Movement is essential to healthy aging. From preventing disease and injury to keeping your mind sharp and mood buoyant, regular exercise is crucial to your overall well-being. But as we age, our physical abilities change, which can present new challenges. As a result, many mature adults are not reaping the benefits of regular exercise.
And physical concerns are not the only obstacle facing this community. One in four adults over the age of 65 experiences social isolation.
“Anxiety and depression have increased as a result of feeling isolated over the last two years of the pandemic,” says Annie Kragness, Life Time’s director of healthy aging. “That’s why we feel so encouraged by our ARORA classes, which can help members move their bodies while facilitating a multitude of opportunities to interact with new friends and connections to support emotional and mental well-being.”
What Is ARORA?
ARORA is a community within Life Time that features a collection of physical, social, and educational activities for adults who want to stay healthy, active, and fit. (You can learn more here: “Discover ARORA.”)
This includes ARORA exercise classes that are specifically designed for people 55 and older. Life Time also offers ARORA-friendly classes that help members identify the potential benefits of existing studio classes.
“ARORA class formats help combat the effects, fears, and frustrations resulting from concerns and conditions faced by mature adults,” says Rob Glick, senior director of group fitness programming and innovation for Life Time. “Each of these formats focuses on improving four foundational elements: physical, emotional, mental, and social well-being. They also feature no-to-low impact moves that help improve muscular strength, mobility, cardiovascular endurance, balance, flexibility, and more.”
To help you select an ARORA class, we matched some common healthy-aging concerns and goals with an appropriate class.
If you have any specific concerns, Kragness and Glick recommend first consulting with your health practitioner and meeting with a certified personal trainer who can help recommend the right path for your specific abilities or goals.
Goal: Build Muscular Strength
Strength-training exercises are essential to feeling your best and staying strong. Muscle loss is a common reality of aging, but it can be delayed with intentional muscle-building efforts. By stimulating the growth of muscle and bone, you help prevent conditions of frailty as well as osteoporosis. These ARORA classes can help those looking to gain muscle and strength.
ARORA Total Body
Length: 45 minutes
Open to all fitness levels
Equipment used: Steps, dumbbells, and bands
This class offers low-impact exercises for cardio, strength, core (done off the floor), balance, and flexibility — and mixes in neuroplasticity drills to help improve mental focus and cognitive health.
ARORA Strength
Length: 45 to 60 minutes
Level: Beginner
Equipment used: Dumbbells, barbells, and resistance bands
This strength class is designed with the beginner in mind and focuses on helping you master the basics of light-to-moderate strength training for all muscle groups.
ARORA Pilates Fusion
Length: 45 minutes
Level: Beginner
Equipment used: Yoga mat
This class features gentle core stabilization and balance moves along with hip strengthening exercises. Most exercises in this class involve lying on a mat.
Goal: Improve Mobility, Balance, and Flexibility
Our sense of balance often declines with aging, increasing the risk of falling. Balance exercises and flexibility work are major contributors to overall mobility and important components of fitness regimens at this stage of life. Yoga classes offer numerous mind-body benefits through exercises that focus on balance, breathing, and stretching.
ARORA Barre
Length: 45 minutes
Level: Beginner
Equipment used: Yoga mat, Light dumbbells
This barre class is ideal for newcomers, those recovering from injuries, or those with limited mobility. It aims to enhance flexibility, mobility, muscle endurance, strength, and more through a variety of exercises using the barre method. No dance experience is necessary.
ARORA Gentle Yoga
Length: 45 minutes
Level: Beginner
Equipment used: Yoga mat, yoga blocks, blankets
This fully guided class features a basic sequence of yoga moves focusing on stretching, simple movement patterns, and joint range of motion throughout the body, including fingers, toes, and ankles. As you move through the class, you’ll be challenged to memorize these movement patterns which helps stimulate and foster cognitive function.
ARORA Chair Yoga
Length: 45 minutes
Level: Beginner
Equipment used: Yoga mat and a chair
This class features everything you love about ARORA Gentle Yoga with the added support of a chair. The chair provides more stability as you move through each yoga pose, whether you prefer to sit or stand.
Life Time also offers the ARORA-friendly yoga formats of SURRENDER and ROOT.
Goal: Increase Cardiovascular Endurance
Cardio exercises benefit your heart, bones, and mind. Like any other muscle, your heart becomes stronger with exercise, which helps reduce blood pressure and lower your risk of heart disease and other circulatory ailments. VO2 max, or maximal aerobic fitness, normally declines with age, however, studies have shown that regular exercise can help people achieve a much higher VO2 max — at any age.
ARORA Aqua
Length: 60 minutes
Level: Beginner
Equipment used: Water dumbbells
Low-impact pool workouts produce less strain on your joints than land-based exercises. ARORA Aqua is a no-impact and non-weight-bearing cardio program designed for the water. You’ll improve cardio endurance as well as strength and balance with added resistance from the water. All swim levels are welcome and submerging is not required.
ARORA Cycle
Length: 45 minutes
Level: Beginner
Equipment used: Stationary bike
Our instructors will guide you through an engaging all-levels cardiovascular ride in this inclusive indoor cycle class. You have the freedom to decide the intensity of your workout. No cycling experience is required.
ARORA Walking Club
Length: 60 minutes
Level: Beginner
Equipment used: None
This seasonal class allows you to explore the benefits of walking to support or reignite an active lifestyle. Learn techniques to improve balance, strength, range of motion, cardiovascular health, and mobility during this mostly outdoor social walk (weather permitting). Each class begins with a dynamic warmup and ends with guided stretching.
ARORA Dance
Length: 45 minutes
Level: Beginner
Equipment used: None
Combine great music with fun movement in this easy-to-follow, dance-based cardio workout. Your heart will be thumping along to the beat with simple moves set in a routine that helps with joint and cognitive health. No dance experience is necessary.
Life Time also offers ARORA-friendly dance class options, including Zumba, Aqua Zumba, and Dance Jam.
Note: Class offerings may vary by location. Check your club page for class schedules.
