Limited by the mores of the times, Sandra Ryan was a cheerleader in high school. She hasnt been on the sidelines since.

Ryan, 63, has been an instructor in aerobics, low-impact aerobics, stepping, sliding and now yoga. She ran, she biked. In the summer, she swims across the lake in front of her house.

Age is age; it doesnt bother me," says Ryan, who has always" been fit.

When I had my children, I was going to the YMCA, and I took fitness instructing there and I started teaching. It was just when aerobics classes were coming into style. The Y was the place to be in those days. It was just packed."

Later, while working at Dalplex in Halifax as a fitness co-ordinator, Ryan began practising yoga.

It was becoming popular and Madonna was doing it as well, which was a big thing with students, and yoga just took off. When you get into yoga, you think its physical, but it has a 5,000-year history to it and theres much more to it.

Theres eight limbs of yoga, and the eighth limb is enlightenment, where you just let go of your outer self thats worried about things and to-do lists and deadlines and stress. Thats what I like to see happen in a class."

Ryan teaches five or six times a week, which gives her a bit of a workout. She also practises at home. It is a less jarring way to stay fit than what she used to do.

My idea of a good time was to teach a high-impact aerobics class and then go for a run. Or, when I was at Daplex, Id teach and then go for a run on my lunch hour. That kind of went by the wayside as my knees got older.

Toward my 50s, my back started curving; thered always been a slight curve. Like anybody, theres little aches and pains, but whats so good about fitness is that you can kind of sail through them. Theyre not a big deal.

The rest is here:
BODIES OF WORK: Fitness makes life 'better and better'