Bijan Shadravan is getting some exercise tips from his personal trainer, Dan.
A few feet away at the Mount Hope Y in Providence, Martha is getting some tips from her personal trainer, Jetzabell.
"With Martha, mainly we've been working on a range of motions, especially with her shoulders," Jetzabell said.
Martha and Bijan are clients of the Providence Center, which offers mental health services in the community. They're two of the more than 30 seniors taking advantage of the newly launched, first-of-its-kind InShape Seniors program.
The premise, says Jetzabell, "Exercise is an awesome medicine."
"We have personal trainers who are assigned to the Providence Center clients, and they start off usually at the Providence Center. They'll do the assessments with them to see where they are," said Allison Sebastiao, of the Providence Center.
"We do a few different assessments. The second time we meet with a client we do a flexibility test, which is a sit and reach test. We do a six-minute walk test," Jetzabell said.
And they do regular body measurements and weight.
"It is very good, physically, emotionally. And one of the things is always we separate the things emotional, physical, spiritual, mentally separate different ways. It would be nice to be all together. This InShape causes that," Bijan said.
"It gets you more motivated to doing exercises that I wouldn't normally do because I don't know about them. But when you have someone there to instruct you and be right there for you, it's very supportive," Martha said.
Through a grant from Tufts, the InShape Seniors program is made possible free of charge to Providence Center clients. And it's not just one on one. They have group sessions, too, led by Heather Beckwith.
"They're much happier when they see me. They just have a light in their face," she said.
By making exercise a part of their daily lives, the InShape Seniors program hopes to help people like Martha and Bijan live more active and social lives. It's great medicine for their emotional well-being.
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