RECENTLY . . .
By Valarie Schwartz
There’s so much to do every day, so many details eating away the hours, that if there’s no dog that needs to be walked or we didn’t begin an exercise routine early in our lives, we’re tempted to ignore the fact that our bodies need more than food.
Joyce Biggers learned the perils of that ignorance four years ago, when she discovered she could not pick herself up from the floor after sitting down to pick up some fallen magazines. At a friend’s suggestion, she began to train with Matt Golden, owner of Personalized Fitness on West Main Street in Carrboro.
“Mom started working with Matt as a 70th birthday present to herself,†said her daughter, Missy Biggers. “She insisted that I work out too.â€
It had been close to a decade since I’d last seen Joyce, after the sudden death of her husband, Dr. Paul Biggers. When I walked into Golden’s studio, the former teacher looked younger than I’d ever seen her – the result of losing 45 pounds and creating muscle with three workouts a week. Missy was there, and while Joyce worked with Golden, we talked.
“I’ve had Type 1 diabetes since I was 5 and Mom has had Type 2 for 20 years,†Missy said. “The impact that working out/resistance training has had on diabetes management for both of us is dramatic.â€
She said that each workout reduces blood-sugar levels for at least 24 hours, so she doesn’t have to inject insulin and Joyce doesn’t need medication. “Any time you can reduce blood-sugar levels to normal range without taking or making more insulin, your body benefits greatly.â€
Golden works with one client at a time and tailors each session to help clients achieve personal goals. Currently, his clients range in age from 15 to 82, but he has worked with children as young as 12 and adults to age 91. He grew up in Rochester, N.Y., and discovered Carrboro after his parents retired to Southern Village. Besides a short stint playing soccer while in grade school, Golden, 33, never got involved in organized sports, though he enjoyed exercise and studied kinesiology science in college.
“Friends saw my success with exercise and approached me to help them develop routines for them,†he said. He did it first for fun, and then people started offering him money to devise routines. Five years ago, he took it to the next level and became certified through the American Council on Exercise.
“If it weren’t for Matt, I’d probably still be sitting on the couch watching TV right now,†Joyce said.
Instead, she was the center of attention as her son, Bill, dropped in to lend encouragement, followed later by her daughter, Joy, in town from Mebane.
“What’s Granny’s two favorite things?†Bill asked as he was leaving.
“Hugs and kisses,†Joyce answered, as she went to him for both.
“Becoming powerful in your body and successfully completing a workout grounds your mind and body,†Missy said.
“It does a lot for self-esteem,†Golden said. Dispelling the myth that weight training makes people muscle-bound he said, “Pushing oneself above your threshold doesn’t make people gargantuan, it keeps people young.â€
Contact Valarie Schwartz at 923-3746 or valariekays@mac.com
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