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Scalable Solutions to Fit Your Wellness Needs
In December, 2015   The Heritage Downtown  (THD) started offering Live 2 B Healthy® Fit & Balance classes to their Independent Senior Living Residents.  The classes were so popular with the residents that Billy Saporito,  THD Activities Coordinator, sat down with Joe Bettencourt, Regional Owner and Austin VanDyke, Regional Trainer, both with Live 2 B Healthy® Contra Costa County, and worked out a plan to have Live 2 B Healthy® manage their  Wellness Program .
"We are experts in providing an Active Senior Living community, with programs for our residents to maintain their active and independent lifestyles, but we are not experts in senior fitness.  That's where our partnership with L2BH comes in.  We are able to work together to coordinate an amazing Wellness Program with offerings to fit every residents' need," says Billy Saporito.  
Flexible & Expandable
THD has been able to offer a wide variety of fitness classes ranging from Strength & Balance, to Tai Chi, Yoga and Aqua classes.  
Currently, The Heritage Downtown has a variety of group fitness offerings, 6 days per week (Monday - Saturday) at different times throughout the day.  They have found this variety helpful in maintaining high participation levels in the classes.  Every resident has a unique schedule that works for them, and THD has found that a wider variety of options works to their benefit to fill classes.
Finding the Right Trainer
"As it turned out, many of our trainers already had yoga, aqua or other varieties of certifications and they were thrilled to be able to utilize all of their skills," said Van Dyke.  
He went on to comment that the instructors who teach at THD are really challenged by the additional commitments and variety. 
"It keeps our instructors - not to mention our participants - continually challenged and interested in the programs.  It also teaches our seniors that they can be successful at a variety of fitness challenges, even though many may enter the program with hesitation because they have not exercised in the past."
The Shape of the Future
The Heritage Downtown has found that by outsourcing their  Wellness Program, they are able to continue to provide interesting and challenging fitness options as their resident population grows. In the future, they may even consider adding individual personal training sessions, wellness and nutrition coaching.  
"Who knows?  We have been able to try different things for our residents through the L2BH wellness and fitness programs based on our resident wishes.  It works - they love it - we add more.  That is how we have gotten to this point.  Our residents continue to give us awesome feedback and ask us 'What's next?'  I can't argue with that!"  exclaimed Saporito of THD.