81-year-old fitness instructor cannot be stopped

Christchurch fitness instructor Paula Barrett's limbs may now be a bit too "old and creaky" to enjoy her Irish dancing hobby, but it's no barrier for her.

The 81-year-old still lifts wheelbarrows and chainsaws to help with local tree logging in bush near where she lives and leads fitness classes four times a week.

“I am surprised when people are surprised that I am still working at 80. I still feel the same inside though my body has obviously changed with age."

Barrett has delved into everything from gymnastics and hockey to basketball and swimming. She's travelled the world from southern and northern Ireland to England then Kenya before finally settling in New Zealand.

Born in England to Irish parents, who moved back when she was two, Barrett found narrow career prospects for women in a place that was also facing economic hardship and mass immigration after World War II.

But one thing was certain - she enjoyed being active. She learned to swim in the local river and helped at her grandfather's farm.

"If you were clever, you went to teaching, you got a call to training, you went nursing or you did some secretarial work and they didn't appeal to me," she told RNZ.

"A friend of ours had a book called Guide to Careers, and then there was physical education, a three-year course in Dublin. I thought, 'oh, that's for me. Three years in Dublin playing games. That sounds good'.”

When she qualified, she recalls only a handful of positions in the country for PE. Teaching the unrecognised subject at schools was a rarity - let alone for women who were treated like "second-grade citizens" in Ireland, she says.

"When I started, it was about being slim and there wasn't a lot about strength - even working on muscles was thought oh, you know, not really feminine looking - and the fitness centre was more the men's landscape rather than the women's."

After getting married in 1966, she had a child and then four more in the 1970s. But she didn't give up teaching PE at schools and playing tennis. It offered an escape from the domesticity at a time when women were pressured to focus only on the home and child rearing, she says.

“[Jane Fonda] made a huge difference to women [in the 1980s]. She really was a big influencer and she gave them confidence in the fitness area. She changed it all."

After stints in London and Kenya, Barrett made the move to New Zealand in 1988. Ever since, she's been signed up to a range of exercise classes at council-run Pioneer Stadium, including the low-impact gentle exercise class for about the past 15 years.

Now she leads weekly fitness classes, which involve warm-ups, strengthening exercises, ball activities to build reflexes and dancing. All functional exercises which help participants know how to pick things up without aching or get up from a fall.

And her stage three breast cancer diagnosis about four years ago only strengthened her resolve.

“It motivated me to keep going and it was a wonderful distraction. I was so grateful for it, you know, rather than thinking of, 'oh, the next treatment and what are my chances?' I just thought, 'Oh yeah, that sounds interesting. I could try that [exercise]'. Or 'that's a nice piece of music', you know?

“The [fitness class] regulars were very supportive because they've all been through it or, if they haven't been through it, someone in their family has. So they realise what you're going through.”

As well as staying on top of research showing the physical benefits of staying active, Barrett has noticed how important it is for mental health too.

“If you talk to the regulars, they come early for a chat and they go and they'll have coffee.

"It seems that it's really important for older people to have tactile connection. It's really good for their brain, you know, if you're living on your own and you don't maybe meet a lot of people. When we do dancing, we clap hands, we touch, we look at people's eyes, that's really good for them, that emotional connection.”

One of the regulars - 72-year-old Tim Redwood - says he loves that Barrett is welcoming and non-judgmental. The gentle moves have eased his back pain, he says.

"I'd done an aerobics class several years ago, and they just about had to carry me out."

Claire Minty, another regular, says Barrett’s leadership makes it vibrant and fun. She enjoys the mix of weights, bands, balancing and dance.

Barrett says she plans to keep leading the classes for as long as she is allowed.

"It is never too early or too late to start looking after your mind and body."