FITNESS
You’re never too old to start something AT 76, JOAN DYLE FINDS THE FUN IN FITNESS Alyssa Dearborn
I
t is always interesting to see how life chooses to come full circle, such as how Joan Dyle - a seasoned fitness instructor - found herself working with Jessica DesRosiers, the associate director of health strategies for the YMCA of Central New York as well as a former high school gym class student of Dyle’s. “I was a phys. ed. teacher in a high school and I was looking for something different to do. I saw Jackie Swanson and the Michael Douglas Show - this was a thousand years ago - and I thought, aerobic dance, that’s something I could teach,” Dyle said when asked how she became involved with the YMCA. “So I taught myself aerobic dance and one of the girls, she was a history teacher, heard from one of the kids that they liked this aerobic dance thing.” she continued, “She worked out at the downtown Y, so she told the fitness director who was there at the time about it. So we met together and I showed her what I was doing and then a program came up through the YMCA out of Baltimore that was
called ‘Aerobics in Motion.’ They asked me if I wanted to go down and be certified, to do that and work at the Y.” Forty years later, Joan Dyle has taught everything from kickboxing to step. But she now generally teaches the YMCA’s yoga class and substitutes for other instructors. Despite having years of experience in fitness education, she is still looking to learn more. “You’re never too old to start something,” she said, “You’re never too old to learn at the beginning. This is different, but I started taking dance classes when I was 50. The instructor was a former student and I was older than any of the mothers of the kids. Because I was at a stage in my teaching career where things were getting old, I wanted to put myself back into the feeling of a beginner learner. So taking dance, it got myself back into a beginning exercise type program. You’re never too old to do something, but you have to be willing to put yourself out there and give it a try.”
Photo by Sophie Proe
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SEPTEM BER 2021
H E ALTHY AGI N G EDITION
