Raymond Noble moves from the warm-up stage in his spinning class, increasing his speed, following the instructions of the instructor, and adding resistance on his stationary bike to mimic hills. As the hour-long class proceeds, participants climb hills, getting off their seats to engage their core, pedal with one leg and then the other and ride […]
Raymond Noble moves from the warm-up stage in his spinning class, increasing his speed, following the instructions of the instructor, and adding resistance on his stationary bike to mimic hills.
As the hour-long class proceeds, participants climb hills, getting off their seats to engage their core, pedal with one leg and then the other and ride the flats with reduced resistance.
“By the end of this class, you know you’ve had a workout,” says the 79-year-old man from Aurora.
What’s amazing to him is who heads up some of the spin classes: Sirka Kodnar, who celebrated her 80th birthday at their East Gwillimbury gym, LA Fitness, near the beginning of the year.
“You don’t see many 80-year-olds at the gym to begin with… I was just amazed that she wants to keep doing it,” says Noble.
“She is someone I look forward to being like when ‘I grow up’,” adds Sue Mulveney, echoing what so many others attending Kodnar’s classes likely feel.
For Kodnar, who came to Canada from Finland at age 15, going to the gym three times each week to teach classes complemented by her own workouts is an important part of her life. Throw in some cards, which she plays regularly, and hairdressing, which she continues doing for friends and family, while helping to care for her husband, and the picture is complete.
When asked if there’s anything else she’d like to do, Kodnar paused, before answering: “Not really.”
“People ask me how long I’ve been exercising,” she said. “All my life,” is her response.
Much of her time as a child was consumed by skiing and cycling. That routine was of regular movement was disrupted when she moved to Toronto to live with her aunt and uncle, following her sister who had made the move five years earlier.
The change in lifestyle became noticeable when her clothes became tighter.
Eventually she found her groove at a Vic Tanny centre, a chain of gyms that were studded across the landscape at the time when Tanny was credited with being a visionary in the exercise movement.
Later married with two children, who are now 48 and 42, Kodnar carved out some time for weight training at a gym in Thornhill.
“The owner said: ‘I want you to body build’,” she recalls, turning her attention to body building at age 40.
With the kids in school, she was able to get to the gym six days a week, and she entered a few competitions.
Around that time she also became involved in teaching classes, including aqua fitness and body workouts with weights and steps. Over the years there has been the odd injury, but Kodnar says she’s been able to work through them all and continues exercising with a focus on weight training, which she credits with helping her through the aging process.
At age 80, her time remains divided between activities and responsibility. But exercising will be forever part of her life.
“I go crazy when I don’t go to the gym. It’s going to be a nightmare if something happens and I can’t go to work out,” she says.
“I have a house to look after and a husband who is not well. And I also play cards.”
Having worked as a hairdresser, she’s still called upon to do the odd haircut.
It’s a pace she enjoys and doesn’t want to give up. And at age 80, she still finds inspiration in others. She points to another man who goes to the gym regularly to work with weights.
“He’s 95,” she says.
