'I'm So Glad I Took To Keeping Fit When I Retired'

Alacia Elliott became a trained fitness instructor at the age of seventy and is still loving it!

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SOME people are surprised when I tell them I’m a trained fitness instructor still taking classes at the age of eighty-six. My love of fitness really came into its own when I retired.

Prior to that I had been a full-time working mum with two girls to look after. It was great, but hard work, and I was looking forward to some me-time in retirement!

I retired when I was fifty-nine but, as my husband was still working at the time, I decided to join some exercise classes at the local leisure centre.

They had water aerobics and fitness classes, badminton and other group sports. When my husband also retired, he came with me to these classes. We joined badminton, too, and made lots of friends.

I went to these classes for nearly a decade, until one of our instructors recommended that I take personal fitness further and become a teacher.

I started my qualifications when I was about sixty eight and qualified in my early seventies.