For 83 year-old Avis Wolfe of Northport, there’s no mystery involved in explaining why Leelanau County is among the top counties in Michigan in terms of “health outcomes” and “health factors,” according to a recent report.
JEANETTE EGELER, a certified fitness trainer, leads a senior exercise class at the Old Art Building in Leland on Saturday morning.
“I’ve been coming to the Body Recall exercise classes here in Northport for years,” Wolfe explained. “And when I broke my leg last summer, I’d already developed and maintained the kind of upper body strength I needed to get myself around on crutches and on a walker while my leg healed. I was even able to come to class wearing a cast.”

The Body Recall class is just one of many fitness programs available to senior citizens and the general public throughout Leelanau County.

According to the Leelanau Pages, a number of commercial enterprises in Suttons Bay, Northport, Glen Arbor, Lake Leelanau and Maple City offer physical fitness and therapy programs at fixed facilities. In addition, a variety of programs are offered part-time at other venues throughout the county, such as the lower level of the Government Center in Suttons Bay Township and in the Old Art Building in Leland.

On Saturday morning, Lenore Hagstrom of Leland joined about 25 of her neighbors for a senior exercise program at the Old Art Building.
LENORE HAGSTROM of Leland and many of her neighbors participate in a senior exercise program offered weekly at the Old Art Building in Leland.
“I dragged my husband, Bob, here too,” she noted. “And we walked for about a half hour before we came. In the summer I ride my bike here.”

The senior exercise programs are underwritten by the Leelanau County Commission on Aging, and are conducted in Leland and Northport. Although anyone is invited to participate in the programs, special discounts are available to those age 60 or older through the Commission on Aging.

Special programs for seniors at the Old Art Building include a “gentle” yoga class, a Tai Chi class that focuses on smooth, gentle body movements for seniors, plus the more vigorous senior exercise class. Also offered both in Leland and in Suttons Bay are programs for seniors focusing on “healthy lifestyle choices” as well as “nutrition for life.”

In Lake Leelanau, classes are offered for people of all ages in dance, yoga and tai chi. Classes in a discipline known as Qigong, described as “calming, centering, gentle movement,” are offered in Suttons Bay, Northport and Lake Leelanau. Fitness facilities in Glen Arbor and Maple City also offer a variety of programs. In the Cedar area, a “senior walking” program is offered through the Cedar Area Community Foundation.
BODY RECALL exercises help seniors reclaim a variety of movements after illness or injury. Underwritten by the Leelanau County Commission on Aging, the Body Recall classes are held Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons in Northport.
Mary Lyons of Northport, 88, was attending a fitness class in Northport last week.

“You know, I always make a point of reading the obituaries in the Enterprise every week,” Lyons said. “And nobody I know around here ever seems to die before they turn 90. I think that must be because it’s so fun to be old here in Leelanau County.”