Sarah Brown
Editor’s note: The New Era’s policy is to not promote individuals on our staff in our news coverage unless there’s more to the story than just their involvement. That is the case here. This story is about many other senior women who are involved in the exercise class led by the paper’s co-owner, Miriam Swanson, so we’ve decided to proceed with this story because, if it weren’t about Miriam, it would be a no-brainer. And, by the way, per our policy, Miriam – like all story subjects – pre-publication review of this story.
As COVID-19 effectively shut businesses down and prevented people from gathering in large numbers, fitness instructor Miriam Swanson started to feel the normal aches and pains that come with age and inactivity.
That just wasn’t going to work for Swanson, who’s exercised her whole life and taught fitness classes for nearly four decades.
“I have teaching in my blood,” Swanson said. “It’s a passion of mine.”
Swanson started teaching fitness classes when she was 18, in 1983. That was back when aerobics and dancing-as-exercise, such as Jazzercise, had taken hold in the female culture.
“I used to be really hard-core,” Swanson said.
After she moved to Sweet Home in 2005, she began teaching through Linn-Benton Community College, and eventually moved over to Steelhead Fitness, which opened shortly thereafter. Three days a week, she taught Cardio, Strength and Balance classes, followed by Heart and Balance for seniors.
After COVID began, the 56-year-old decided she needed to figure out a way to work out with her friends, so the first thing she tried in the beginning of April was teaching her cardio class online.
She called it, “Quarantine Cardio.”
“At first I was getting a huge response with lots of views, but as the months went by, fewer and fewer people were participating,” she said. “It’s just really hard to stay motivated when you are working out to a video alone at home.”
Class participant Cynde Burford agreed. She’d been attending Swanson’s class at Steelhead for about five years, and tried following along online when Covid hit.
“There’s too many interruptions,” Burford said. “There’s other things to do, (so) you don’t really stay with it the whole time. The advantage is you can stop and start it, but sometimes I didn’t always go back to it.”
By the end of June, the weather started to look appealing, so Swanson dropped the online class and invited her friends to work out together at Sankey Park. It rained on the first day.
However, instead of canceling, they set up on the Weddle Bridge and found that to be a pleasant experience.
Linda McCormick, who’s also been in Swanson’s class for more than five years, said the class, “Workouts on Weddle,” turned out to be a wonderful experience.
“At first I thought, ‘Well, this is gonna be strange,’ but it was so pleasant. You almost forget you’re working out because you’re in nature, you’re watching, you can see people walking their dog across the way,” she said. “You’re lying there on your mat doing these exercises, and even though she had music on, you still get to hear the rushing water, and the breeze would come along. Everyone was up and happy, and it was like an escape, an absolute escape.”
Sure, there were some inconveniences, such as construction noises, unwelcome insects, and passersby who sometimes would walk across the bridge in the middle of the class, but Swanson also saw her group of girls show acts of kindness, such as when they brought brooms to sweep away the leaves.
The last bridge class was held Tuesday, Sept. 29. Swanson will return to Steelhead Fitness next week, but she’s already thinking about possibly holding “Workouts on Weddle” again next year.
“I’m really gonna miss it, to be honest with you,” she said last week.
McCormick also hopes the special workouts will continue, but noted that Swanson was doing it for free.
“It was like she wanted to exercise and have her friends around her,” McCormick said. “For her to step up just for the sake of exercising and bringing your friends around, that was kind of a rare thing.”
Swanson loves teaching, she loves the people in her class, and she wanted them to benefit from exercise, she said.
“It didn’t matter to me whether I was getting paid. I just wanted to do it,” she said.
Swanson is quick to note that exercise is important for everyone, regardless of age or experience.
“If you look at the benefits of exercise, there’s just a multitude of good things that come out of it,” she said.
Regardless the shape a person is in, exercise helps with weight control, muscle tone, strength, balance, the circulatory system, and the mind. It also helps the heart, boosts immunity, and enhances mood.
“As you age, your muscles atrophy at a faster rate,” Swanson said. “I think (seniors) just want to be active, they want to be able to walk through the mall with their grandkids and not tire out easily. They want to be able to do things.”
Many of her class members range between 50 to 85 years old. The classes aren’t very high-impact, but “it’s not an easy class by any means,” she said.
Yet Swanson is able to make the workout acceptable for any level.
“I’ll show different variations throughout the workout that say, ‘If this isn’t feeling really good for your body right now, you can drop it to this level, or if you need more intensity, do this.'”
Donalyn Hotrum, who had not attended an exercise class in decades, started going to “Workouts on Weddle” the same week she turned 50.
She noted there are “a lot of moving parts” to learning how to work out in Swanson’s class, but she is always encouraged and has a good time, she said.
“She really does work you hard, and her energy is crazy,” Hotrum said. “I love the expression on her face when she’s working out. She just looks like this little kid that’s all excited.”
That’s just Swanson, having a great time and enjoying what she loves, Hotrum said.
“Miriam has been consistent with her classes. She was able to keep us all motivated,” Burford said. “Miriam’s just like an Energizer bunny, and she just keeps trying to get us all to be active and fit.”