," said Missi Tanaka, 75, over her coffee-and-English-muffin -- no butter -- breakfast with a group of friends.
By Ken Sakamoto Star-Bulletin
Philip Lee, right, talks with Mike Uyeda, left, Ben Castillo
and John Higa after a good morning's workout.
Tanaka, who took care of her husband for two years before he passed away, has learned that exercise will make the difference between independence and assisted living."I used to wonder why some people I knew would end up in nursing homes, while some could stay at home. Basically, if you can get out of bed yourself, you can go to the bathroom yourself and you can get out of a wheelchair yourself, you can live at home, and all that depends on muscle building.
"The goal used to be to live longer. Now we're living longer so the goal is to live joyfully."
At least one boy was getting an early start. Paul Quitow has been coming to the mall with his mother Kitty since he could sit up in a stroller. He's 5 now and when he's not in school, she packs him on her back while she walks.
By Ken Sakamoto Star-Bulletin
Virginia Chee strolls with her 2-year-old grandson,
Blake. She walks 3 to 4 miles, four times weekly.
"We go so long and so fast he couldn't keep up otherwise," she said. With two of her friends, the young mother said, "We try to do 15-minute miles."She's one of the mall's later arrivals, starting at 8:30 a.m., "usually after the kids go to school." After her walk, she dresses at home and returns to work at the mall.
She finds mall walking preferable to joining a gym, where, she says, "people work out before they go in so they look good. You don't see anyone 'normal' there."
Although she's fit, she said, "I would want to lose 20 pounds before I go into one."
When you can walk at Oahu's malls: Walk this way
Windward Mall: From 7 a.m. daily. Also, Chinese exercise, 7:30 a.m. Wednesday-Friday; line dancing, 7 a.m. Thursday; HMSA walking program, 7 a.m. Sunday. Call 235-1143.
Luk Tung Kuen Hawaii Association holds free exercise classes, '36 Movements to Better Health': Beyond walking
